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Welcome to Psaltery and Harp

Hello! I'm Becky Mynett. I'm Director of Music at an ordinary parish church in Bedfordshire. Our church has a psalm at the Sunday morning communion service most weeks. We use responsorial psalms, where a soloist sings the psalm text and the congregation respond with a refrain. But it proved difficult to find easy settings with meaningful refrains that were also musically interesting. So I decided to write my own, using skills learned both when I studied liturgical composition for my MA in English Cathedral Music and when I worked as a professional translator. I am delighted to offer my settings here at Psaltery and Harp, alongside some of my other compositions. I hope you enjoy encouraging your congregation to sing the psalms in worship as much as I do.

An apple tree in an orchard. Its trunk is to the left of the picture and the branches droop slightly over a grass path. It is covered in bright red apples and there are windfalls on the ground.
Proper 25 (related) - Psalm 1
 Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. I'm back this week with Psalm 1. 1 Blessed are those who take no advice from the wicked, neither following sinners, nor sitting with the scornful. 2 They delight in the law of the...
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A panoramic map of Israel viewed from the Mediterranean. It is drawn on brown paper and has a border with vines.
Proper 22 (related) - Verses from Psalm 80
Verse eight[1] is set as the refrain: O God turn us back to the light of you presence, and we shall be saved. 9 Lord, you brought a vine from Egypt, you drove out the nations and planted it. 10 You cleared space for it,  so it grew deep roots a...
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An impressionist painting of The Road to Jerusalem. A narrow path passes rocks and a green slope on the right. A white-walled city is on the hill ahead.
Proper 21 (related) - Verses from Psalm 25
Today’s psalm once again has a numbering discrepancy. The Common Worship Psalter combines verses one and two into a single verse, so this week’s selection is numbered 1-9 in most Bibles. It is headed ‘Psalm of David’. Refrain: 1a I lift my heart to ...
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In Llandaff Cathedral, A large cylinder is on top of an arch just in front of the choir stalls. On the cylinder is a large modernist statue of Christ in Majesty. The east window can be seen below the arch.
Proper 20 (related) - Verses from Psalm 145
The refrain for this week's psalm is inspired by verses 2 and 10 (partly so that I can reuse the response music used earlier in the year, with only slightly amended words). Because the psalmist alternates third and first person pronouns in this part...
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A miniature from an illuminated manuscript. We can see an eagle standing proudly in front of two small, stylised trees. The background is gold leaf.
Proper 19 (related) - Verses from Psalm 103
This week, the psalm may begin at either verse 1 or verse 8 (stopping after verse 13). Given that verses 1-8 appear elsewhere in the lectionary, I have decided to set all 13 verses. However, I have used verse 8 as the refrain so that it can be used ...
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An image of a round world surrounded by sky with God the Father above it.
Feast of Creation in Christ - Psalm 96
Welcome back to Psaltery and Harp after the summer break. I hope you also had the chance to have some time off. Today's beginning of term post is going to be a little different from usual (normal service will be resumed next week). Instead of detail...
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The right hand side of a chancel arch painted with a doom painting. There is a city at the top and beneath a fish-like jaws of hell with people being pulled out of it.
Proper 11 (related) - Verses from Psalm 86
This week, there are (for once) no numbering discrepancies! 11 O Lord, teach me your way so I may walk in your truth. Focus my mind on honouring your name 12 and I will praise you with all my heart. The first issue encountered this time was in the s...
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A lithograph print with a group of wild animals by a pool in the shade of a tree. There is a giraffe, an elephant, a sheep and a lion, among others. In the middle distance, Adam stands naked (with a carefully placed staff!) naming the horse.
Proper 9 (related) - verses from Psalm 145
In most Bibles, these verses are numbered 8-14. However, in modern translations there are a couple of extra lines in verse 13, which become the CW verse 14 (and the former verse 14 therefore becomes 15). This is because the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT...
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A page from an illumnated manuscript with a bright blue sky and a castle in the background. In the foreground people are harvesting grapes. An ox cart with large baskets stands waiting to be filled.
Proper 10 (related) - Psalm 65
This week the whole of psalm 65 may be sung, or you can begin at verse 8 (CW numbering, 9 in Bible numbering!). I have translated the whole psalm as it will be needed again later in the year. It should be noted that, in places, this translation is e...
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An angel floats above a background that looks like the Ukrainian flag but is probably a blue sky above a yellow desert. The angel has long draped robes in blue and pink and eagle-like wings. It has a gold-leaf halo and trumpet, which is a slightly curved
Proper 8 (Related) - Verses from Psalm 89
This week, I have chosen to set the original selection of verses listed in the Common Worship Lectionary, partly because it’s shorter, and partly because verses 1-4 will be needed again in Advent. Today I'm going to show how I get from my first draf...
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A photograph of a dark cave with an opening above, through which light streams in a triangular shape. At the point of the light we can see a person in orange high viz pointing to the light. Trees can be seen above the cave.
Proper 7 (related) - Verses from Psalm 69
The Common Worship lectionary offers three different selections of verses from psalm 69 for this Sunday: Verses 8 – 20,Verses 8 – 11 & 18 – 20, orVerses 14 – 20 (a shorter version that is easier to find!) I have decided to use the third option f...
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Better late than never! Psalm 100 with music to listen to.
Apologies for not getting this post out last week. Too much to do and some health issues... Anyway, here are some brief translation notes on Psalm 100 (Last Sunday's Psalm) and, as compensation, there is a soundcloud link to a recording of me singin...
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A page from an illuminated manuscript showing a bright blue sky over a medieval castle. In the foreground a man ploughs with a team of oxen. In the middle is a vineyard and a sower. There are sheep in the background.
Proper 5 (related) - Verses from Psalm 50
This week’s psalm gave me yet another new challenge as, in these verses, God speaks in the first person. This made it difficult to take a verse as the refrain for the congregation to sing and for them to feel that they were responding to God. Howeve...
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An image of Earthrise taken from the moon, the surface of which can be seen in the foreground. It was taken by NASA astronaut Bill Anders.
Trinity Sunday - Psalm 8
(This post is a 5 minute read.) The Psalm for Trinity Sunday is one of my favourites. It is headed ‘To the director of music. Upon Gittith. A psalm of David.’ It is not clear what ‘Gittith’ means in this context. It can be translated as ‘winepress’ ...
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A page from an illuminated manuscript. A figure in a blue tunic, brown cloak and bright red tights sits on the back of a green dragon. The scaly dragon is breathing fire and it's tail curves over the figure's head. It is by some water shown with dark and
Pentecost - Verses from Psalm 104
This week's post focuses on how to shorten verses and combine them into coherent stanzas, some vocabulary issues, a detour into the book of Job and an even bigger detour to answer the question, 'Are there volcanoes in the Holy Land?' It will take ab...
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