New Choral Psalm Settings
BEFORE ME I HAVE EVER SET THE LORD
(Ps. 16:8-9)
by
Michael Reid Winikoff
SATB a cappella
Singing Text in English or Hebrew
DURATION: 2:40
| Listen/View | Purchase |
| Listen Only (faster load) |
A choral work for funeral and memorial occasions. These empathetic and consoling verses from Psalm 16 are clothed in unabashedly cathartic and, at times, utterly desolate musical colors, beginning quietly, and in shifting harmonic light and shadow that reflects the emotional ebb and flow of grieving. The phrases rise to an emotional and exultant apex at Measure 13, before settling back into a mood of restful solace.
This is a setting not only for the departed, conveying hope and confidence in the hereafter, but also for those who mourn and remember them, who find strength and assurance in the time of their loss, or in remembering that loss through the years that follow.
The long, slow phrasing of "Before Me I Have Ever Set the Lord" demands a constant feel for the quarter-note pulse throughout, especially on the longer note values. This pulse should always be kept in mind by conductor and singer alike, as it helps to engage an ongoing impetus of energy and motion that provide a sense of shape and contour to each long phrase.