Psalms For All Time
Introduction
Psalms for All Time equips parishes and schools with a core repertoire of prayerful, memorable, contemporary settings of the psalms for every Mass and liturgical celebration.
The responses are instantly singable by the entire assembly, yet bear the weight of repeated singing. In each psalm setting, the response and verses form a single integrated song, drawing the assembly into the experience of the whole psalm. The sprung metre verses of the Grail text are set to attractive melodies using contemporary composition techniques for melodic, harmonic and rhythmic prosody and contrast.
The psalms are suitable for singing unaccompanied, or accompanied by piano, guitar or organ. SATB choir parts are also provided, as well as some instrument parts. The music is easy to learn, with help on this website for learning verses and choir parts.
The Volume 1 songbook contains guitar chord diagrams. Page layout is designed so that no page turns are required when using two songbooks side by side. Extensive liturgical and topical indices help in selecting the right psalm for the occasion. Historical and performance notes for each psalm help bring these ancient songs to life in today’s liturgy.
Five Volumes
Psalms for All Time comprises five volumes covering all the Sundays and Major Celebrations of the Church's Three Year Lectionary Cycle. The first volume was originally published in 2007 using the Australian lectionary texts (Grail 1963 psalm translations and 1981 ICEL response translations). It comprises 36 popular psalms - all 22 of the seasonal and common psalms as well as 14 settings of responsorial psalms for the major celebrations of the Church Year - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Feasts of the Assumption and Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Volume 2 was published in 2017 and provides an additional 34 lectionary psalms for the Sundays of the three year cycle with a special focus on Advent, Lent, Easter Vigil, Chrism Mass, Ordination, All Saints, All Souls, Votives and Special Needs and Occasions.
Volume 2 was delayed many years due to uncertainty regarding the future translation of psalms. In May 2017 the Australian Ctholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) approved the translations of psalms to be used in the next Australian Lectionary - 2010 Revised Grail Psalm texts and 1997 ICEL Responses. Volume 2 uses these translations, the latest published versions of both the Grail psalms and the ICEL responses.
Volume 3 was published in 2023 and provides an additional 35 lectionary psalms using the final published version of the Revised Grail Psalms, renamed Abbey Psalms and Canticles. Another 64 lectionary psalm settings will be released in Volumes 4 and 5. New and existing editions are easily adaptable to follow ICEL and Abbey Psalms and Canticles (APC), as chosen for the new lectionary by the ACBC.
Recordings
The first recordings were undertaken in Wahroonga, and feature the WYSPERS, the youth band from Wahroonga parish, featuring cantor Alex Knight; vocalists, Alex Knight, Claire Edmunds, Paul Mason, Myfanwy Painter, Amanda O'Brien; keyboard, Paul Mason; Flute, Myfanwy Painter; Trumpet, Daniella Ciaglia; Clarinet, Kelly (now Sr Susanna) Edmunds; Saxophone, Ian Edmunds; Bass, Richard Alessi; Drums, Claire Edmunds. Recording Engineer, Pul Mason; Producer, Paul Mason. Four recordings are included on the Mass of Glory and Praise Audio CD.
More recent recordings were undertaken in Wollongong in 2014, and feature cantor Louise Symes, cellist Nada Jasz, pianist Cassandra Cordero, and SATB choir comprising Annette Griffin, Cassandra Cordero, Tomas Parrish and myself.
Most recently Paul Mason has collaborated with Catholic Youth Ministry Wollongong (keyboardist Seth Harsh and vocalists Michaela Rose and Fiesta Mataele) to produce contemporary reflective recordings for Lenten reflections for Year A, Year B and Year C.
You can hear these recordings on this website in the catalogue for Psalms For All Time, the Single Psalm Downloads catalogue and the CD catalogue.
Some YouTube recordings are also available from the YouTube page under Learn. Here is an example:
Buy Psalms for All Time
You can purchase Psalms For All Time products here and here in the Single Psalm Downloads catalogue.
Rehearsal and Backing Tracks
You may use the following rehearsal and backing tracks to help learn and rehearse the psalms that haven't been recorded with vocals.
Lent, Holy Week and Easter 2020 (Year A)
