Gelineau psalmody
Encyclopedia
Gelineau psalmody is a method of singing the Psalms that was developed in France by Catholic
Jesuit priest Joseph Gelineau
around 1953, with English translations appearing some ten years later. Its chief distinctives are:
and he developed a revised version of that psalter which respected the rhythms of the Hebrew original. This was later translated into English as the Grail translation of the Psalter.
: each line contains the same number of bars
(pulses), but the number of syllables varies from three ("Three blind mice") to eleven "Did ever you see such a thing in your life". But unlike that song, Gelineau insists "the words must never be allowed to fall into set musical rhythmical patterns which are opposed to the natural relative lengths of their syllables when correctly spoken". It is thus a form of sprung rhythm
.
-verse in a regular metre. The tempo of the antiphon is directly related to that of the verse: the one-beat-in-the-bar verse equals the beat
unit, typically crotchet (quarter note) or dotted crotchet, of the antiphon. There should be no break between psalm and antiphon: each should follow the other without interruption.
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Jesuit priest Joseph Gelineau
Joseph Gelineau
Joseph Gelineau was a French Catholic Jesuit priest and composer, mainly of modern Christian liturgical music....
around 1953, with English translations appearing some ten years later. Its chief distinctives are:
- a responsorial structure, with the congregation singing a repeating antiphonAntiphonAn antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....
between the psalm verses which are sung by a choirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
or cantorCantor (church)A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....
; - unlike plainchant or Anglican chantAnglican chantAnglican chant is a way to sing un-metrical texts, such as prose translations of the psalms, canticles, and other, similar biblical texts by matching the natural speech-rhythm of the words in each verse to a short piece of metrical music. It may be fairly described as "harmonized recitative"...
, the verses have a regular metreMeter (music)Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
.
Text
Gelineau was himself part of the working group of the French Jerusalem BibleJerusalem Bible
The Jerusalem Bible is a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible which first was introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966 and published by Darton, Longman & Todd...
and he developed a revised version of that psalter which respected the rhythms of the Hebrew original. This was later translated into English as the Grail translation of the Psalter.
Verse
The psalm verse uses a "pulsed tone" technique, with a variable number of syllables between the main pulses (barlines). Each line has a prescribed number of accented syllables, even though the total number of syllables varies from line to line. In that sense, it may be regarded as similar to the song Three Blind MiceThree Blind Mice
Three Blind Mice is an English nursery rhyme and musical round. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753.-Lyrics:The modern words are:-Variations and uses:Amateur music composer Thomas Oliphant noted in 1843 that:...
: each line contains the same number of bars
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
(pulses), but the number of syllables varies from three ("Three blind mice") to eleven "Did ever you see such a thing in your life". But unlike that song, Gelineau insists "the words must never be allowed to fall into set musical rhythmical patterns which are opposed to the natural relative lengths of their syllables when correctly spoken". It is thus a form of sprung rhythm
Sprung rhythm
Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables...
.
Antiphon
Unlike the chant-like verses, the antiphon is more like a short hymnHymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
-verse in a regular metre. The tempo of the antiphon is directly related to that of the verse: the one-beat-in-the-bar verse equals the beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
unit, typically crotchet (quarter note) or dotted crotchet, of the antiphon. There should be no break between psalm and antiphon: each should follow the other without interruption.