I composed Psalms, Songs, and Blues (2014) in partial satisfaction of the requirements of my doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to a composition, the other requirement of my dissertation was to write an analytical monograph, dealing with some aspect of a 20th or 21st century composition, about which I chose to focus on Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Using Bernstein’s music as inspiration, as well as music by Henry Purcell, Max Helfman, George Gershwin, Orlando di Lasso, Salamone Rossi, and Frédéric Chopin, I designed the work as a Judeo-Christian interfaith companion to Chichester Psalms. In five movements, Psalms, Songs, and Blues sets both Psalm excerpts and portions of the Jewish Liturgy in English, Hebrew, and Latin, for cantor (baritone), SATB chorus, and orchestra. Scored for the same orchestration as Chichester Psalms, my work could possibly complement Bernstein’s for performance on the same concert program.
