We had another psalm sing last Saturday. I thought the singing sounded especially nice, though listening to the recordings, I'm not sure whether the singing was better than usual, or I just like the tunes more!
We practiced three tunes: Sheffield, Colchester, and Sawley. You might recall that we've done Sheffield at a psalm sing before, but Jesh thought we could use some review. I do think we sounded more confident with the tune this time around. We also practiced Colchester--one of my favorites. I like the way the first line marches downhill. You wouldn't think a downhill tune could sound so triumphant, but it does! It's a perfect fit for the second half of Psalm 46. And we worked on Sawley, a more thoughtful tune, and one of my sister's favorites--a beautiful tune.
Here are the three recordings:
Psalm 22:22-26 to Sheffield
Psalm 46:7-11 to Colchester
Psalm 62:1-6 to Sawley
I hope you enjoy these recordings!
Now I have a question for you. I know that a few of you are experts on Scottish psalm tunes. I'm curious about the tune Gairloch. I've heard about the tune's origins, but failed to write down the info at the time, so now of course I have forgotten the details. I am wondering: who wrote the tune? When was it composed? Is it now in print or has it been in print? Here in Texas we sing the tune with the parts that my mother wrote for it. Do others use different harmonies, or do they generally just sing the melody line? Thanks for any info that you can share!
