Last night I had a rehearsal/recording session with The Choral Scholars as part of our upcoming Psalm CD. The recording is in conjunction with a forthcoming print publication from the CICW and Faith Alive that will feature multiple settings of all 150 Psalms. We’re reading through 20 or 30 Psalm settings each rehearsal; the “fair use” clips will go on the web, and we’ll polish up a few dozen songs for the CD.
As I was preparing for the session, I came across a great metrical setting of Psalm 12 by Adam Tice–and it’s not easy to write a great metrical setting of Psalm 12–that included a hand-written note “need another sturdy tune like Latvian hymn.” To a person who has OCD (obsessive compositional disorder), the words “need another tune” read as “Greg, write a new tune in the remaining 1/2 hour before rehearsal starts.” Which is exactly what I did.
Listen to an MP3 of TCS singing the song. If you like what you hear (and it’s hard to dislike anything TCS sings), download the PDF of the tune. I don’t have permission to use Adam’s text, so I’ve left the score blank. But that’s a great opportunity for you to write your own text in 8787D meter.
By the way, are you wondering why I named the tune SINKING SHIPS? What better tune name to go with a text entitled “Lying Lips”?