August 24, 2020

Daily Lectionary Readings for Year A

I love the Psalms.  I love thinking about people singing the Psalms in worship throughout the centuries.  Sometimes a song gets to a deeper emotional place than anything else.  We do not know the tunes of the Psalms.  Another mystery are some of the superscriptions and directions.  Words like "Selah", "miktam" from Psalm 56, or directions like "to the tune of the doe of the morning" from Psalm 22 are interesting, yet unknown in their exact meaning.  Psalm 8 from today's reading simply says, "For the director of music.  According to gittith.  A psalm of David."  No one really knows what "gittith" is referring to.

I give our music team so much credit.  Sometimes they speak in a language I do not understand.  Here is an exchange as they prepare for worship music for an upcoming Sunday:  
I'm starting the organ track now and will have my two vocal tracks (one is just the ad libs and doubling my high part at the end.)  Adrianne, in that last "To the One" at 57-58, can you take the bottom part, which I think doubles Dave an octave up?  So we'll have doubles of each part.  The places to double the unison "Lift your hands, lift your heart, to the one" line are at:  m. 24-26,  on the repeat at m.24 with a jump to coda at 36-37, then twice in a row at m.52-56.

Beautiful things take coordination and planning.  Musical notation helps singers and musicians follow the music together, like a map so they can find their way.  For many of us this language of musical direction is full of mystery.  Take a look at this video that helps to describe the musical notations found in music today.  (You can stop at the 2:31 mark.)  I don't think it matters much that they are not speaking English.  :)

Sing a song today!  Sing a Psalm today, with whatever tune you find in your heart.  Maybe you will discover what gittith really sounds like!

Peace,
Dean