What does the actual chant score look like? I can make out the first half, but the second eludes me. Thanks.
I'd really like to put it into the customary form, with the simple music above and pointed text below. Anglican chant is this form does have a learning curve, but it's well worth it in the long run. BTW, that learning curve is so much shorter for anyone who grew up with Rev. Carlo Rossini's Psalm Tone Propers!
Thanks for that, Noel - this is very helpful, but I am specifically looking for his chants primarily used for Psalm 39 (also Psalm 130, 121, 90, 69 - but mainly Psalm 39). I have had no luck at all so far trying to lay my hands on the score!
Peter: I have a collection of Anglican chant books. I'll see if I can find it because now you have me interested in putting it in front our choirs here.
I have numerous books of Anglican chant containing a variety of chants by C H Stewart, but none set to ps. XXXIX. I suggest you contact Lois Fyfe in Atalanta and order 1) The Anglican Psalter, Ed., John Scott and pub. by Canterbury Press (This is the same psalter that came out a few years ago as the St Paul's Cathedral Psalter; 2)The New Cathedral Psalter Chants, Ed., George C Martin and publ by Novello; 3) Another really good one to have is The Revised Parish Psalter with Chants, pub., Faith Press. All these may be had right quickly from Lois Fyfe in Atlanta, who are also unparalelled purveyors of any other sacred music needs.
I have looked through a dozen books and haven't found ps XXXIX to a chant by C H Stewart. But you you probably like to have several books of chant giving you a wide selection of excellent ones.
Here is a quick take (png from Sibelius). Frogman, to get the 'usual' form I repeated the tonic chord as the first chord in the change of the A phrase as is used in some chants--am I missing something or is that correct?
Thanks to everyone who inputted onto this thread. I followed M. Jackson Osborn's advice and bought The Anglican Psalter - this was a great buy, and had the chants I was looking for. The chants in question were associated with different psalms to what I was expecting. I may try to post a few of these chants up onto the thread - there's a few of them that, to my ear, have something of a modal quality to them. P
I'm a proponent of AC for RC's since it is the most logical form of chanting texts that works with English. A choir can learn a chant and do it weekly until the congregation learns it and, instead of getting boring for the choir, becomes an ongoing challenge to perfect the singing of it, modifying the dynamics and the accompaniment.
Many of the most popular AC tunes are in the PD which makes it affordable to a parish as well. Having developed directly from Gregorian Chant, there are modal ones as Peter has stated. In fact, Tonus Peregrinus, the Wandering Tone, is a firm example of Gregorian Chant become Anglican.
C. H. Stewart has the most expressive of melodic lines, I find! The album "The World of Psalms" (by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge) has absolutely my favorite collection of Anglican Chant tunes, and many of them are by C. H. Stewart. I went ahead and engraved the whole collection, and published it on Lulu; what I posted is an excerpt from that collection. (If anyone is interested in an electronic copy, please PM me.)
Psalm 39 set by C. Hylton Stewart; realized by Jeff Reynolds: This in a style adopted by Peter Hallock and Carl Crosier for their Compline Choirs. The black note is a punctus, getting one beat but always aligned with the rhythm of the text. The smaller white note is for two syllables or two words and as a final note at the half and whole verse. The larger white note is the reciting note. I have done a couple dozen of these in this style including my own 4-6-4-6 double chant concoctions. The only reason I did these was to improve the over all accuracy (absence of clams) over the short rehearsal time of the chants. This has worked well with my western notation readers. I am a slave to to notation, and find that this old Moravian cum Anglican is too late in the game to learn and teach the imperfect language of Anglican chant. I am amazed at how the long timer Anglicans can crank out this stuff with so few flaws, with a very small set of chords at the top and 56 verses of Psalm text somewhere below or on the next page. Amazing. Psalm 39:
Psalm_39_Stewart_Anglican_Cmin_SATB - Full Score.pdf
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Psalm_39_Stewart_Anglican_Cmin_SATB - Full Score.jpg
Using all men, ATBarB, even with counter tenors, I find I must lower the pitch on Psalms originally composed for SATB. Here is the version of Psalm 39 we will use at Compline during Lent: down a minor third. jefe
Psalm 39_Stewart_Anglican_Amin_men. - Full Score.jpg
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