Symphony of Psalms

Symphony of Psalms with liturgy for Evening prayer

Robinson College Chapel, Tuesday 8 March, 6.30 pm

`It is not a symphony in which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the Psalms that I am symphonizing.' --- Igor Stravinsky

Tomorrow instead of our usual Choral Evensong we are doing a liturgical performance of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms in Robinson College Chapel.  The college musicians contribute a great deal to the life of the Chapel, and in planning their forthcoming repertoire we talked over some of their planned music, and I noticed that the Symphony of Psalms was thought of as a concert piece, rather than as music for worship. We then put our heads together and came up with the idea of a liturgical performance.

In our post-Christian age it is easy to overlook the spiritual significance that sacred works held for their composers. Like many composers before him Stravinsky chose sacred texts not because of the obligations of patronage or the conventions of the time, but following a profound personal engagement with the text. He wished to express something of that spiritual engagement through music, and in doing so to place their spiritual vitality in a contemporary cultural expression. ‘Real tradition is not the relic of a past that is irretrievably gone,’ he said, ‘It is a living force that anticipates and informs the present.’

The raw honesty of the Psalms has inspired their readers for thousands of years. The Psalmists expressed the range of human emotion from delirious joy to utter despair, often giving words to things that seem at first sight to be unmentionable in a religious context – emotions that defy expression, questions it seems impertinent to ask, questions that defy a rational answer. Both in unimaginably tough circumstances, and on the receiving end of undeserved blessing, the Psalmists demand “why?” of God. And even though answers sometimes remain elusive, the Psalms resolve into peaceful or determined acceptance.

Stravinsky begins with a Psalm of lament which reflects the fragility and temporality of human life, and walks close to the edge of despair. The second movement is a Psalm of hope, looking with faith towards the possibility of redemption. And the third movement is unreserved joy, calling people to celebrate God from the heart, with every kind of musical noise.

This liturgy uses readings and prayers drawn from the Book of Psalms to further draw out this movement from despair, through hope, to joy.

We will be joined by members of the choir of Girton College, and their Chaplain, Rev'd Dr Malcolm Guite.  The Stravinsky will be conducted by Alec Frank-Gemmill.

Comments

[Kathryn]

Bummer bummer bummer.
The one place I can't possibly be next Tuesday is Cambridge (well, not strictly true...what I really mean is that I am firmly tied to Ch Kings...but the other sounded better!) and I would so love to be there...
Do you fancy trying the same thing with the Bernstein Chichester Psalms too, one day? If so, please may we have more than half a minute's notice??

[maggi]

Sorry K - you know how we Cambridge animals always do everything at short notice....

but we are doing a Tenebrae service on Sunday the 13th if that's any use to you? (no, you'll be taking Evening prayer, won't you?)

[Paul Fromont]

Hope the week has been unfoldng OK :-)

[Christopher Shell]

Wow - a piece that's been on my 'to do' list for over 20 years (embarrassing to admit)!

If it's better than the Bernstein it will be heaven.

[Kathryn]

13th is part of my Good Weekend...ie the CME session with Jonny in Devon. Nearest thing to a holiday I look like getting for a good long while. Tenebrae would hve been lovely.

[Hugh (Serena's Dad)]

So sorry I can't be there - for a Baptist I have a very odd love of liturgy.

[Serena]

We did one movement of the Chichester Psalms last year, and the Stravinsky promises to be a real experience. Having done all the Bernstein with another choir previously, and now doing the Stravinsky, I count myself a very lucky girl!

[Caroline]

I've blogged elsewhere about liturgy recently. Having lived with Anglican liturgy all my life, it's recently come alive for me (but a 'Celtic' rather than Anglican)

The intriguing question for me is a tension between new, innovative and traditional. There's tension (perhaps a dialectic? -can I use as a noun that way?) perhaps paradox is a better word ... I'm scratching around for a way to say that at one and the same time liturgy is as comfortable as an old pair of slippers, as C. S. Lewis said and also an adventurous exploration.

and I think that I've just proved that you can't wrap it up in long words ...

I do hope that the service excites and delights you all.

[Christopher Shell]

Just a thought - the bigger and greater the piece of sacred music, the better (not worse) it works liturgically, and the more of a missed opportunity it is to perform it in a mere concert. (Arent concerts sometimes so contextless? They are presented visually even tho' the entire feast is an aural & spiritual one.)

We were terribly envious as boys to hear that our men singers had done the Missa Solemnis at Midnight Mass; it was the Matthew Passion that reduced hardened hearts to tears; and Belshazzar's Feast that filled the abbey with an electricity that made people walk restlessly up and down, unable to 'get over' the effect of the music.

Every move to overcome this unnecessary liturgy/concert dualism is a very good thing.

[Wil Bloy]

Wish I could be at Cambridge to hear the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms tomorrow night. Since I live in Madison, WI, USA that's impossible Thedrefore can you or anyone else out there tell me about a CD that has a recording of it? Will you do a recording?
May the setting amidst the liturgy show both the struggle, hope and joy that is always prevelant in the psalter.

[Dr. David Holsinger]

I'm intrigued by your comment . . .

What is POST-CHRISTIAN about our age?

[Dr. David Holsinger]

I'm intrigued by your comment . . .

What is POST-CHRISTIAN about our age?

[maggi]

post-Christian in the sense that one can no longer assume, in countries such as the UK, that the majority of people subscribe to Christianity as the "norm", or as their own default religion

because the majority no longer have CHristian "assumptions" and a working knowledge of Christian doctrine and scriptures, they also don't easily recognise the Christian assumptions of generations that went before. Thus, for instance, some philosophers of the 18th or 19th century are read without any reference to their Christian beliefs, which, arguably, skews the whole understanding of their thought.