Hello everyone,

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the world of copyrights and subscription-based publications in the world of liturgical music, and I've only been a music director for... 5 months. I can only imagine what you more experienced musicians must feel. My rant on how silly it feels to have to work around copyrights just to pray and worship in the mass, however, is for another thread (which I'm sure has already happened ad nauseam elsewhere on the forum).

My question is simple: what are the guidelines and requirements for composing your own psalm setting?

It would seem to me that so long as you use the exact, approved text of the psalm from the lectionary and follow its exact format, using an original setting shouldn't be a problem! Right?

I have been starting to do deep readings of things like Musicam Sacram to get a better idea of what guidelines I need to follow as a composer (and the gifts of the vocation as well, can't forget the importance of the work!), and, as I understand it, the only things that needs the approval of... whoever approves this kind of stuff... are TRANSLATIONS of texts. I take it I don't need any sort of episcopal blessing on taking the exact text of the psalm from my Daily Roman Missal and just slapping it on an SATB arrangement. Am I correct in thinking this, or is there really some sort of process that I need to go through before I start introducing my parish to some psalm settings that I write?

If anyone has any sort of comprehensive knowledge on the subject, I would be very grateful if it were shared. Hopefully not everyone is as confused as I am... I am simply worried by how many © symbols and "used with permission" statements I see on the Word of God set to music and I'm too young to go to jail!