psalmcast

Kids Sign Psalms, at www.psalms4.u.com

Yes, it has been awhile! We're going to shift from podcasting to sharing of psalm videos....So here's our favorite contemporary Psalm-singers from Oz, Sons of Korah

Labels: Sons of Korah

to Other Psalm-Related Websites

Restoring Psalms to Worship and Straight from Scripture,
by David T. Koyzis

Calvin's Preface to the Psalter

Singing the Psalms: A Brief History of Psalmody, by R. C. Leonard.

Psalms of David in Metre (Scottish Psalter of 1650)

The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts

Music for the Church of God: Psalters

The Origin of our Psalm melodies, by Dr. K. Deddens

Metrical psalter (Wikipedia)

The Genevan Psalms in Italian and French

Die Psalmen in Deutsch

Salterio de Ginebra (en español)

Psalm and Hymn tunes from Liedboek voor de Kerken

The Huguenot Psalter

History of the Genevan Psalter, by Duck Shuler

Athanasius on the Psalms

Du Livre des Psaumes au Psautier français:
une tradition poétique et musicale
by Dominique Amann

French Metrical Psalmody

Branislav Micieta's Psalms in Slovak

Our friend Richard Bacon, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Rowlett, Texas, is currently in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Part of his endeavors there include work with a committee which is taking the Psalter in the Judson version of the Burmese language Bible and working to provide psalm settings which best provide a faithful rendering of the text into a singable, meaningful form. Burmese is a tonal language, which presents certain challenges. Please take time now to pray for our brothers in Christ as they work on this project. Here are some excerpts from emails from Pastor Bacon:

A basic difficulty lies in the fact that the Burmese is a tonal language. Thus something that makes sense when written can quickly turn into virtual nonsense if the tones of the music don't match the words. But it is more than simply a "mood" problem. A syllable with an upward-going tone, for example, can mean something totally different from a level or short or downward-going tone. Remember our "famous fried chicken backs" -- kyaw kyaw kyet kyaw. This is also how a name like "Four kinds of barrier" can become "Children's town."

One of the selections they were working on this AM was Psalm 10:1-4. They have worked the tune to where it is only barely recognizable now. But it is beautiful. Even if you cannot understand the words, it *sounds* like poor people crying to God because of the injustice and oppression of the covetous. I think these people may know something about that. Some of these Psalms they simply *adopt* as their own Psalms, like 107:1-8 and now 10:1-4.

One of the revisers on the translation committee has been a model of humility before the Word of God. He speaks a few words of English and I speak even less Burmese, but between our broken phrases in one another's language we think we have communicated a little. When I was trying to explain the payment plan for a day's work, he kept telling me that the pay is very low. My comment was that the pay may be very low by US standards, it is actually very good here in MM. Finally he was able to communicate that the pay is a very low motive for his participation in the project and it doesn't really matter how or how much we pay him. The important thing to him, he said, is that the Holy Spirit may use his work to glorify God and edify his people here.

Here is a sort of commentary on what I see the men doing in our Psalter committees: They begin each Psalm section by one person reading from the Judson Bible while the others follow along in the metrical translation. If there are any obvious divergences, they immediately mark those during the first reading. Then they correct the metrical translation based upon the Judson Bible. Also, one of the groups (but not both) have access to the English Authorized Version and the Hebrew Bible.

Next they teach themselves the Psalm tune from the Comprehensive Psalter (actually they use the sol-fa notation we gave them last trip). They do this by singing "do-re-mi" then attempt stanza by stanza to sing the words of the Psalter to the tune they've just learned. This uncovers problems that exist with singing with a tonal language. Even though there may be perfect sense when reading the metrical version as though it were a "poem," when singing it new problems often arise. If a written word should be spoken with an upward-going tone, for example, and the musical tone is downward-going the result could be anything from nonsense to an incorrect rendering of the meaning or idea.

At this point the *real* work of the committee begins. Their task is to phrase the Burmese in such a way that the musical tunes and verbal tones coincide. They occasionally make changes to the tune, but that is generally only when the tune is so complex (moves so much in the melody) that it is simply too hard to make sense of the Burmese language using the tune.

The attached selection is from Psalm 107, vv. 1-8. I don't recall the name of the tune, but could find out if there is a name for it. The Chin people of Burma love to sing this Psalm because they say it is very much like their own history. They also wandered in the (jungle) wilderness without a home until Christ gave them a home in heaven. Now they are no longer wanderers, but pilgrims on the way to heaven. Download.

Hey y'all -- PsalmCast isn't gone; I've just been incredibly busy since Hurricane Katrina (see my personal blog over at okcalvin.blogspot.com for the low-down). Lord willing, we should have a couple of new podcasts up within the next couple of weeks. I appreciate your patience!

Well -- we're honored, to say the least. You can vote here for PsalmCast.

Welcome to our new listeners from iTunes and from the Toronto Globe and Mail!

Here's our line-up in this podcast:

1) Gaelic psalm singing: from from the Back Free Church of Scotland, on the Isle of Lewis, in the Hebrides Islands in NW Scotland. In 2003 a gathering of Gaelic psalm-singers over the course of a couple of evenings recorded a number of selections from the Scottish psalter, sung in Gaelic. The metrical psalm tunes are used by the various Presbyterian churches which have descended from the Church of Scotland. The uniqueness of this recording is that it is of the precentor, or psalm-leader, "lining-out," each line of the psalm, followed by the congregation. This is Psalm 16: 5-7, with Kenneth A Mackay, precenting. The tune is "Moravia." Link.

2) Ukrainian psalm chant: Ensemble Sreteniye in Kharkov, Urkraine - from their CD "Don't Cry Rachael." It is a chant of Psalm 104, and is presented with permission from Magnatune.

3) Coptic psalm chant: Psalm 150, from by Ibrahim Ayad and Chorus, from their CD "Coptic Melodies II - Coptic." It is available from Tasbeha.org