Responsorial Psalm

[zarlino]

What do people do these days for the Responsorial Psalm in a Sunday Mass?

I have just started a new post as organist/choirmaster in a parish church where they have sung the psalm to an Anglican chant since time immemorial. Before that I have been a regular worshipper in my local church where the psalm is spoken, unfortunately. Decades ago I grew up in a parish and then was organist at another where we used a red psalm book edited by Geoffrey Boulton Smith which was mainly Bevenot and Gelineau chants with responses by a variety of composers, but I have a feeling this is out of print.

So I’ve lost track of what is common practice and what resources are available... Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

[Southern Comfort]

What do people do these days for the Responsorial Psalm in a Sunday Mass?

I have just started a new post as organist/choirmaster in a parish church where they have sung the psalm to an Anglican chant since time immemorial. Before that I have been a regular worshipper in my local church where the psalm is spoken, unfortunately. Decades ago I grew up in a parish and then was organist at another where we used a red psalm book edited by Geoffrey Boulton Smith which was mainly Bevenot and Gelineau chants with responses by a variety of composers, but I have a feeling this is out of print.

So I’ve lost track of what is common practice and what resources are available... Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, Geoffrey Boulton Smith's "red book" from Collins has been out of print for many years. A good alternative is the Complete Responsorial Psalter from McCrimmon (originally published in three volumes as The Responsorial Psalter, Years A, B and C), which actually does include a few items from the GBS red book.

[alan29]

There are plenty of free resources on line in various styles
For those with a music group these are song based
https://www.cjmmusic.com/responsorialpsalms/
and
http://www.mikeanderson.net/Responsorial%20Psalms.htm

For those mainly using an organ - this site has settings in various traditional styles, but are chant-based (sometimes in cod-plainsong.)
http://www.ccwatershed.org/chabanel/

We always sing them here. We have a music group and I have concocted settings around Gelineau-style metred chants that permit guitars to play. They work well enough. Luckily we have a pool of 5 cantors who are willing to sing from the lectern.
Personally I feel that the readings can become a wodge of indigestible text if they are not broken up by singing .... or at least a short silence.

[VML]

Yes, the McCrimmon Complete Responsorial Psalter has been our main psalm resource since it was in three books. We still sometimes use the separate books for missing settings that were not carried over, and I am not over impressed with the cobbled inclusive language in the later edition. That's just me. The collection is very accessible and useful.

[nazard]

We use the Bolton Smith book occasionally, the McCrimmons book a lot, and the rest we take from a book "The Catholic Supplement" by Mayhew. This latter is a very odd collection of bits and pieces published in 1999 which never seemed to catch on. It does include a complete set of psalms, unfortunately with a set of words which were never authorised. There are a fair number of psalms in Laudate, but I have never used them.

I do write some of my own antiphon settings. The published ones are sometimes too complicated. I find that bold, simple tunes are picked up very accurately by the congregation. We always start psalms by playing the antiphon once on the organ, the the cantor sings it once, and then the congregation sings the antiphon and we are into the verse. The congregation picks up simple antiphons fairly accurately that way.

[gwyn]

iirc the Gradual is also an option.

[High Peak]

We always sing the Psalm.

Most of the time we use John Ainslie's "Sing the Psalms Simply" which does, in the main, live up to its title. As such, we can share out Psalmist duties. Personally, I think one or two of the responses would benefit from more melisma - but I guess that the title of the book may then need to be changed.

On other occasions we use CJM Psalms - but I think you have to be very selective with theirs - and sometimes settings by others such as Chris O'Hara as well as one or two of my own.

[PhloridaPhil]

I too bemoan the fact that the Red Collins psalm book is no longer published. I have two copies myself and often dip into these if we need something simple. Otherwise I use psalms written by several composers (including myself) and from several sources. I have never found one source alone to be satisfactory. In USA OCP have recently published a collection which perhaps is intended for Music Group/Lifeteen accompaniment. The refrains are mostly OK but the psalm words are treated to psalm tone-like music with relative rhythmic freedom given to the singer to deliver the text. I often find myself wanting to re-write those I chance upon. Paul Inwood had recently produced his own collection of intentionally simple settings. I have yet to see this myself.

[alan29]

Google seems not to have heard about Inwoods latest simple psalms.

[Nick Baty]

Paul's new collection, The Collegeville Psalter, is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/081 ... UTF8&psc=1

[Nick Baty]

Where are we up to with the much-discussed changes to our lectionary? I can't imagine any publisher producing a new responsorial psalm book until that's clear.

[nazard]

Paul's new collection, The Collegeville Psalter, is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/081 ... UTF8&psc=1

Its a whopping £28.61, so I will wait until it hits the charity shop shelves.

Is the US lectionary still out of step on the psalm words from ours? There were rumours of them adopting the Grail words.

[nazard]

Kevin Mayhew has a book "Responsorial Psalms for the Catholic Lectionary" by Colin Mawby. I would expect that being Mawby the music would be fine, but are the words correct?

Has anyone seen this book? There is no "look inside" facility on Mayhew's website, at least not one that I found, and I don't know of a bookshop around here which is likely to have one, so some feedback from any of the contributors here would be very welcome.

I wonder if it is the psalms from the "Catholic Supplement" bound separately.

[High Peak]

Most of the time we use John Ainslie's "Sing the Psalms Simply" which does, in the main, live up to its title. As such, we can share out Psalmist duties. Personally, I think one or two of the responses would benefit from more melisma - but I guess that the title of the book may then need to be changed.

I forgot to mention that a good thing about John Ainslie's book is that there are two versions: one with organ music and another with guitar chords. It's available from http://www.benedicamus.org.uk/ .

[alan29]

But the chords in the guitar book are capoed with no original chords provided. That makes it tough for those who play keyboard/piano in a mixed instrumental group. And the blurb states that the guitar and organ versions can't be used together.
That just makes it an unnecessary pain to use.