Introduction

The Psalter might be described as the traditional hymn book for the Catholic Church, with psalm (and canticle) verses being used for entrance, offertory and communion processions with various antiphons.  Responsorial psalms and canticles are a part of the Liturgy of the Word and sung (or said) after the first reading. \ They consist of selected verses from the psalm and a response which usually, but not always, is an adapted phrase from the psalm.

Unfortunately, psalms may have two numbers due to differences between Hebrew and Greek translations.  More details can be found here and here.  While the current Australian and Vatican lectionaries use the Greek system, this site uses the Hebrew system as it is much more widely used, and is even used in the Vatican these days:  the Hebrew number is followed by the Greek in brackets.  Verse numbering can also cause confusion as many of the psalms have an introductory paragraph which may or may not be numbered.

Verses and responses for the liturgy are sourced from the Latin Ordo lectionum Missae, though that book only provides written out responses; verses are referenced to those used in the Latin Vulgate, which doesn’t always correlate with those in modern translations or even the Nova Volgata.

A translation commonly known as Grail Psalms was widely used in the English speaking world when the vernacular was introduced to the liturgy.  It is still used in the Australian lectionary, but a revision, originally known as Revised Grail Psalms were furthered revised as The Abbey Psalms and Canticles (APC) and have been approved for liturgical use in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some other parts of the world.  It is expected that upcoming new editions of the lectionary will include the APC psalm translation, as is occuring in the UK for the 2024 liturgical year.  APC may be obtained electronically from Amazon or as used liturgically in the U.K. from the Universalis app.

Responses translated by International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) in 1973 and 1981 were originally used almost universally across the English speaking church, but there is now a lot of variation. Australia still uses the 1981 translation, while the US started using a revised version in 1997, while the UK decided to change the translation to that used for the psalm.  It is not known what translation will be used in the eventual new Australian lectionary, but in my opinion it would be provide more consistency to follow the UK.

Even if no one is confident enough to take on the verses, please consider at least singing the response:  I have yet to hear a congregation recite a psalm response in anything other than an emotionless monotone, and this really is not good!  The psalms were intended to be sung!!!

Chanting Psalms

These days, there are numerous musical settings for the psalms in a wide range of styles.  That featured here is chant, which might be described as sung speech.  With normal songs, the singer and instrumentalist follow the music with strict times.  When a cantor chants the psalm, however, the lyrics come out of the mouth with essentially the same diction as if they were being proclaimed (such as the lector does with the readings).  The difference is that each phrase is sung for the most part on a reciting note and finishes with a final note preceded (usually) by inflection notes.  This final note is held on to a little longer than normal speech.

Most chant composers only use a limited number of melodies (aka psalm tones) each designed for different types of psalms (penitential, praise, etc.).  A regular cantor, once familiar with the melodies, will find it easier to concentrate on the words and deliver them as prayer.

Saint Meinrad Archabbey Psalm Tones

Quite possible the most used psalm tones are those from Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Although copyrighted, they have been published with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, allowing them to be freely used everywhere. Some useful links:

They use eight psalm tones inspired by the traditional eight Gregorian modes.  Very simplistically speaking, each tone helps convey a particular emotion. These, are:

  • Tone 1: Solemnity
  • Tone 2: Reverence
  • Tone 3: Longing
  • Tone 4: Meditation
  • Tone 5: Happiness
  • Tone 6: Calmness
  • Tone 7: Joy
  • Tone 8: Narrative

Each tone has a four-phrase and six-phrase version, which causes some complications because it is not uncommon for the layout of responsorial psalms to vary the number of phrases in each stanza. Depending this, parts of the psalm tone may be omitted, or phrases combined.  This is not a big issue of most tones as the only melodic difference between four- and six-phrase tones is addition of two bars in the middle of the the four-phrase tone, with the fifth bar dropped when there are three or five phrase stanzas.  However, for Tone 6, the additional music is after the third bar, which is the one dropped for three or five phrase stanzas.  This similarly happens with Tone 8, with the additional complication that the music in the final bar differs.

LiturgyShare Psalm Tones

Commentary on the Meinrad psalms probably makes the singing of chant psalms complicated, but it needn’t be.  A set of psalm tones has been composed for this site using the same ambition but are totally consistent.  Having said that, there is no expectation of great artistic merit compared to the Meinrad tones:  think of them as the generic products you buy at the supermarket! If you can carry a tune, you’ll be able to sing them!

LiturgyShare Psalm Responses

Simple melodies for the congregational responses have been written to match a psalm tone chosen for each psalm:  they can be used with either LiturgyShare or Meinrad tones.  Each psalm is fully written out, with an audio recording as a demo on this site and YouTube to help you out.

Other Settings

On the psalm pages, I have referenced composers of alternate psalm settings suited to the Australian lectionary:

  • Michel Guimont, at giamusic.com.  At the time of writing, they are downloadable for $US36.95 complete).  They are available with Revised Grail Psalms and The Abbey Psalms and Canticles versions, with complete recordings of the former on YouTube. These are the most difficult of the settings in this group as quite a few start the last phrase on the finalis of the previous phrase, which some might find tricky.
  • Michael Herry, at maristmusic.org.au and freely downloadable.  He has four regular psalm tones and quite a few one-offs.  The melodies for the responses are very tuneful, and the complete psalms are beautifully recorded, and easy to play or download.
  • Kate Keefe, at musicformass.co.uk and freely downloadable..  These have been arranged for piano and recorder, with song-style stanzas; typically, there is a common piano arrangement underpinning each stanza, but there will be different timings on the melody notes for the cantor to take care of.  This extraordinary site contains music to match a number of different lectionaries around the world. There are computer generated mp3 files (from midis) for each psalm, but they are of poor quality and don't do justice to the beautiful melodies Kate has written.  In most cases, stanza music can be replaced with simpler psalm tones:  and those from LiturgyShare are included on the psalm pages (without responses, for copyright reasons).  Most of the piano arrangements are quite light, making these easier for less experienced players.
  • Amanda McKenna, at willowpublishing.com.au.  At the time of writing, they are downloadable for 95c per psalm or $49.95 for the complete collection.  You can listen to and/or download the melodies on the publisher’s website.  These have delightful melodies with a "rolling" bass line and are intended to be used with spoken verses.  As with Kate Keefe’s compositions, stanza music is supplied on the psalm pages to match the responses is desired.
  • Colin Smith, cfc, at willowpublishing.com.au.  At the time of writing, they are downloadable for $2.95 per psalm or $34.95 for each of years A, B and C (i.e. $104.85 for the lot).  No audio files are available.  These consist of simple responses with chanted verses.  The music and texts were revised a few years ago (after the composers death) to better reflect the lectionary.

Be aware that if you use psalm settings from overseas, they will almost certainly have different translations of stanzas and response.  Its not difficult to write out psalm verses to other tones, but that is not the case for responses.

Having said that, two other settings from the US are worth mentioning:

  • Owen Alstott’s Respond & Acclaim is a yearly release from OCP (download for $US18.10 at time of writing) and probably the most used US setting.  These are really simple, mostly using two-phrase tones with repetition as required, and recordings are usually to be found on YouTube.  The biggest negative is that one needs to repurchase the same psalms year after year, and no complete set exists. They include Gospel Acclamations as well, but these are rarely in a chant style.
  • Only if you live in the US: John Schiavone’s A Lectionary Psalter is a print-only collection from OCP ($US30.50 at time of writing) with psalms set to one of five tones, and gospel acclamations with seasonal psalm tones.  These are excellent, and I used them for a number of years, BUT the quoted freight cost to Australia on their site is $US275.62, which was not the case when I purchased them years ago!  Few are on YouTube.