Music Resources for the ACNA



THE NEW COVERDALE PSALTER (Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Year A)Set to Gregorian ChantSee the important article titled “The Music Settings of The New Coverdale Psalter” on the PSALTER main web page for the vision, history, effective use, and teaching of chanting the Psalms.INTRODUCTION: The singing of the Psalms in Christian worship enjoys a particularly rich heritage within our Anglican tradition. Psalms, meaning songs, are meant to be sung. And Gregorian Chant, Full Anglican Chant, and here Simplified Anglican Chant are all beautiful, effective, and tried and true ways of the congregation worshipping through the Psalms of David. All three forms, just mentioned, will eventually be available and set in highly usable forms within this Psalter section under the main Music Resources tab of the ACNA website. For successful use of the three Psalm collections, it is important to understand some basics on how to best read and present chanting to the worshipper. In this section, we will specifically address Gregorian Chant. Gregorian Chant is credited to Pope Gregory in the 9th and 10th centuries and is Plainsong, (monophony), the singing of a unison melody together. Out of the Middle Ages, eight common chants (numbered Tones 1 through 8) were identified and chosen for the Roman Church by Pope Gregory prior to the Protestant Reformation. They remain in use to present day. The composers of these chants are anonymous and I believe that this form of chant is still used in worship today because it is beautiful, it is powerful, and it has a distinct way of focusing worshippers on the text of the Psalm. Meant to be sung in unison by the congregation with a choir or cantor leading, Gregorian Chant is generally sung a cappella. Sometimes the use of a pedal point drone of a unison pitch, or the interval of a 5th in the tenor or bass octaves, or possibly the melody above is added to help the singers stay on pitch and to establish the simple mood of this early style of chant. (Note: as noted above, see further information on both accompanying and effectively teaching chant in the article The Music Settings of the New Coverdale Psalter found on the PSALTER main page.) Beginning with Year A, the entire three-year cycle will be available utilizing a carefully chosen repertoire of four chants, each with an excellent memorable melody and each conveying a particular musical mood. With this size repertoire, it is hoped that the congregation will be able to enjoy both a variety of quality chants and at the same time have a manageable, learnable repertoire which will allow them to worship through the chanting rather than frequently be learning new musics. Anthony Ruff states, “There is a growing tendency around the world to adapt the Gregorian melodies rather than to employ them literally, as they were designed for a Latin text. There are simply too many problems with the literalist approach.” 1 Therefore, with the Gregorian Chants presented, a slight simplification of the melodies and the pointing of the text as well as a better pitch range has been employed for successful congregational use while still striving to maintain the integrity of the Chant melodies.And finally, each chant has been carefully married to its corresponding Psalm, taking into consideration both melodic mood and text content. In future, all of the Psalms, (Years A, B, and C) will also be set to both Simplified Anglican Chant as well as Full Anglican Chant. In addition, a fresh approach to Full Anglican Chants will be to set them in the more accessible and familiar hymn style of layout (words between staffs) for better use by the full congregation.1 Anthony Ruff: OSB, “Gregorian Psalm Tones with English Texts?,” CUSTOS: The Newsletter of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Chant Section. Issue 2, 2009. ON READING AND PRESENTING THE GREGORIAN CHANTS1. The music printed above each chant is printed there for initial learning of the memorable and relatively simple two-measure chant, and afterward only for reference. Once the melody has been learned, there is less need to focus on the printed music and with the melody in hand, the congregation can now move their focus on singing and worshipping with the given Psalm text.2. The text of each Psalm is pointed to reflect the layout of the printed music above. Therefore, there are quarter ( ? ) and single ( | ) bar lines included in the Psalm text, just as in the music, with a bolded double bar line ( ║ ) indicating when the chant music comes to an end and the worshippers are to start again at the beginning of the chant.3. Good chanting, at its foundation, is the rhythm of speech (as one would recite a poem out loud) sung on a given pitch. When chanting, the words are sung on the same given pitch in the printed chant melody (the reciting pitch) until encountering a bar line within the Psalm text. Any bar line, whether quarter ( ? ), single ( | ), or bolded double ( ║ ), indicates a change of pitch for the singers and corresponds directly to the bar lines within the printed chant music. (Note: for Gregorian Chant Tone 3.7, two dots above a word means that the word is sung across the two corresponding slurred notes in the music.)4. Sing through commas, so as to maintain the musical line. Breathe at periods, exclamation marks, as well as semi-colons in order to successfully navigate or properly express long lines of text. Some of the chants include a note in parentheses. This note is only used in singing the chant when the last word of a line has two syllables. And finally, a rehearsed choir or cantor/song leader will go a long way toward effectively modeling and leading this beautiful and most powerful way of singing the Psalms.– Mark K. Williams, Christ Church Anglican, Savannah, GAADVENT(YEAR A)IMPORTANT: Gregorian Chants are in the Public Domain, and so you do not need to post your church’s CCLI license number (Christian Copyright Licensing Incorporated) along with the printed music. Thank you.The First Sunday in AdventPsalm 122 (Hail, Jerusalem)1I was glad when they ? s?a?id un?to? me, |“We will go into the house ? of the Lord.” ║2Now our ? fe?e?t a?re? standing |within your gates, O Je ? rusalem. ║3Jerusalem is ? bu?ilt as a city |that is at unity ? in itself. ║4For there the tribes go up, even the ? tribe?s of the Lord, |as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks unto the Name ? of the Lord. ║5For there is the ? throne of judgment, |even the throne of the house ? of David. ║6 O pray for the peace of Je ? rusalem |they shall prosper ? that love you. ║7Peace be with ? in your walls |and plenteousness within your ? palaces. ║8For my brethren and com ? panions’ sakes, |I will wish you pros ? perity. ║9 Indeed, because of the house of the ? Lord our God, |I will seek to ? do you good. ║The Second Sunday in AdventPsalm 72:1-15(16-19) (The promised King)1Give the King your ? judgments, O God, | and your righteous ? ness to the King’s son. ║2Then shall he judge your people with ? righteousness | and defend ? the poor with justice. ║3The mountains also ? shall bring peace, | and the little hills righteous ? ness to the people. ║4He shall vindicate the poor a ? mong the people, | defend the children of the poor, and pu ? nish the wrongdoer. ║5They shall fear you as long as the sun and ? moon endure, | from one genera ? tion to another. ║6He shall come down like the rain upon ? the mown grass, | even as showers ? that water the earth. ║7In his time shall the ? righteous flourish, | even an abundance of peace, so long ? as the moon endures. ║8His dominion shall be also from one sea ? to the other, | and from the river ? unto the world’s end. ║9Those who dwell in the wilderness shall ? kneel before him; | his ene ? mies shall lick the dust. ║10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles ? shall give presents; | the kings of Arabia and ? Seba shall bring gifts. ║11 All kings shall fall ? down before him; | all nations ? shall do him service. ║12For he shall deliver the poor ? when he cries, | the needy also, and the one ? that has no helper. ║13 He shall be favorable to the low ? ly and needy, | and shall preserve ? the lives of the poor. ║14 He shall deliver them from false ? hood and wrong, | and dear shall their ? blood be in his sight. ║15 Long may he live! And unto him shall be given the gold ? of Arabia; | prayer shall ever be made unto him; and daily ? shall he be blessed. ║16 There shall be an abundance of grain on the earth, thick up ? on the hilltops; | its fruit shall flourish like Lebanon; its grain like the ? grass upon the earth. ║17 His Name shall endure for ever; his Name shall remain as long ? as the sun. | All the nations shall be blessed through him and ? shall call him blessed. ║18 Blessed be the Lord God, even the ? God of Israel, |who a ? lone does wondrous things; ║19And blessed be the Name of his majes ? ty forever; | and all the earth shall be filled with his majes ? ty. Amen, Amen. ║The Third Sunday in AdventPsalm 146 (Hymn to the God of help)1Praise the Lord, O my ? soul; | while I live I will ? praise the Lord. ║2Indeed, as long as I have my ? being, | I will sing praises un ? to my God. ║3Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of ? man, | for there is no ? help in them. ║4For when one breathes his last, he shall return again to the ? earth, |and in that day all his ? thoughts perish. ║5Blessed is the one who has the God of Jacob for his ? help | and whose hope is in the ? Lord his God, ║6Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is there ? in; | who keeps his promise ? forever; ║7Who does right to those who suffer ? wrong; | and who feeds ? the hungry. ║8The Lord sets prisoners ? free; | the Lord gives sight ? to the blind. ║9The Lord helps those who have ? fallen; | the Lord loves ? the righteous. ║10The Lord cares for the strangers in the land; he defends the fatherless and ? widow; | but the way of the ungodly he ? makes crooked. ║11The Lord shall be King for ever ? more, | even your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. ? Praise the Lord. ║The Fourth Sunday in AdventPsalm 24 (For a solemn entry into the sanctuary)1The earth is the Lord’s and all that is ? in it, | the compass of the world and ? those who dwell therein. ║2For he has founded it upon the ? seas |and established it upon the ? rivers of the deep. ║3Who shall ascend the hill of the ? Lord? |Or who shall stand ? in his holy place? ║4He who has clean hands and a pure ? heart, | and who has not set his mind upon vanity; nor sworn to de ? ceive his neighbor. ║5He shall receive blessing from the ? Lord |and righteousness from the God of ? his salvation. ║6This is the generation of those who ? seek him, |even of those who seek your face, O ? God of Jacob. ║7Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you everlasting ? doors; |and the King of ? glory shall come in. ║8“Who is the King of ? glory?” |“It is the Lord, strong and mighty; even the Lord, ? mighty in battle.” ║9Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you everlasting ? doors; |and the King of ? glory shall come in. ║10“Who is the King of ? glory?” |“The Lord of hosts, he is the ? King of glory.” ║CHRISTMAS (YEAR A)MORE TO COME SOON! ................
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