Here is an mp3 of Psalm 41 sung to Tone 1 (using termination "g", according to the OSB chart) by the St. David's Episcopal Church, Austin, Compline Choir. The translation is from the 1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer; the mp3 includes an antiphon on either side of the Psalm.
1 Happy are they who consider the poor and needy! *
the LORD will deliver them in the time of trouble.
2 The LORD preserves them and keeps them alive,
so that they may be happy in the land; *
he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed *
and ministers to them in their illness.
4 I said, "LORD, be merciful to me; *
heal me, for I have sinned against you."
5 My enemies are saying wicked things about me: *
"When will he die, and his name perish?"
6 Even if they come to see me, they speak empty words; *
their heart collects false rumors;
they go outside and spread them.
7 All my enemies whisper together about me *
and devise evil against me.
8 "A deadly thing," they say, "has fastened on him; *
he has taken to his bed and will never get up again."
9 Even my best friend, whom I trusted,
who broke bread with me, *
has lifted up his heel and turned against me.
10 But you, O LORD, be merciful to me and raise me up, *
and I shall repay them.
11 By this I know you are pleased with me, *
that my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 In my integrity you hold me fast, *
and shall set me before your face for ever.
13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, *
from age to age. Amen. Amen.
And here is a really good, quick-and-dirty tutorial on chant notation. On the left is the old Gregorian style; on the right is modern musical notation.
In my opinion, one of the most important things to know - and one of the only things you can't figure out on your own without hearing the music - is the "podatus." Here it is, first in Gregorian notation:
As the tutorial says: "When one note is written above another note like this, the bottom note is sung first, and then the note above it." Here's the modern notation:
That one is used over and over again, and many other neume-types are created from it.
3 comments:
bls, are there rules (or customs) about when to use which tones?
Not for most of us. In convents and monasteries, the tone used to sing the Psalms is dependent upon the Antiphon for the day or for the season; whatever tone that Antiphon is written in, the Psalms take on, too.
And how the Antiphon gets written is an opaque question to me; I'm not sure where most of them have come from, or why certain tones are chosen for them. Some famous ones - like the Great "O" Antiphons - are traditionally sung to a certain tone (2, in that case). But most tones, I think, in most cases, are particular to the monastic house, and so it's unpredictable in that way.
I just sing in whatever tone happens to emerge from my mouth that day (although I sing in Tone 2 during Lent quite frequently; that's just personal falderol and foolishness, though).
Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it....;-)
I think this site has much better audio sample for Psalm Tones
http://www.saintlaurenceosb.org/chants/index.html
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