Scoring: SATB choir and piano
Words: Psalm 130
Date: 2020
This setting of Psalm 130 ("Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord") was written as a response to the Covid-19 lockdown crisis. It is a prayer for help in the midst of difficulty, waiting for God with hope in his compassion and forgiveness. Its marking of "soulful, but rhythmic" indicates the weary, bluesey theme in B flat minor and its falling chromatic accompaniment. However, there are signs of hope throughout and the last verse mixes the main key of G major with the original rise and fall of the minor third interval (G to B flat). Hope is, after all, "sure and certain", yet it is trust in a God who is ultimately unseen and unknowable.
This setting of Psalm 130 ("Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord") was written as a response to the Covid-19 lockdown crisis. It is a prayer for help in the midst of difficulty, waiting for God with hope in his compassion and forgiveness. Its marking of "soulful, but rhythmic" indicates the weary, bluesey theme in B flat minor and its falling chromatic accompaniment. However, there are signs of hope throughout and the last verse mixes the main key of G major with the original rise and fall of the minor third interval (G to B flat). Hope is, after all, "sure and certain", yet it is trust in a God who is ultimately unseen and unknowable.
Words:
Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications.
If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
that you may be feared.
I wait for the Lord, I wait for the Lord.
My soul waits, and in his word I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is steadfast love and great power to redeem.
The Lord will redeem you, O Israel,
from all your iniquities.
(Psalm 130)
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