Psalms from St Paul's, Volume 8
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Anonymous
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 4/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 58
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDP11008
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Psalm 93, '(The) Lord is King and hath put on grac |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 94, 'O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 95, 'O come let us sing unto the Lord' |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 96, 'O sing unto the Lord a new song' |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 97, '(The) Lord is King, the earth may be gl |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 98, 'O sing unto the Lord a new song' |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer Huw Williams, Organ John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 99, '(The) Lord is King be the people never |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer Huw Williams, Organ John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 100, 'O be joyful in the Lord' |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer Huw Williams, Organ John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 101, 'My song shall be of mercy and judgemen |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer Huw Williams, Organ John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 102, 'Hear my prayer, O Lord' |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 103, 'Praise the Lord, O my soul' |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
| Psalm 104, 'Praise the Lord, O my soul' |
Anonymous, Composer
Andrew Lucas, Organ Anonymous, Composer John Scott, Conductor St Paul's Cathedral Choir |
Author:
Because ours is a magazine with a primarily musical interest, comments on this series have mostly had to do with the music. The Psalms as given in the Book of Common Prayer are in themselves, however, a rich source of inspiration, secular as well as religious. This particular volume ends with Psalm 104, Praise the Lord, O my soul: the one that calls upon God who ‘deckest Thyself with light as it were with a garment, and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain’. It surveys the earth and its creatures, ‘grass for the cattle’, springs where ‘the wild asses quench their thirst’, fir-trees that are ‘a dwelling-place for the stork’. All things have order and purpose, with kindly provision for the human race (‘wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make him a cheerful countenance’), and life has a quietly well-ordered dignity (‘Man goeth forth to his work, and to his labour, until the evening’). From the heart then comes the voice of praise: ‘O Lord, how manifold are Thy works: in wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches’. The Psalmist knows as well as we do that this is the truth of a mood; even in this selection he will tell us the other side, the horrors of the daily headlines, where ‘They murder the widow and the stranger; and put the fatherless to death’. I mention it lest the casual reader of these columns thinks either that one has to ‘be religious’ to take pleasure in the Psalms, or that if one happens not to like Anglican chanting then that concludes the matter as far as one is concerned.
The musical interest is, admittedly, of a specialized kind. Yet the art of performance has more to it than might be thought; even the organ accompaniments involve skill and imagination, fully exercised here. The choir, with its splendidly full-bodied trebles, gives weight and breadth to the utterance. The words are generally clear but are also well set-out in the booklet. The chants are the unostentatious work of expert hands, and two of them bring to memory a name I have not seen for many years. Peter Tranchell was a gifted, amusing Fellow of Caius College, later (I see with mild surprise) Precentor. He wrote good revue numbers and it is not too hard to imagine that out of the two very good chants heard here he could have made a neat little tune for the Footlights, or out of some other neat little tune for the Footlights have, with a similarly deft touch, wrought another very good chant.JBS
The musical interest is, admittedly, of a specialized kind. Yet the art of performance has more to it than might be thought; even the organ accompaniments involve skill and imagination, fully exercised here. The choir, with its splendidly full-bodied trebles, gives weight and breadth to the utterance. The words are generally clear but are also well set-out in the booklet. The chants are the unostentatious work of expert hands, and two of them bring to memory a name I have not seen for many years. Peter Tranchell was a gifted, amusing Fellow of Caius College, later (I see with mild surprise) Precentor. He wrote good revue numbers and it is not too hard to imagine that out of the two very good chants heard here he could have made a neat little tune for the Footlights, or out of some other neat little tune for the Footlights have, with a similarly deft touch, wrought another very good chant.
Psalms from St Paul's, Volume 8
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