A few prefatory words about Cynthia Bourgeault’s Chanting the Psalms

Inasmuch as our Richmond, Kentucky, ecumenical prayer group will be meeting in January on the 24th and perhaps into February and March, to study and discuss Bourgeault’s Chanting the Psalms (hereafter CP), it may be helpful if we prepare ourselves by previewing and summarizing CP as we get ready to continue supporting one another’s prayer life.

CP’s “Table of Contents” indicates that the book has three parts with eighteen chapters. Part One with its subtitle, “The Hidden Wisdom of Psalmody,” consists of six chapters that give us some psalmic history, reasons for chanting the psalms, and resources for learning how to sing:

1. The Psalms of Ancient Israel
2. Early Monastic Psalmody
3. Psalmody as Christian Yoga
4. The Psalms as Psychological Tools
5. The Psalms as Soul Music
6. Psalters and Sourcebooks

Part Two, “Chanting the Psalms,” moves us incrementally from very simple chanting to and through a whole range of chanting options:

7. Finding Your Voice
8. Suzuki Psalmody
9. Reading Simple Psalm Notation
10. The Wide World of Antiphons
11. Reading Gregorian Notation
12. Customizing Your Psalmody
14. Developing Your Own Daily Office

Part Three, “Creative Adaptations,” gives us five chapters that take us on a global trip to a variety of communities who have developed their own distinctive ways of chanting the psalms:

15. Is There Chanting beyond the Psalms?
16. Taize Chant
17. Songs of the Presence
18. Iona Chant and Gouzes Chant
19. Dancing before the Ark

CP concludes with a good collection of notes, a helpful glossary, useful bibliography, and a list of selected musical resources. Importantly, Bourgeault’s CP comes with an “Instructional CD.” While driving around town, I have listened to the CD several times and am convinced that we’ll find it exceptionally helpful. I have not, however, read CP in its entirety and therefore you’ll have the benefit of following along as I tell you about my reading experience of the book itself.

Mason and I have upon occasion sat down together and tried to sing the day’s designated psalms for Morning Prayer, and as a tad off-key as we were at times, we found chanting entirely do-able. Just why we wanted to sing the psalms is something that Bourgeault’s CP will help us articulate.

One final important note: Bourgeault makes it quite clear that none of us has to be a good singer in order to chant the psalms. Each of us and all of us together can do it. As Bourgeault emphasizes the ordinariness and universality of chanting the psalms, I like to think that if we had heard Jesus and his disciples and/or the early Christians singing and chanting the psalms, as they often did --see the gospels [Mt 22:43, 26:30; Mk 14:26], Acts [2:25, 4:25], Paul [Rom 4:6] and other letters [James 5:13, Col 3:16; Eph 5:19], all of which attest to the singing psalms as noted in the New Testament)--I imagine that they might well have sounded just like us! Let’s join their company!

For the next few weeks, I’ll try to write a summaries of the chapters and send them out in advance of our meetings. And, of course, I hope to see as many of you as possible on the 24th of January at First Presbyterian Church, 7:00 p.m., in the Library/Parlor. If you want to purchase the book in advance, you can order Chanting the Psalms from http://www.amazon.com. The cost of a new copy is $12.89; used copies are available from $8.98. And if you don't wish to buy the book, that's just fine! I'll provide good summaries of the book at our meetings and online as we go along.

[Image Source: Psalm 110 "The Lord said unto my lord. " Block print by Charles Knowles. In The Psalm Book of Charles Knowles (New York: The Viking Press and Pinnacle Press, Inc. 1959, 1962).