Alternate Inspirations (Psalm 54)
As I’ve discussed in many recent blog posts, I try to take older chants as inspiration when composing new psalms (specifically, settings of the same psalm text). But recently, I have been unable to find medieval settings of the specific texts prescribed in the lectionary.
What to do then?
The obvious first choice is to simply compose something with complete freedom, as is done by the majority of modern composers. I have well over 100 freely-composed psalm settings to my name. (To be more precise, I have 81 individual documents and an additional 75 folders containing yet more arrangements inside in the “psalms” master file on my computer. Of those that I have filed away as print copies, I have filled up a 1.5” binder. Three years of composing tends to add up!)
I had reverted to free-form composing—in the absence of a better model—for the last two weeks, until it occurred to me: rather than restrict myself to merely imitating specific settings of particular psalm texts, I could still adapt other melodies prescribed for the same liturgical day and adapt those as well.
Thus, for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time, my setting of Psalm 54 is not based on an extant setting of the psalm itself, but rather the Alleluia prescribed for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time, as found in the Gregorian Missal.
Close inspection reveals that the melody of the psalm refrain follows the incipit of the Alleluia nearly 1:1.
There are a few benefits to this approach: for starters, the musical structure of the psalm setting still takes direct inspiration from ancient plainchant. This is of paramount importance. As Pope St. Pius X reminded us in Tra le Solicitudini:
Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down the following rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration, and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.
Obviously, basing a modern psalm setting directly on ancient chant in a (more/less) 1:1 manner renders it in closest possible harmony and savor to the traditional Gregorian form! Secondarily, and on a more practical level, any parish that decides to employ this particular setting with the traditional Gregorian Alleluia to follow, benefits from the fact that the psalm can serve as a musical primer for the Alleluia. Alternatively, if I had taken the melody from the introit it could have echoed the chant heard at the beginning of Mass.
Going forward, I will certainly scan the other chants (particularly graduals) prescribed for any given liturgical day to see if they serve as a good foundation for that week’s psalm.
