Music for the Psalms

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Darryl_B

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I have been Catholic for 2 years now from a protestant background, so I have a rather limited knowledge of Catholic liturgical music (though a passion for music) other than what I hear at Church. Sometimes the Psalms are sung freely to music except the last few syllables resolving to the key. Where can I get this music for the psalms? What is a good source?
 
Darryl_B said:
I have been Catholic for 2 years now from a protestant background, so I have a rather limited knowledge of Catholic liturgical music (though a passion for music) other than what I hear at Church. Sometimes the Psalms are sung freely to music except the last few syllables resolving to the key. Where can I get this music for the psalms? What is a good source?
Click to expand...
ccwatershed.org/resources/
 
You can specifically ask the people that sing the Psalm what source they use. The missalette and “Respond and Acclaim” are two sources that are used by some here. Personally, that whole thing about not resolving at the end is like nails on a chalkboard to me, so I write, or re-write most of my own music for Psalms.
 
I hear you, but those without a melodic resolution doesn’t bother me because the Psalm, inserted between the readings as it is, is the connector and the continuation of the teaching for the day.
The Gospel is the “resolution”.
👍

I like Respond and Acclaim, but the psalms in the front of the Gather hymnal are very melodic. They just don’t have every single one that we need.
 
You’d probably LOVE the Mexican Masses. Their music tends to end with either
Sol-La-Ti-Do OR bum-dada dum dum…(wait two beats) …dum dum! 😃
 
Darryl_B said:
I have been Catholic for 2 years now from a protestant background, so I have a rather limited knowledge of Catholic liturgical music (though a passion for music) other than what I hear at Church. Sometimes the Psalms are sung freely to music except the last few syllables resolving to the key. Where can I get this music for the psalms? What is a good source?
Click to expand...
Much psalmody in the vernacular is modal and based more or less on the Gregorian tones; there are 8 main Gregorian modes and 4 archaic Gregorian modes; they can have alternative endings for the second hemistich of a verse (i.e. same tone but different ending, such as mode I which has, I believe, 8 possible endings in Latin). The psalm tones at least in Latin are generally set to the modality of the antiphon so that the psalm is easy to launch (the “incipit”) and after it is sung, it is easy to launch back into the antiphon which in Gregorian psalmody is always repeated at the end of the psalm.

However in the vernacular it is often the practice to simply chant the antiphon as a psalm verse on the one of the Gregorian tones because there haven’t been that many modal compositions for vernacular antiphons.

There are various vernacular interpretations of the Gregorian tones. I sometimes use French ones developed by the abbey I’m associated with, for the minor hours of the Divine Office, using Latin for the rest.

For English, if you can find a copy of Christian Prayer (an abridged Liturgy of the Hours) you will find many tones in an appendix in the back.
 
Thank you everyone for the links and suggestions, it has made me realize I have a lot to learn.
 
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