Day Fifty-Five- 2/24/11 Taxes and Psalm Pointing

Day Fifty-Five: 2/24/11
New Thing: Taxes and Psalm Pointing       
Inspiration: Clergy Day, Canon Mark Laubach, and The Government
Cost: $??? (will we be billed later)    
Time: About 1.5 hours for the taxes and about 30 mins. for the Psalm    
Bottom Line: I am done with my taxes and I learned a new musical/liturgical skill.

Reflection: Today, Ken and I went to our CPA and walked through out tax stuff. Clergy taxes are some of the most complicated out there, so we are always very happy to take ours to our knowledgeable CPA. At least they are done with for another year.

Later on back at work, I put the final touches on the upcoming Diocesan Clergy Day Leaflet. Often when I work on these leaflets, there is a Psalm chant which needs to be pointed. This can normally be done by following the pointing assigned for a paritular Psalm in a standardized collection of metrical Psalms such as the Plainson Psalter or the Anglican Chant Psalter. However, today's Psalm was very tricky as found in the gradual, and so it was decided that we should chose a different Chant setting then one of the standardized ones. This meant that the Psalm had to be pointed without a guide.

Briefly, Psalm chant pointing mixes music, poetry, and liturgy all together. When you point a line from a Psalm using an Anglican Chant focus, you have to match the line of music with the syllabus and inflection of the words. This can be tricky where there are more or less syllabus then there are notes in a line of music. As Fr. Bill Mouser explains:

Anglican chant is a form of singing, a union of melody and words. It differs from the singing described above in this way: the words control the music. The duration of any note is determined by the words. Words are assigned to notes by a marks in the text called “pointing marks.” And, so, every repetition of the chant melody will have different durations to every note in the melody. The only constant in the melody will be the sequence of notes. The sequence will be the same every time the melody is sung. As you might suppose from the above, there is no rhythm in Anglican chant. There may be the perception of rhythm in any line of a psalm that is sung to Anglican chant, but this sense of rhythm is coming from the cadence of the text, not some sort of meter in the ordinary sense of that word.

So, when you are pointing a text, you have to ask some pretty intricate questions of the poetry and the music. Where do you change words? Would you like to extend a word or make another word the focus of a line? Would it be singable if I change notes in the middle of a phrase? I found this explanation which makes the point nicely:

Anglican chant is a form of singing, a union of melody and words. It differs from the singing described above in this way: the words control the music. To see how this is so, sing these words to the conventional melody:

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Now, sing the following to the same melody:

Row, row, row your flat-bottomed boat,
Gently down the trout-filled stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a fisherman’s dream.

Doesn’t work, right? Why not? Because the words don’t fit. There’s too many syllables to fit comfortably into the melody.

If all this seems complicated, don't worry, it is. In fact, after I had tried to point a few lines myself, I decided I better call an expert in this, Canon Mark Laubach the Canon Precentor for the Diocese. He is a world-class organist, a college music professor, and a friend of mine. He graciously looked at my pointing and commented on what I had missed and (less frequently) what I had done correctly. Then he walked me through it to really see how it is done. He was great! I really have a new appreciation for the theological, poetic, and musical decisions that go into pointing a few lines of scripture. I am very grateful to him, and I am sure that the clergy who will read the leaflet will be as well!

Here is the final product:

Psalm 16:5-11                                                                Plainsong Tone II.1

©Copyright 2011 Church Publishing Incorporated, 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 1001-Hymnal 1982 

                    5 O LORD, you are my portion and my | cup;*

                     it is you who | uphóld my lot.

                     6 My boundaries enclose a | pleasant land;*

                     indeed, I have a good- | -ly héritage.

                     7 I will bless the LORD who gives me | counsel; *

                     my heart teaches me, | night áfter night.

                     8 I have set the LORD always be- |- fore me; *

                     because he is at my right hand | I sháll not fall.

                     9 My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit re- |- joices; *

                     my body also | shall rést in hope.

                     10 For you will not abandon me to the | grave, *

                     nor let your holy | one sée the Pit.

       

                     11 You will show me the path of | life;*

                     in your presence there is fullness and joy,

                     and in your right hand are pleasures for | evérmore.