(painting – “The Flagellation of Jesus”, Reubens)
(Photograph – Dead Confederate Soldier, Gettysburg)
NOTES: Psalm Offering 4 is dedicated to all victims of violence. Reuben’s painting “The Flagellation of Jesus” juxtaposed with the picture of the dead Confederate soldier in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg underscores the last judgment scene in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 36, “when you do this to the least of these, you do it to me.” While Jesus was referring to clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger,” conversely, when we injure our neighbor, kill our neighbor, who are all a part of the cosmic Body of Christ, we are also inflicting violence upon Jesus. This Psalm Offering is not just for the victims of war, but for the victims of domestic violence, the victims of racial prejudice, the victims of poverty all of which inflict as much psychological violence upon people as physical violence.
THE MUSIC: In comparison to the other music in Opus 1, one might upon hearing it for the first time (or for that matter every time) consider it the equivalent of George Harrison’s Hinduistic inspired song “Within You Without You” on the Beatle’s album, “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.” I must confess that as much as I value all the music on “Sergeant Pepper”, upon the first 30 or so listenings, I would skip over Harrison’s contribution to get to “When I’m 64”. This Psalm Offering with all its dissonance might have the same effect for people. However, I find its starkness a welcoming contrast in a sonic sea of consonance. This Psalm Offering was originally an assignment in the composition of atonal, serial music for my Music Theory 2 class in 1971. Serial music, while sounding rather arbitrary and dissonant (many considering the sound “ugly”) is actually more difficult to compose than the simple songs we normally hear. There are strict rules to follow in the composition of serial music. In editing this Psalm Offering in 2016, I have composed and inserted new passages, namely the ostinato sections, into the music to lend a little more interest. The form of the song is a simple three part, ABA, form. It begins establishing melody A, that is introducing and establishing the tone row of pitches, much like the introduction of the “subject” or short melody, in a Baroque Period Fugue. Melody A is repeated varying the rhythm of the pitches in the tone row. The newly composed melody B, while remaining faithful to atonal music principles abandons the tone row with the introduction of an ostinato pattern in the lower register of the piano. Melody B segues back into the tone row of melody A, albeit, using different rhythm patterns for the tone row. This segues back into melody B with the introduction of the ostinato pattern in the lower register. Climaxing with a fortissimo, the music ends stating verbatim the opening measures of the music as it gradually decrescendos to the last pitches.
