The Psalms are meant to be sung to music; when performed to music, they are an overall more powerful experience. The different branches of Christianity have different methods to how they perform the psalms. From culture to culture the text of the psalms change and seem to accommodate the cultural differences (as discussed in the previous blog post). Psalms are great modes of expression for cultures and individuals. The Catholic tradition uses psalms tones, similar to Gregorian chants, the music revolves around a certain note, the neighboring tones gravitating towards the main note. Protestant psalms, (ironically) are sung in a similar style; however, the text is different such as seen in the last blog post in The Bay Psalm Book.
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| Example of Gregorian Chant |
The Anglican tradition uses something called the Anglican chant, which takes un-metrical text by the matching the natural speech rhythm of the psalms to a short metrical piece. There is also modern music made for the psalms such as Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and Tehillim by Steve Reich.
This music helps to create, as it says in Geertz's definition, acts as "symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations." Songs create a more memorable and powerful oral tradition, giving a faith more chance of survival. The use of music allows for communal use, bringing people together and each branch of Christianity can use the music in different ways to express their own differences. Also, as famous musicians have done before, the Psalms are used in ways to express themselves; like private prayer. The psalms are most effective when expressed in song, for they create "powerful, long-lasting moods and motivations" and are thus a more powerful experience.
I think it is very interesting that such prominent composers as Stravinsky, Bernstein and Reich all set these ancient psalms to music. I am actually intrigued by the music of Steve Reich. A lot of it is hard to listen to, but the ideas and motivations behind his music is quite interesting. I did a little research on Tehillim and found some interesting things. First, it is the only piece Reich wrote that drew on his Jewish background, and this piece also used more functional harmonies, counterpoint and had a more traditional structure than his other pieces. I think one reason for this is the personal nature of these psalms, and also these psalms are incredibly old, so Reich could have been using older composition styles to reflect that.
ReplyDeleteWow! This was super informative, I really liked how you did a more in-depth analysis of the psalms. I agree that if the psalms were simply read out loud they would not be nearly as captivating as if they were sung.
ReplyDeleteI like the examples of musical styles and composers that you give here. These also seem like quite different approaches to music. On the one hand we have group/cultural styles of music, and then we have expressions of individual sensibilities such as Stravinsky. So yes, music makes the psalms more vivid, but how exactly do these cases do this. Are there any differences?
ReplyDeleteThose are some really great point. I defiantly agree with your points in how music sung in hymn evokes "symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations." I had never really thought about analyzing hymn music in depth, it all makes a lot of sense.
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