Organ Tutorial Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s” (Chant by Barnby)

Psalm 24 is a splendid and relatively short psalm, sung here to a chant by Barnby in the “bright” key of E major. Rather like Psalm 150, featured in a previous tutorial, this is one of a small number of psalms that lends itself to relatively bold organ accompaniment in places, perhaps because of its declamatory nature.

You’ll be able to see Ralph Allwood teaching the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir about the subtleties of performance, and get some ideas about organ accompaniment from the playing of Mark Shepherd.

Sir Joseph Barnby, the composer of this rousing chant, was an eminent musician during the Victorian period. The chant is one of those in which the first half of each verse is sung in unison, while the second half is sung in harmony. This gives emphatic emphasis to the first half, particularly in the question and answer sections towards the end, such as “who is the King of glory? Even the Lord of hosts…”.

As Ralph Allwood suggests, there is a tradition dating from Barnby’s time that gives the organist some freedom to harmonise the unison sections with some juicy chords, although this is probably best restricted to the last four verses where it gets particularly exciting. For the earlier verses the organist will usually accompany these sections in unison.

Read more and watch the video here: https://viscountorgans.net/psalm-24-c...

About this Organ Tutorial Series:

One of an organist’s most subtle and sensitive roles is in the accompaniment of psalms and church anthems. In such an accompanying role, one’s job is rarely to stand out as a performer but to create an underlying musical foundation on which the choir’s singing can build.

For this year’s offering, then, we present a series in which the renowned choir director Ralph Allwood teaches the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir about psalm singing, with three lovely anthems thrown in to the bargain.

They’re accompanied ably by Mark Shepherd on the Viscount Regent 356 organ. You’ll hear Mark exercising all his artistic powers in support of the choir.

Crucially we don’t just show you a performance, but take you through the rehearsal process, during which Ralph explains the pieces, discusses word painting with the choir and organist, and leads everyone towards a good final performance.

For more information about this Organ Tutorial Series and more videos visit our website: https://viscountorgans.net/organ-tuto...