Avoiding Monotonous Psalm Accompaniment
  • OMagnumMysterium
    Posts: 350
    For those of you who accompany the Divine Office on the organ, what do you do (if anything) to avoid monotony when you have a large length of psalms all the same tone? The specific situation I'm dealing with is Sunday Vespers in Paschaltide, where all five psalms are under one antiphon (a mode VII triple Alleluia). I suppose the two possibilities for variation are changing the registration or changing the harmony, but in both cases I worry about being tacky. If I don't alter those during the course of the psalms, I guess the best thing would be to keep the accompaniment more subtle and smooth, so as not to become grinding on the ears, and let the singing be much more in the foreground (which probably applies across the board, but especially when using the same tone for so long). Thoughts?
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,089
    So glad you asked! I go for this scheme where basically I change a single chord with each new psalm, and so imperceptibly arrive at somewhere quite different from where I began.

    So, e.g. (chords based on “do”) for Paschaltide Vespers (mode 7f)

    1st - V, ii, I : V, I, Vsus4-3, vi
    2nd - V, VII, I : V, I, Vsus4-3, vi
    3rd - V, VII, I : ii, I, Vsus4-3, vi
    4th - Vopen+2, VIImaj7, Iadd2 : ii, I, visus4-3
    5th - Expressive recombination of the above, returning to the first scheme towards the end of the psalm (hinging at ‘non mortui’ and returning ‘sed nos qui vivimus’)
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen OMagnumMysterium
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,525
    Try to learn the accent pattern for one. So, modifying things based on dactyls versus spondees is important. This is why I prefer when accompaniment is done from square notation followed by the pointed psalm as in the Liber.

    I’m not as good with the theory but suffice it to say that I really don’t mind as a singer if things are a) basically the same b) we get a lot of support plus the reciting tone but not the melody v) you change it up logically: I like a change at Non nobis in ps 113 instance. Something like the first inversion or going to the minor key can work well. But I’m very much in the Potiron-Fontgombault-Portier school of thought.
    Thanked by 1OMagnumMysterium
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,264
    I would do a slightly different take on Nihil's idea: simply change chords depending on each line of text, so that you're doing mild text painting the whole time. Then it's not the exact same chord sequence over and over and over and over again.
    Thanked by 1OMagnumMysterium
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 572
    We have an instructor that comes once a year from Rome (organist of Pauls outside the walls)... his instruction has been to interchange between arrangement as well as volume and stops... one method also has been to play the right hand a scale up even though the singers remain on the normal scale... we use this method alot for Litanies for example.
    Thanked by 1OMagnumMysterium
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,541
    I love monotony with the Psalms. I can imagine it's annoying to the organist long before it's annoying to the singers. That said, adding a single note by a change in chordation in your 3rd Psalm and then again in your 5th will add enough refreshment to satisfy the restless heart.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen OMagnumMysterium WGS
  • OMagnumMysterium
    Posts: 350
    Thanks, all. I appreciate the ideas, these are some good thoughts.

    Matthew, are you saying that you would use different chords for dactyls versus spondees, or just to be mindful of the extra note present when it's a dactyl, so as not to get tripped up? I do accompany from the square notes.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,525
    Well I would move the chord to account for the dactyl. You can see examples in Potiron’s accompaniment.
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 572
    @Kathy its more about keeping the chanters awake... at least in a Monastery this tool can be helpful...if used seldomly when the organist can tell people are starting to drag or get a little sleepy :)
  • GerardH
    Posts: 668
    Particularly memorable to me was when an organist did a decrescendo a niente on the verse neque omnes, qui descéndunt in siléntium.
    Thanked by 2OMagnumMysterium CHGiffen
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 664
    Depends on the context. If it’s a conducted group that can sensitively deliver the text with nuance and expression, I don’t think any dress-up is necessary. Gedeckt and dulciana, and play behind the singers.

    If it’s a congregation, or a mic’d cantor, or some invented modern “psalmtone”, then I harmonize freely and register as if it was Anglican chant, and hope thereby to illuminate texts which could otherwise devolve into thudding drudgery. Listen to the Brits accompany Anglican chant for this. There are many good recordings of the complete psalter available online.
    Thanked by 1irishtenor
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,437
    I don’t think any dress-up is necessary. Gedeckt and dulciana, and play behind the singers.


    When I've got a good choir who knows their music well and can perform it well, I love the philosophy of playing behind the singers! I just want to support them and let their voices carry the day
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