While talking with Peter Hallock a few years ago, he focused on the most important part of the Office of Compline, namely the chanting of the Psalm. He said, "Compline parts will come and go, but the Psalm will endure". The four assigned Psalms for Compline are 4, 31, 91, and 134. The Bros. at our local Cistercian Abbey chant all four during their Compline every day.
Our style has developed into an amalgam Roman/Anglican Compline. When I first started doing Compline at our Episcopal Church here in Nevada City, CA, the most difficult music to obtain were Psalm settings. Now, with maybe 160 settings of all stripes in our library, I have a chance, an opportunity to pull together the complete Psalm Cycle, or Psalter; starting with Psalm 1 and proceeding in order to maybe a couple settings of Psalm 150. I would, of course have to do at least 25 or 30 of the settings of my mentor Peter Hallock (his Psalm output was about 60). To keep it interesting, I'm thinking of having plainsong chanted versions, duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, and larger choir versions in a wide variety of styles all with no accompaniment and in Latin and English. Maybe even some spoken Psalms. There would be several intermissions. I have produced some large church music festivals in the past, so organizing is no problemo. But, I do have questions:
Have any of you ever attempted the complete Psalter in one pop? If so, what was your format, and how long did it take?
This could be big, in a humble kind of way. We have a wonderful venue with a long reverb and 'abbey' feel to it in a local Trabucco cathedral on 900 acres. It's on a ranch in the dry foothills of the Sierra Nevada and has a kind of 'Holy Land' feel to it. So, any thoughts?
regards, as always, jefe