A continuing work:
I have memorized and made music for Psalms 1-65, memorize all the words with my family. I and get some of them into the most beautiful and memorable classical music I can within a month’s time. This way I grow as a Christian and a Musician and leave something of a souvenir for other worshippers on this path or musicians who want to explore.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089887537607
This is a link to my facebook community for my new work, I write and teach melodious sacred music for people who know the basics, love the canon, and want refreshment without hype. I serve musicians, listeners, students, and families who feel overlooked or discouraged by today’s culture but still long for beauty, seriousness, and growth rooted in tradition and faith. Through composing, teaching, and thoughtful community-building, I help them develop real skill, confidence, and joy so their creative light can be taken seriously and shared. I am working on ways to encourage you this April!
The text of the Psalms can get across so many ways-there are metrical psalms, art songs, word painting, ways to memorize or celebrate with a key verse for meditation. My Ben Franklin wrote that in the Whitfield Revival, Philadelphia. “One could not walk through the town in the evening without hearing Psalms being sung by different families on every street.” https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1278
Rita, Kevin and Jason have helped me here. She is willing to help review on issues of Biblical Theology and Her professor at RTS was suggested for a language helper. So a plea on Facebook is not a bad way of getting some ideas if you get stuck. That hebrew tutoring situation did not work out but through Blue Letter Bible and Claude AI I am able to get a great sense for things like in Psalm 66 verse 2 when it says sing: it means Pi. make music in praise of God (י׳), only in poetry (Arabic زَمَرَ pipe, play on a reed; Aramaic rfmz, זַמֵּר and derivatives; Ethiopic ዘመረ፡ in derived conjugations; on an original meaning hum, murmur, compare HupZKM iii. For something in a solid, focused and scholarly form Rita suggested this:
Gordon Wenham: Reclaiming the Psalms
This teaching adds depth and breadth to my Musician’s Reflection on YouTube
https://youtu.be/VlceWiE9Lew?si=-mFX89c5dfIT_pFq
My colleague at UTC, Kevin Ford placed an inspiration from long ago in my mailbox. Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, a piece of music that intrigued me and helped me make the obvious conclusion that the framework of Classical Music never moves too far from ideas and themes in the Old and New Testaments, even after 2025 years. I am really amazed at the good that can come from my dreamy project that started in a bus in Cincinnati memorizing Psalm 103 on my way to work the night shift to afford living expenses at the Conservatory.
Where are you in your journey of Praying and Praising with the Psalms? I’d love to hear from you!
Doran Music Studio 