Psalms in Numerical Order?
  • Grace
    Posts: 3
    From time to time in my office we have daily Mass. I always chant the Psalm for the day. Usually I print the Psalm from the USCCB website of daily readings and make up a psalm tone.

    I would prefer to use your website (which I LOVE) to fetch a real setting. It's impossible to find a Psalm by NUMBER on the site, however. If the Psalm for the day is Psalm 71, for instance, there is no numerical listing of Psalms, so my only option would be to look at the Sunday Psalms week after week, year after year, hoping Psalm 71 is somewhere in the haystack.

    Do you have a better solution for me?
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,768
    You'll have to look once in weekdays and then again in Sundays, but there is this index, which I often use to try to harmonize funeral pericopes.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,161
    Which psalm settings do you mean? Are they on our web site? I ask because sometimes people confuse us with "Corpus Christi Watershed", which has the "Chabanel Psalms" project:
    http://www.ccwatershed.org/chabanel/

    Or are you thinking of the psalms in the "Simple English Propers" ?
    http://musicasacra.com/sep

    --RC (forum admin)
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    She may also be talking about the miscellaneous postings that users have done.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 517
    You can access the texts of the Revised Grail Psalter online, both by number and occasion, at this link:

    http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/RGP/psalmDisplay.cfm
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 892
    Yes, but I don't think they have it broken down for weekday Masses, just Sundays and solemnities. And that is text only, just like USCCB. It is probably best and simplest to continue using the USCCB site for the proper text of the day, and then to simply have a set of generic psalm tones with which one could chant any psalm.

    For example, there are psalm tones from St. Meinrad http://www.saintmeinrad.org/the-monastery/liturgical-music/downloads/

    Once, you memorize the formula, you can simply read the text (printed from the USCCB site or from a weekday hand missal. Without having to actually set the text to the notes.

    This would assume that you are using the psalm tone to also sing the response. There are a few collections that have more melodic settings for certain seasons, such as Fr. Ruff's collection for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, but I'm not aware of any collection that has set the antiphons for the entire week day lectionary cycle. (Perhaps the Lumen Christi Missal does? I don't have it in front of me.)

  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Here's two sets of psalm tones that might be helpful for you. Each one is a single sheet, so it's easy to keep many tones handy so that it doesn't get worn out.

    Gregorian tones, adapted by Aristotle Esguerra

    SEP tones, compiled by me
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Grace
    Posts: 3
    Brilliant! Thank you, Ben, and everyone. I know memorizing the Psalm tones is best, but I find it really helpful to have the text written under the tones, especially when our priest pops his head in my office and says, "how about Mass in ten minutes?"

    If I were chanting Psalms every single day, I wouldn't need the crutch of the sheet music. Alas. My little brain can handle only so much. I am grateful for all the suggestions and links. AMDG
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Also, you might find it helpful to try and set some sort of regular schedule for weekday masses with music. For about a year in my parish, I cantored every Friday morning, then made it extra nice on first Friday. This would allow you to prepare much easier, and makes much more sense in the long term,both for you and the congregation.
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    Is there a guide that gives hints to which Psalm Tone might be more proper to a given text?

    I mean like moods to a Psalm tone to match up better to a text like happy or sad?
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,696
    The Lumen Christi Missal has antiphons for daily Masses.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,161
    donr, in chant the psalm tone is determined by the melody of the antiphon.

    An antiphon is classified as belonging to one of the eight "modes", and the psalm tone is more or less automatic based on the mode. The psalm tone can have variant endings, to help lead the melody of the verse's ending back to the starting point of the antiphon.

    Thanked by 1donr
  • Grace
    Posts: 3
    The USCCB site doesn't indicate which mode the weekday Psalm is in. I just heard we're having Mass today, so I'm looking at Psalm 56. Which mode do I use?
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Any of them.
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    Pick one.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    It honestly doesn't matter. You're "composing" it, so you can choose
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    THE CMAA promotes women's right to choose!! (A mode)
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,161
    Read the psalm and then choose based on:

    I. Prayer
    II. Narrative praise
    III. Wisdom
    IV. Mystery
    V. Proclamation
    VI. Narrative faith
    VII. Glory!
    VIII. Sure and certain faith in the Resurrection.

    Or any other reasons you like. :-)
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Ally Paul F. Ford Jenny
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Is there a guide that gives hints to which Psalm Tone might be more proper to a given text?


    Yes. Each mode has its own "ethos". So see which mood or ethos the text works with! See Andrew Malton's response above or this list below (it is on a poster on my office wall, not sure where it came from, but after brief search I see that St. Wikipedia attributes it to dear Guido, fwiw).

    1 - Dorian - Gravis/Grave
    2 - Hypodorian - Tristis/Sad
    3 - Phrygian - Mysticus/Mystical
    4 - Hypophrygian - Harmonicus/Harmonius
    5 - Lydian - Laetus/Joyful
    6 - Hypolydian - Devotus/Devout
    7 - Mixolydian - Angelicus/Angelic
    8 - Hypomixolydian - Perfectus/Perfect
    Thanked by 1Jenny
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