{"id":86394,"date":"2021-01-11T15:02:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T13:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=86394"},"modified":"2021-01-11T15:02:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T13:02:31","slug":"english-psalms-of-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/english-psalms-of-geneva\/","title":{"rendered":"English Psalms Of Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934), Psalm 86<\/span><\/p>\n

The sports reporters who covered the Barcelona Olympics (1992) praised the choice of the composer Gustav Holst, who wrote the beautiful theme music for the very colorful opening ceremonies. But Holst actually died many years previously, and the music for his Jupiter suite, from his symphonic poem cycle \u201cPlanets\u201d which graced the games, had already become very popular in England and the world over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Holst was born in an English home, with Swedish-Latvian roots. His musical development was slow, and even when he achieved fame for this compositions, he still preferred focusing on his teaching responsibilities, and his conducting, which were very community oriented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The composition was written in 1912 (together with a musical setting for Psalm 148) for an ensemble of choir, soloists and organ. Holst later adapted the organ part for a string orchestra, such that the work can be played in two different ways. Holst, who until that point had been interested in Sanskrit texts, and had thrown himself into astrology, wrote this before he began \u201cMars, the God of War\u201d which opens his Planets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The basis for this psalm ( as well as that of #148 which he wrote together with #86) was the Calvinist Psalms of Geneva (the same text that Arthur Honegger used in his King David composition, discussed <\/span>in Psalm 11 here<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a rendition of psalms, every chapter rewritten in meter and rhyme, that John Calvin used as the exclusive liturgical text in the church that he founded. Calvin not only initiated the writing of the text (published in 1542) but also gave strict instructions as to the music that was to be written for these new psalms, to be sung by the congregation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Calvin\u2019s reform had a great deal of influence in the English Reform churches, and so the Geneva Psalms crossed the channel in English translation, and were sung in church with the music that was composed in Geneva by the composer Loys Bourgeois (1510 – 1559).<\/span><\/p>\n

Holst, who was not known to be a religious person, adopted the English version of the text and the very measured Calvinist music, and created a sort of choral fantasy, based on ancient themes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In distinction to the ancient text and musical setting, he adds a new adaptation of verses 1-6 and 12, in the text familiar from the King James version, and these are sung alternately by the soloists, in a recitative. Thus the work acquires a more contemporary feel, than the monastic devotion of the older melodies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Psalm 86 Canticum Choir, Canticum Philharmonic Orchestra, Year End Concert 2010\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rBfoWnaKbzA","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Psalms In Classical Music","main_caption":"English Psalms Of Geneva","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A new series - this time: Gustav Holst ","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rBfoWnaKbzA","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86430,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86394\/revisions\/86430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}