The Music of Psalms

Referring back Week 3, Professor Smith asked my personal oponion on reading the pslams thus far. I replied that I really enjoyed reading them due to their similarity (and sometimes existence) to hymns. Being an organist, I have played and read many-a-hymn in my day (to say the least) and have grown to truly appreciate the poetry and use of language from the texts. After a little research, I discovered that placing the psalms to music was largely Protestant tradition explained my immediate identification (as I was raised in a Protestant church).

This got me thinking of why I actually like them so much, seperate and together. I'd hoped it was more than just being apart of my church experience growing up. Looking further into it, I found seperate characteristics between the two (the psalms and music) that make them very similar to one another. From reading well over 100 of these bad boys by now, it is easy to see that the psalms' moods differ substantially from one page to the next. How do they establish such drastic differences? By the use of descriptive vocabulary for mood and punctuation for rhythym that can make psalms almost poetic. This is incredibly similar to a music's version of expression through a particular key and use of notes as well as its rhythym without the use of words.

This strong resemblence struck me as why they do fit virtually perfectly when put together. Music has a different and powerful effect on expressing moods and ideas that words can't always express, which is of course applicable vise-versa. With their parallel uses of expressing moods and ideas, they are easily combined. As a product of this combination between words and music, however, comes a multiplied result of a deeper experience of emotion and thought.

Maybe this is why I love being an organist so much or maybe this is why music has become such a large part of my personal religious experience, but I can now easily see the intention of the many, many composers who put psalms to music in hopes of achieving that experience.