Psalms For All Time
Introduction
Psalms for All Time equips parishes and schools with a core repertoire of prayerful, memorable, contemporary settings of the psalms for every Mass and liturgical celebration.
The responses are instantly singable by the entire assembly, yet bear the weight of repeated singing. In each psalm setting, the response and verses form a single integrated song, drawing the assembly into the experience of the whole psalm. The sprung metre verses of the Grail text are set to attractive melodies using contemporary composition techniques for melodic, harmonic and rhythmic prosody and contrast.
The psalms are suitable for singing unaccompanied, or accompanied by piano, guitar or organ. SATB choir parts are also provided, as well as some instrument parts. The music is easy to learn, with help on this website for learning verses and choir parts.
The Volume 1 songbook contains guitar chord diagrams. Page layout is designed so that no page turns are required when using two songbooks side by side. Extensive liturgical and topical indices help in selecting the right psalm for the occasion. Historical and performance notes for each psalm help bring these ancient songs to life in today’s liturgy.
Five Volumes
Psalms for All Time comprises five volumes covering all the Sundays and Major Celebrations of the Church's Three Year Lectionary Cycle. The first volume was originally published in 2007 using the Australian lectionary texts (Grail 1963 psalm translations and 1981 ICEL response translations). It comprises 36 popular psalms - all 22 of the seasonal and common psalms as well as 14 settings of responsorial psalms for the major celebrations of the Church Year - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Feasts of the Assumption and Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Volume 2 was published in 2017 and provides an additional 34 lectionary psalms for the Sundays of the three year cycle with a special focus on Advent, Lent, Easter Vigil, Chrism Mass, Ordination, All Saints, All Souls, Votives and Special Needs and Occasions.
Volume 2 was delayed many years due to uncertainty regarding the future translation of psalms. In May 2017 the Australian Ctholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) approved the translations of psalms to be used in the next Australian Lectionary - 2010 Revised Grail Psalm texts and 1997 ICEL Responses. Volume 2 uses these translations, the latest published versions of both the Grail psalms and the ICEL responses.
Volume 3 was published in 2023 and provides an additional 35 lectionary psalms using the final published version of the Revised Grail Psalms, renamed Abbey Psalms and Canticles. Another 64 lectionary psalm settings will be released in Volumes 4 and 5. New and existing editions are easily adaptable to follow ICEL and Abbey Psalms and Canticles (APC), as chosen for the new lectionary by the ACBC.
Recordings
The first recordings were undertaken in Wahroonga, and feature the WYSPERS, the youth band from Wahroonga parish, featuring cantor Alex Knight; vocalists, Alex Knight, Claire Edmunds, Paul Mason, Myfanwy Painter, Amanda O'Brien; keyboard, Paul Mason; Flute, Myfanwy Painter; Trumpet, Daniella Ciaglia; Clarinet, Kelly (now Sr Susanna) Edmunds; Saxophone, Ian Edmunds; Bass, Richard Alessi; Drums, Claire Edmunds. Recording Engineer, Pul Mason; Producer, Paul Mason. Four recordings are included on the Mass of Glory and Praise Audio CD.
More recent recordings were undertaken in Wollongong in 2014, and feature cantor Louise Symes, cellist Nada Jasz, pianist Cassandra Cordero, and SATB choir comprising Annette Griffin, Cassandra Cordero, Tomas Parrish and myself.
Most recently Paul Mason has collaborated with Catholic Youth Ministry Wollongong (keyboardist Seth Harsh and vocalists Michaela Rose and Fiesta Mataele) to produce contemporary reflective recordings for Lenten reflections for Year A, Year B and Year C. Recordings have also been provided for Mass For You At Home
You can hear these recordings on this website in the catalogue for Psalms For All Time, the Single Psalm Downloads catalogue and the CD catalogue.
Some YouTube recordings are also available from the YouTube page under Learn. Here is an example:
The Pedagogical Approach of Psalms for All Time
The collections are not “Year A” “Year B” or “Year C.” Nor are they random!
The priorities for psalms in Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 have been based on a pedagogical approach.
Firstly, what are the psalm settings that should be learned first in order to provide a minimum repertoire to cover every Sunday in Years A, B and C. These are the 22 Common and Seasonal Psalms listed in the lectionary that are frequently used and may indeed substitute for the psalm of the day when the psalm is sung. The seasonal psalms cover Advent season, Christmas season, Epiphany, season of Ordinary Time, season of Lent, Holy Week, season of Easter and Pentecost (cf. Lectionary number 174 in Volume 1 of the Australian Lectionary). These 22 psalm settings are contained in Volume 1.
Secondly, what are the psalm settings used every year for Holy Week, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the five most commonly sung psalms used for Easter Vigil, the Assumption, the Feast of Mary of the Cross MacKillop, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) and the most common Communion Psalm (Taste and See). These 12 psalm settings are also contained in Volume 1.
Thirdly come the next most frequently used psalms of the day. Psalm 23 (The Lord Is My Shepherd), all psalms of the day of the three year cycle for Lent, 2 additional psalm options for Easter Vigil, Christ Mass and Ordinations (Psalm 89 Forever I will sing), Christmas Vigil (Psalm 89 Forever I will sing), Christmas Midnight Mass (Psalm 96 Today is born a saviour) and a few additional psalm of the day for Ordinary Time Sundays. These 34 psalm settings comprise Volume 2 and is recommended for learning once all the common and seasonal psalms are learned. Thus the parish sung psalm repertoire is increased based on priority of seasons (Lent, Christmas, Advent, Ordinary Time) and regular usage.
Fourthly come more lectionary psalms for Sundays and feasts, including the balance of Advent psalms of the day for Years AB&C, two more psalm options for Easter Vigil, Feast of Holy Family years AB&C, feast of Mary, Mother of God years AB&C, Saint Patrick years ABC and many psalms of the day throughout years A, B and C. These additional 35 psalm settings are contained in Volume 3.
Volume 4 is planned to be released at the 2027 APMN/NLC Conference. Already many of these settings have been made available on Mass For You At Home and on liturgicalsong.com as Single Psalm Downloads (e.g. Psalm 96a Proclaim his marvellous deeds).
I always recommend starting with Volume 1 and learn all these psalms first. They provide a comprehensive starting repertoire enabling the singing of psalms at every Sunday Mass. Then purchase Volume 2 to focus on the full psalm of the day repertoire for the season of Lent. Then Volume 3. This together with Volume 2 gives full coverage of Advent and Christmas seasons for years A, B and C.
Buy Psalms for All Time
You can purchase Psalms For All Time products here and here in the Single Psalm Downloads catalogue.
Rehearsal and Backing Tracks
You may use the following rehearsal and backing tracks to help learn and rehearse the psalms that haven't been recorded with vocals.
Lent, Holy Week and Easter 2020 (Year A)
