Psalm 113

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm; themes of God’s care for the poor.

Refrain:
“Praise, oh praise the Lord, who lifts up the poor.”        

                           

Verses:                       
1) Praise, you servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed by the name of the Lord both now and forever.

2) High above the nations is the Lord;
Above the heavens is God's glory.
Who is like the Lord, enthroned on high,
Who looks upon the heavens and the earth below?

3) God raises up the lowly from the dust; from the ash-heap
God lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with princes of his people.

Arrangement:

Vocal:                         
Refrain:  SATB choir
Verses:   Cantor    

Instruments:           
Piano, guitar, bass with recorders (or flutes or other reeds)   

Availability:

Sheet Music:           
Lead sheets.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:

Video:       New Dawn Concert, May 20, 2011     [link to be added]

CD:            Praise for the New Dawn, Vol. 1   
Order from Wood Harbor Music.
Digital download available at CD Baby.
Listen on YouTube or at Spotify!

Composer's Notes:

This is a favorite psalm, describing God’s concern for the poor and marginalized.  In the 3^rd verse the psalmist wrote of God who lifts up the poor from the dust and ashes to seat them with the princes of his people. 

The text is timeless as even in today’s world, the text could be updated to tell of God who raises up the poor from the slums of the 3^rd world, from the poverty of Appalachia, from the depressed urban neighborhoods, and seating them at a banquet table with the fabulously rich.  Time passes, but the word of God is eternal!

The arrangement is inspired by setting of Psalm 103 (Praise the Lord, O My Soul!) composed many years ago by a friend and Berklee grad, George Guenther.

  

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Psalm 98

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm; psalm for the Christmas season; themes of salvation.

Refrain and Verses:
Four versions of Psalm 98 are available as found in the Lectionary.

Versions 1 and 2 share same verses:

Refrains:
Refrain 1) “Sing to the Lord a new song for God has done marvelous deeds.”  (repeat)

Refrain 2) “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving pow’r of God.”  (repeat)

Verses:
1) Sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done such wond'rous deeds!
His right hand as won the vic'try for him, his holy arm.

2) The Lord has made his salvation known
To the nations revealed his justice.
God has remembered his kindness and faithfulness to Israel.

3) All the ends of the earth have seen salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
Break into song; sing praise!

4) Sing Praise to the Lord with the harp and song;
With trumpet and horn give praise.
Sing joyfully to the king, the Lord; break forth in praise.

Version 3:
Refrain:
“The Lord has come to rule the earth with justice.”  (repeat)

Verses:
1) Sing Praise to the Lord with the harp and song;
With trumpet and horn give praise.
Sing joyfully to the king, the Lord; break forth in praise.

2) Let the sea and what fills it resound,
The world and those who dwell in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
The mountains shout with them for joy.

3) Before the Lords, for he comes, for he comes to rule the earth;
He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with equity.

Version 4:
Refrain:
“The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”  (repeat)



Verses:
1) Sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done such wond'rous deeds!
His right hand as won the vic'try for him, his holy arm.

2) The Lord has made his salvation known
To the nations revealed his justice.
God has remembered his kindness and faithfulness to Israel.

3) All the ends of the earth have seen salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
Break into song; sing praise!

Arrangement:

Vocal:                         
Refrain:  SATB choir
Verses:   Cantor(s) - (I often use 2 cantors, alternating verses)    

Instruments:           
Piano, guitar, bass

Availability:

Sheet Music:           
Lead sheets for each of the 4 refrains.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions of Version 2 ("All the Ends of the Earth"):

Video:       New Dawn Concert, May 20, 2011     [link to be added]

CD:            Praise for the New Dawn, Vol. 1   
Order from Wood Harbor Music.
Digital download available at CD Baby.
Listen on YouTube at Spotify!

Composer's Notes:

For years, the Haugen/Haas setting from Psalms for the Church Year Vol. 1 has been the workhorse when Ps. 98 comes around in the Lectionary, which is a fairly frequent occurrence.  Thus, the inspiration for a new setting was born.  

The inspiration for the refrain melody came to me on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 2010, while sitting at another church and hearing the pianist recite the psalm (yes, recite in spoken voice, with no music).  I went home that evening and had the two refrains.  (The alternative refrain is “Sing to the Lord a new song, for God had done marvelous deeds.”)  The verses were written, appropriately, on New Year’s Day 2011.

Like the Gloria from the Mass of St. Anne, the melody is kept fairly easy for the cantor, while the keyboardist and bass player navigate the mildly challenging changes and the ever-descending bass line of the verses.  The cadence from the verse back to the refrain consists a potentially unprecedented four consecutive ascending major chords (Gb, Ab, Bb, C7), the last being the dominant.

  

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Psalm 90

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm, offertory or communion song, All Souls, end of liturgical year

Refrain:
"In every age, you have been our refuge. You have been our God."          

                             

Verses:                         
1) Your word can turn us to dust, saying: "Return, O children, to earth."
You take them as they sleep,
Then by morning they rise like the grass,
But by evening they wither and fade.

2) Teach us to number Your days, that we may learn Your wisdom.
For a thousand years to You, O Lord, are like the passing of a single day,
Or the passing of one night.

3) Fill us with Your kindness at daybreak,
And we will rejoice all our days.
May your gracious care be ours.

Arrangement:

Vocal:                           
Refrain:  SAT choir
Verses:   Cantor    

Instruments:             
Acoustic guitar, piano, bass with synth      

Availability:

Sheet Music:             
Lead sheets for each of the 3 refrains.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:

Video:       New Dawn Concert, May 20, 2011     [link to be added]

CD:            Praise for the New Dawn, Vol. 1   
Order from Wood Harbor Music.
Digital download available at CD Baby.
Listen on YouTube at Spotify!

Composer's Notes:

Psalm 90 is a personal favorite, particularly in the fall, around All Saints/All Souls days.  In the fall, the changing foliage is a brilliant reminder of dying, while in the Liturgy, the readings start to speak of the end times.  I often take a walk through nearby Mt. Auburn Cemetery to spend time with the beauty of the season and remembering the transitory existence that is our life here on earth.

All Souls Day at Mt. Auburn Cemetery,
Cambridge, MA

The psalm speaks to our transience: “teach us to number our days that we may learn your wisdom.”  Yes, our days are numbered but we must embrace this transitory existence and not be afraid of or obsessed with our eventual death.

The Psalm continues “for a thousand years to you……is like the passing of a single day,” contrasting the eternal nature of God to our brief existence, with an understanding that time can be experienced differently, something that would be embraced in Einstein’s special relativity centauries later. Our lives pass in snippets of time, maybe a century at most, yet God spans the centuries (“por los siglos de los siglos,” como se dice in Español).

The intentionally spacey arrangement, begins with a piano improvisation, and employs some odd meters in the verses, particularly a stretch of 5/4 measures in the second verse.  The stretch of time is like our attempts to make the most of the time we have, trying to stretch things out just a bit.
  

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Psalm 137

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm

Refrain:      
“Let my tongue be silenced, if ever I forget you.”  

Verses:                            
1) By the streams of Babylon
We set down and wept,
as we remembered Zion.
By the aspens of that land, we hung up our harps.

2) There our captors asked us the lyrics of our songs,
And they urged us to be joyous!
Sing for us the songs of Zion.

3) How could we sing to the Lord in a foreign land?
If ever I forget you, Jerusalem,
Let my right hand be forgotten.

4) Let my tongue be silenced if ever I forget you,
If ever I remember not Jerusalem is my greatest joy!

Arrangement:

Vocal:                             
Refrain:  SATB
Verses:   One or two cantors    

Instrumental Options:                
1)  "Unplugged":  Acoustic guitar and bass
2)  Keyboard:      Piano with guitar and bass (also adaptable to organ)
3)  Layered synthesizers
4)  Chamber orchestra

Availability:

Sheet Music:                
Lead sheets.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:
CD:           Praise for the New Dawn, Vol. 1
Order from Wood Harbor Music
Digital download at CD Baby.
Listen on Spotify!

Unplugged version:

Synth version:

Composer's Notes:

Psalm 137 recalls the Babylonian captivity.  The mood is somber: “How could we sing to the Lord in a foreign land?”  This is a tale best uninterrupted, and so, my arrangement bookends the refrain, leaving the cantor to present a continuous story.  

This recording presents two distinct arrangements of Psalm 137.  First is is this “unplugged version,” where the cantor sings in contemplative tone, accompanied by simple acoustic guitar supported by bass. 

The second version on the CD is is my original arrangement, inspired by Philip Glass’ use of layered arpeggios to create a dream-like texture.  Lacking my own chamber orchestra, I used 13 synth tracks blended with background vocals.  The verse melody in C Dorian mode is set against chord substitutions, such as Ab maj7 substituting for the Cm, resulting in a wonderful  Lydian tonal stretch where the A natural of the C Dorian melody sits perfectly against Ab in the bass.  I love it!

Credit must be given to Jaclyn Snell for suggesting a judicious movement of one note in Verse 4:  a small change that made a big improvement!   

Contrast the two settings:  simple acoustic vs. layered.  I think both work.

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Psalm 131

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm

Refrain:      
"In you, O Lord, I have found my peace." 
               

©2011 R. J. F. Burckardt.  All Rights Reserved.

Verses:     
1) O Lord, my heart is not proud,
Nor my eyes haughty in your sight;
I busy not myself with great things,
Nor with things too sublime for me.

2) Nay rather I have stilled and quieted my soul
Like a weaned child, like a weaned child on its mother's lap.

3) Benediction:
O Israel, hope in the Lord, both now and forever.

Arrangement:

Vocal:                             
Refrain:  SAT Choir
Verses:   Cantor    

Instruments:                
Piano with guitar and bass

Availability:

Sheet Music:                
Lead sheet.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:
In the works, but not yet available


Composer's Notes:

My inspiration for the verses is Ralph McTell's poignant yet  melancholy composition From Claire to Here.   Here the verses are a simplification of his descending melody, but reach a different destination.  The refrain remains relatively simple, yet the repeated text is first proclaimed more boldly with the rising melody, and more simply in the second phrase.

In a complicated, over-stimulated world we live in, this psalm keeps it simple and peaceful.  I love the imagery of the second verse, particularly that of the satisfied and quiet child on a mother's lap.   Most recently, I've had the pleasure of babysitting the one-year old daughter of my friend Mary (who is a featured singer on Praise for the New Dawn).  The first few times, she would fall asleep in my lap.  At those times, I completely understood the second verse!

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Psalm 32

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm; themes of forgiveness; Lent

Refrain:      
“Lord, forgive me the wrong I have done.  O Lord, forgive me.”

©2013 Rachel J. Burckardt.  All Rights Reserved.

Verses:                            
1) Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the one to whom the Lord holds not guilty,
In whose spirit there is no deceit.

2) I acknowledge my sin to you; my guilt I have not covered.
I said:  "I confess my faults to the Lord,"
And you take away the guilt of my sin.

3) You are my shelter from distress you preserve me;
With glad cries of deliverance you will surround me.

4)  Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you just;
Exult, all you upright of heart.

Arrangement:

Vocal:                             
Refrain:  Unison
Verses:   Cantor    

Instruments:                
Piano with guitar and bass; optional synth, clarinet, bassoon

Availability:

Sheet Music:                
Lead sheets with piano part, through-composed.   Clarient and bassoon parts separately available.
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:
CD:  You Are My Inheritance
Video on YouTube


Composer's Notes:
The setting of the psalm is simple and plaintive, with the refrains in a penitent e minor key, while the verses are set a bit more hopeful in the relative major. Having an excellent bassoonist married to the recording engineer, gave me a chance to bring the instruments somber texture into the recorded arrangement. 

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Psalm 31

General Information:

Liturgical Uses:  Responsorial psalm for Good Friday

Refrain:      
“Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

©2012  R. J. F. Burckardt & J. V. Frias.  All rights reserved.

Verses:                            
1) In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
Let me never be put to shame.
Into your hand I commend my spirit;
You will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God.

2) For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
A laughing stock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends.
They who see me a broad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead.
I am like a dish, which is broken.

3) But my trust is in you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my God.
into your hands is my destiny;
Rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors."

4) Let your face shine upon your servant;
Save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
All you who trust in the Lord.

Arrangement:
Composers:  Rachel J. Burckardt  & Jason Villarreal Frias

Vocal:                             
Refrain:  SATB choir, a capella
Verses:   Bass cantor, a capella or with cello

Instruments:                
A capella or with solo cello

Availability:

Sheet Music:                
Download:  A-capella setting for bass cantor and SATB choir on refrain
Order from Wood Harbor Music

Recorded Versions:
CD:  You Are My Inheritance

Video:


Featuring:
Cello:  Petr Spacek
Cantor:  Jason Villarreal
Schola:  Mary Casiello, Megan Lewis, Rosie Delacruz, Sean Trainer, Josh Daniels, John Paul Casiello, Peter Rozman
Composed by:  Rachel J. Burckardt & Jason Villarreal
Arranged by:  Rachel J. Burckardt
Recorded by:  Evan Landry
Produced by:  Rachel J. Burckardt
©2013 Rachel J. Burckardt & Jason Villarreal.    All Rights Reserved.

Composer's Notes:
My friend, Jason Villarreal Frias, a bass in the choir at St. Cecilia Parish, Boston, MA, approached me about writing a pieces specifically for the lower voices, and Psalm 31 was one suggestion.  I originally wrote this as a pure a capella piece.  On Good Friday, the church is bare and this is the first sung piece, after the suffering servant reading from Isaiah.  The starkness of the piece fits the mood of the service.

When I had the opportunity to record with and incredibly talented cellist, Petr Spacek, who played with us for the last 4 years while attending New England Conservatory, I injected a cello line.  Initially, the cello states the melody before the cantor sings it, followed by the congregation and choir.  Each verse is set up by a short cello introduction.  The cello then enters and leaves, accompanying the bass cantor.

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