Judeo-Christian songbook of psalms
Musicians, artists, architects, scholars, religious leaders, and church and synagogue congregants will explore the use of the Psalms in both Jewish and Christian traditions during a special Tercentennial event to be held Friday-Tuesday, Jan. 19-23.
Titled "Up With a Shout! The Psalms in Jewish and Christian Religious, Artistic and Intellectual Traditions," the event will be centered around the New Haven Green, both in local houses of worship and adjacent Yale buildings, to reflect the "town-gown nature of this multidisciplinary, interfaith celebration of the great Judeo-Christian songbook, the Psalms," says Margot Fassler, director of the Institute of Sacred Music and the Robert S. Tangeman Professor of Music History, who is organizing the conference with Harry Attridge, the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at the Divinity School.
Among the highlights of "Up With a Shout!" will be two choral concerts featuring the premieres of new psalm settings and two congregational sing-ins.
The conference will also feature several services with sacred music at area synagogues and churches as well as a community discussion by an interfaith panel of hospital chaplains on the topic "Psalms in Life and Death." In addition, distinguished scholars from around the world will join their Yale counterparts in a series of presentations on the nature of the Hebrew texts, their transmission within early Christian traditions and their subsequent afterlives in Judaism and in Christianity.
"'Up With a Shout" celebrates the relations of the community with the University, Jews with Christians, as well as the interactions of lay people with clergy, healers and musicians in settings of historic and symbolic significance," says Attridge. "The event is an invitation to open eyes, ears, minds and hearts to the uniquely 'joyful noise.'"
The Yale Camerata, Pro Musica and the Heritage Chorale will perform in the first "Up With a Shout!" concert at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 20, in Woolsey Hall, corner of Grove and College streets.
Devoted to American psalmody, this performance will feature the premiere of a new psalm setting by Stephen Paulus, titled "Psalm 1," which was commissioned for the occasion. Also on the program are works by Leonard Bernstein, Elliot Levine, Richard Smallwood, Tawnie Olson, Adolphus Hailstork and Yale composer Martin Bresnick. Paulus will offer remarks at the event. The Yale Camerata and Pro Musica will perform under the baton of Marguerite Brooks, adjunct associate professor at the Yale School of Music. The Heritage Chorale will appear under the direction of its founder, Jonathan Berryman.
On Sunday, Jan. 21, musicians from Yale will join forces with musicians from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in a performance of Christian and Jewish psalmody at 8 p.m. in Battell Chapel, corner of College and Elm streets. Settings of psalms from the Christian and Jewish traditions will be performed, and "Psalm 8 (Adonai Adoneinu)" by Simon Sargon will receive its premiere, with comments by the composer. Martin Jean, associate adjunct professor of organ at the School of Music, will be featured on organ. David Connell, adjunct associate professor at the School of Music, and Joyce Rosenzweig of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will direct the performance.
New England psalmody will be the focus of the first congregational sing-in at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 21 at Center Church on the Green, 250 Temple St. Stephen Marini will lead the congregation in song.
Community singing in the Dutch Reformed style, led by Mark Brombaugh and accompanied by organist and improviser William Porter, will be featured on Monday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. at United Church on the Green, corner of Temple and Elm streets.
Religious services include a Friday evening worship service with Joshua Konigsberg, cantor, on Jan. 19, at 8:15 p.m. at B'nai Jacob, 75 Rimmon Rd. in Woodbridge, and a Saturday Se'udat Shelishit (third Sabbath meal), a shiur (homily) offered by Margaret Moers Wenig, and Havdalah (ceremony marking the close of the Jewish sabbath) on Jan. 20 at 5 p.m. at the Joseph Slifka Center, 80 Wall St.
On Sunday, several worship services will be offered in conjunction with "Up With a Shout!" including the above-mentioned congregational sing-in in conjunction with the 10 a.m. service at Center Church on the Green; Choral Worship at Christ Church, 84 Broadway, at 11 a.m.; a Solemn Mass with music director Nicholas Renouf at noon at the Church of St. Mary-Dominican Friars, 5 Hillhouse Ave; Choral Evensong with preacher Ellen Davis, conductor Walden Moore and Yale University Organist Thomas Murray at 5:30 p.m. at Trinity Church on the Green, corner of Chapel and Temple streets; and a sung compline service (night prayers) with conductor Robert Lehman at 10 p.m. at Christ Church.
"Psalms in Life and Death," a discussion about the use of psalms in pastoral, health and palliative care of patients in hospitals and hospices, will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 2:45 p.m. at the United Church on the Green.
"The Psalms, utilized in both the Jewish and Christian traditions as a source of faith and solace in sickrooms and at deathbeds, are the ideal vehicle for exploring issues surrounding contemporary attitudes and practice in these settings," says Fassler. "There is no more powerful argument for studying the psalms than to witness their use in actual practice."
The discussion will be chaired by Kristen Leslie, assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling at the Divinity School. Panelists are the Reverend Peg Lewis, director of religious ministries at Yale-New Haven Hospital; Rabbi Steven Steinberg, chaplain at Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Hospital of St. Raphael; and the Reverend Sandy Belcher, chaplain at the Hospital of St. Raphael. Following the discussion, there will be a reception and display of Psalters (books of psalms) at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, corner of Wall and High streets.
The concerts, worship services and panel discussion on "Psalms in Life and Death" are free and open to the public. Registration is suggested for those wishing to attend the scholarly presentations (fees are waived for Yale students and faculty, as well as for members of supporting congregations). The first 200 registrants who desire them will receive copies of the Conference Study Guide, which includes a selection of writings on the Psalms and bibliographies provided by the speakers.
"Up With a Shout!" is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in conjunction with other Yale entities and local synagogues and churches, and is supported in part by a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. For more information on specific events and on registration, call the Institute of Sacred Music at (203) 432-5180 or visit the website at www.yale.edu/ism.
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Musical performances of psalm settings
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Panel discussion on Psalms and health care
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