The Psalms Experience
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Sunday, November 5, 2017, at 5:00 pm The Psalms Experience CONCERT 4 Powerlessness and Redemption The Choir of Trinity Wall Street Julian Wachner , Conductor Introduction bY ReV. Phillip A. Jackson, Vicar, TrinitY Church Wall Street This program is approximately one hour long and will be performed without intermission. Please join the artists for a White Light Lounge following the performance. (Program continued) The White Light FestiVal presentation of The Psalms Experience is supported bY The AndreW W. Mellon Foundation. This program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program bY the Consulate General of the Netherlands in NeW York. This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center. St. Paul’s Chapel Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off. WhiteLightFestiVal.org American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln UPCOMING WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL EVENTS: Center Thursday, November 9, at 6:30 pm at the New Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center York Society for Ethical Culture NeWYork-PresbYterian is the Official Hospital of The Psalms Experience Lincoln Center Concert 5: State of Humankind Artist Catering proVided bY Zabar’s and Zabars.com Netherlands Chamber Choir Peter Dijkstra , conductor Visit PsalmsEXperience.org for full concert schedule. The Psalms Experience was created and Thursday, November 9, at 8:30 pm at the New first produced by Tido Visser, managing York Society for Ethical Culture director of the Netherlands Chamber The Psalms Experience Choir. Concert 6: Gratitude Tallis Scholars The Netherlands Chamber Choir Was supported Peter Phillips , conductor bY the Netherland-America Foundation for the Visit PsalmsEXperience.org for full concert schedule. deVelopment of this project. Friday, November 10, at 6:30 pm at the New York Society for Ethical Culture The Psalms Experience Concert 7: Abandonment Norwegian Soloists’ Choir (NeW York debut) Grete Pedersen , conductor Visit PsalmsEXperience.org for full concert schedule. Friday, November 10, at 8:30 pm at the New York Society for Ethical Culture The Psalms Experience Concert 8: Lamentation Netherlands Chamber Choir Peter Dijkstra , conductor Visit PsalmsEXperience.org for full concert schedule. For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or Visit WhiteLightFestiVal.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about pro - gram cancellations or to request a White Light FestiVal brochure. Visit WhiteLightFestival.org for full festival listings. Join the conVersation: #WhiteLightFestiVal We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. Powerlessness and Redemption JOHANNES OCKEGHEM Sicut cervus, from the Missa pro defunctis: (c. 1410–1497) Tractus (Psalm 42) JOHN EVERET (ed. William East) I’ll trust God’s word (Psalm 56) (18th centurY) ROBERT PARSONS Deliver me from mine enemies (Psalm 59) (1535–1572) CHARLES IVES Save me, O God (Psalm 54) (1874–1954) FRANÇOIS REGNARD Domine exaudi orationem meam, cum (c. 1535–c. 1595) deprecor (Psalm 64) JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU Laboravi clamans (Psalm 69) (1683–1764) BENJAMIN BRITTEN Deus in adjutorium meum (Psalm 70) (1913–1976) SIGISMONDO D’INDIA Timor et tremor (Psalm 55) (1582–1629) CHRISTOPH BUEL Domine Deus, salutis meae (Psalm 88) (1574–1631) ORLANDE DE LASSUS Custodi me, Domine (Psalm 140) (1532–1594) SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM Hear my prayer, O Lord (Psalm 102) (b. 1942) WILLIAM KNYVETT O God, my heart is fixed (Psalm 108) (1779–1856) JOSQUIN DES PREZ Domine, ne in furore (Psalm 38) (c. 1450–1521) Please hold applause until the end of the performance. WhiteLightFestiVal.org The Book of Psalms aside, their ageless attraction abides in the uniVersalitY of their appeal and teachings, and Its Musical transcending religious orientation, time, Interpretations and geographY. BY Neil W. LeVin MUSICAL RECONSTRUCTION . From Common to the liturgies, histories, and musicological scholarship and Judaic spirit of Judaism and ChristianitY, the Book sources, We understand something about of Psalms is one of the most WidelY famil - psalmodY—the manner of musical Psalm iar and frequentlY quoted books of the rendition—in the ancient Temple in HebreW Bible. The Psalms are also basic to Jerusalem, including probable Vocal range Western culture as literature. Their eXpres - and predominance of particular tones; sYl - sion in musical notation spans more than labic Versus melismatic articulation; ten centuries. Their unnotated musical tra - embellishment; tYpe of choirs and perfor - ditions predate ChristianitY, eXtending to mance formats (responsorial, antiphonal, JeWish antiquitY and the Temple eras etc.); and instrumental accompaniment. When the Psalter serVed in effect as the But this knoWledge is academic and theo - Temple music manual and praYer book. retical rather than aesthetic or artistic. It cannot effectuate authentic Temple-era LITERARY and RELIGIOUS CONTENT . reproductions of Psalms Vis-a-Vis modali - Most current biblical scholarship places ties, pitches, melodic progressions, tim - the Psalms’ composition as Well as unified bres, or precise rhYthm. Similar limitations canoniZation substantiallY prior to the 2nd applY to reasonable suppositions concern - centurY BCE, bY Which time their popular - ing earlY Church psalmodY, in Which some itY Was Well established. Their common musical practices maY haVe been bor - attribution to King DaVid as a popular post- roWed from HebreW psalmodY. Despite biblical tradition notWithstanding, it is Various irresponsible claims oVer the Years impossible to knoW the identitY of the to haVe deciphered imagined encoded sYs - Psalms’ author(s) or compiler(s). But We tems of musical information, all attempts can celebrate their uninterrupted en - to replicate Temple psalmodY aurallY are at durance through their embrace of a broad best naiVelY romantic eXercises in fantasY. spectrum of human eXperience and their perceiVed manifestations of a respectable Although ancient psalmodY has not surViVed form of popular theologY. intact in anY sYnagogue music tradition, one hears presumed echoes in certain Sephardi Taken together, the Psalms eXpress and Near Eastern repertoires. In some of human thirst for moral, ethical, and spiri - those, hoWeVer, as in AshkenaZi practice tual grounding as Well as the common inherited from Europe or eXpanded else - search for a guiding faith. VieWed from the - Where, Psalm renditions haVe also acquired ological or eVen deist perspectiVes, theY artificial meter through superimposed sYl - encapsulate human pursuit of the DiVine labic patterns or adaptations to secular essence. “In the Torah and the Prophets,” tunes. RarelY haVe modern composers Wrote biblical scholar Nahum Sarna, “God emploYed perceiVed psalmodic features. reaches out to man. In the Psalms, human beings reach out to God. The language is THE PSALMS IN HEBREW and CHRIST - human.” Indeed, in their singular blend of IAN LITURGIES . The deVelopment of majestic grandeur, loftY sentiments, and HebreW liturgY relied heaVilY on the poignant simplicitY, the Psalms address Psalms, Which proVided an obVious founda - nearlY eVerY human emotion and mood. tion. TheY permeate the traditional praYer Judaic origin and Judeo-Christian associa tion books of eVerY rite, and theY infuse Reform Worship as Well. No other biblical book is so artistic perspectiVes, and eVentuallY also directlY, richlY, or consistentlY represented. outside religious conteXts altogether. Psalm Outside formallY designated serVices, soci - composition in the 17th and 18th centuries eties of “Psalm reciters” are features of is intertWined With contemporaneous paths manY ferVentlY pious communities, such as of motet and anthem genres; English and one in contemporarY Jerusalem Whose tWo American anthems of that time both displaY distinct subgroups diVide betWeen them abundant reliance on Psalm teXts. During the dailY recitation of the entire Psalter at the 19th centurY, throughout the modern the Western Wall. era, and into the 21st centurY in both sacred and secular Worlds, composers of nearlY The Psalter also offered a Wellspring of eVerY stripe and orientation haVe engaged liturgical material for the nascent Church. the Psalms in eXpressions ranging from Latin translations are thought to haVe pre - large-scale choral and orchestral Works to dominated its earliest serVices; eVentuallY, art songs and a cappella choral settings— usage differed betWeen Eastern and eVen in eXclusiVelY instrumental inspirations Western rites. Aside from a feW eXtant such as solo organ sonatas or KrZYsZtof fragments, their musical notation surViVes Penderecki’s electronic Psalmus (1961). onlY from the ninth centurY on. There is no stYlistic approach or treatment, no technical procedure (including 12-tone In the Roman, or Western Church, the con - serialiZation), no melodic, contrapuntal or tinuum of unabridged Psalm singing is harmonic language—in short, no aspect of most conspicuous in the Office of Vespers, Western musical deVelopment—from though not eXclusiVe to it. In the Mass and Which the Psalms haVe escaped. other liturgies, hoWeVer, Psalms became abbreViated or partiallY quoted. ManY polY - The unrelenting appeal of the Psalms for phonic settings