Psalm 145 • The Hand of the Lord (Oculi Omnium)

I would like to do an in-depth break down of my recent setting of Psalm 145, since this setting is not as straightforward as others have recently been. It is based upon the gradual, Oculi Omnium, however to make something singable to modern ears required more dissection than normal. First, a simplified score:

And now an extract of the gradual:

Refrain notes are in red; verse notes are in blue.

It was important to me to keep the general arch of the versicle (which treats the same text as the psalm refrain) as best I could, particularly in the manner it begins and ends. This posed an interesting challenge since the versicle begins on Re, rather than Do, which is an unusual way to begin a modern congregational refrain. Further still, the modal nature of the melody which hovers both above and below ‘Do’ which has an almost unstable feel to it. Now you can see why I skipped ahead a bit for the notes marked 5 & 6! The refrain doesn’t imply a stable tonic until the end of the first phrase on the word “us”! Nevertheless, the effect works, and I was able to make it sound surprisingly “major” (ie-cheerful) which is often difficult to do with chant. While chant is modal in nature, generally speaking it strikes modern ears as sounding “minor”.

To keep the chant influence very clear, I did use essentially all of the phrase “et imples” with only minor editing (the dropping of repeated notes). The end results is that the verses strike the ear as a psalm tone, particularly due to the common cadential motion displayed in the last three notes of 14.

This week I also decided to notate the organ part completely with stemless notes even in the refrain; this is in keeping with the monumental Nova Organi Harmonia which includes sections composed by Flor Peeters (among others). As usual, I use black notes for normal flowing rhythm with white notes to indicate a rough doubling in length (ie- short vs. “long” notes).

As for the verses, I’ve debated the best way to indicate the organ part; here you’ll notice that sometimes A/T/B voices have mini ties to indicate that those voices remain static while the soprano part changes. This seems to me the best way to keep visual clutter to a minimum and indicate that only a single voice is changing during those portions of the music. I’d welcome feedback in this respect, particularly from other organists who are used to reading this style of music and accompany voices regularly. Do you like this method? Or would you prefer to have every single chord notated? Send me feedback at ServiamScores@gmail.com.