A Pageant of Psalms

A Pageant of Psalms is a musical sequence based on the Roman Catholic vespers rite which had five psalms, a hymn and a magnificat. Each psalm would have been preceded by a plainchant antiphon, repeated after the psalm, though this repeat was often replaced with an instrumental piece, especially at high feasts.

This programme “translates” the old rite into a fictional Lutheran one, with its psalms, hymn and magnificat in German rather than the Latin of older times. Some Latin elements, plainchant and antiphons and two motets written a couple of generations earlier - and in the “prima practica’ style - are included for historical background.