This month I am realizing how disconcerting composing can be. I want a gigantic project to be done by a certain deadline, and I have to encourage myself of the value of putting these sounds together to share with others. By the end of February, I want to make my “Psalm 1-4 for Piano and Voice” available as a set. I have some tools to do it, and a great delight in these simple, yet emotionally deep arrangements which bring the prayers to life in music.
Psalm One is, naturally, at a walking tempo. This reminds me that God wants to walk with us as we meditate deeply on his word. I dedicated that to my husband who has walked faithfully with me so many years.
Psalm Two is raging and rebellious in D minor, questioning God’s authority to rule and setting forth two things that God desires, and are hard to do fully on Earth: “worship with reverence” and “rejoice with trembling.”
I was able to do some simple text setting of that by training the fingers for a piano and forte (soft/loud), to demonstrate that we can be excited about how good God is in an energetic way, but also allow him to speak of his holiness in that quiet and unique voice he gives through the Scriptures.
Psalm Three is a wistful and longing prayer, delighting in God’s deliverance through several ranges of the piano to get the impression of Him answering from His holy mountain. Psalm Four ends like a lullaby and is meant to enchant with an ostinato (repeating bass line) and gives me a very calm feeling. When I first encountered the Holy Minimalist composers at Cincinnati Conservatory, I was awestruck by how much Arvo Pärt and Gorecki could do with a simple intensity and skillful work, using few materials. His “Symphony No. 3” achieved great success and impact, even seeming to have a healing power, in the words of his listeners. Seeing how others have gone up the path of music ahead of me, in faith I can keep plodding and sometimes walking until I get this music into the hands of people who love new classical music and the classic, poetic prayers of the psalms. We will surely get up mountains of faith, pursuing musical beauty, if we are steadfast.
Doran Music Studio 