PSALM 150: Donald Wetherick
Selwyn College Chapel Choir, Cambridge
(prepared by Sarah MacDonald)
Simon Hogan · organ
Michael Bawtree · conductor
Music of Our Time (JAM's opening season concert)
20 March 2024, 7:30pm
St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London
www.jamconcert.org
Psalm 150 is an ecstatic celebration of music and musical instruments in the worship of God. It is no accident that this psalm concludes the Book of Psalms - music being the last word in praise, as it were. ‘Breath’ implies singing, of course, but also invokes all living (breathing) creatures, and the metaphorical breath of inanimate things such as lyres, trumpets, cymbals and organs. Breath is the origin of the musical phrase. This piece imagines Jewish Temple worship - where psalms were certainly sung - as something vigorous and embodied; spiritual certainly but also noisy, perhaps even brash. There is nothing ethereal or sober here. Yet the central section allows a moment of dignified stillness and delicacy to arise, almost as a surprise, in an otherwise rugged shout of praise to God. The work was sketched over 30 years ago while I was still at university, including the melody of the refrain and first verse with its irregular metre. It found its current form in 2021 with the addition of the dissonant organ accompaniment and a contrasting middle verse which was never part of the original sketch. It is dedicated to the London Docklands Singers, who will perform it on 24 March.
Psalm 150
Let every thing that hath breath praise, praise the Lord.
Let every thing that hath breath praise, praise the Lord.
Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye!
Praise ye the Lord!
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye!
Praise ye the Lord!
Praise him, praise him with the timbrel, Praise him, praise him with the timbrel and dance:
praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him, praise him.
Praise him, praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Praise him, praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye!
Let every thing that hath breath praise, praise the Lord.
Let every thing that hath breath praise, praise the Lord.
Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye, Praise ye!
Praise ye the Lord!
(King James Version)
Donald Wetherick grew up in a cultured musical family where Radio 3 was default listening. His mother was a skilled amateur pianist and father a devout opera lover. ‘Classical’ concerts were frequent events for him, as a listener and later as a choir member or performer at school or local group events, where he sang or played recorder, flute and piano. Donald began university studying physics and mathematics but quickly changed to music. Around the same time, he became a regular Christian worshipper, and most of the music he has written since is ‘sacred’, whether for church or concert use. He has studied composition with Kenneth Leighton and Edward Harper at Edinburgh University, though his composing life developed later after spending a year as a musician working for the Iona Community. Donald later trained as a music therapist at the Nordoff Robbins Centre in London and worked there for over twenty years before moving to the NHS. He now also teaches music therapy at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
www.djwetherick.com
Film by Gareth Kay
www.garethkay.co