New Original Church Composition - "God is Good All the Time"

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Hello everyone! It has been 14 days, and MY has the world blown up. The corona virus runs rampant in the real world, and controversy runs rampant on Steem. It just goes to show how much can happen in two weeks. But, sadly, today's article will not be discussing either of those click bait concepts (much). Today's article is the next composition in my series of weekly church compositions. The theme for this week's service (which wound up being cancelled thanks to the bloody virus) was serving a God who is Good. So, the piece is also about a God who is Good. But, since I procrastinated and wrote the whole thing on Friday, I also wrote it based on the 91st Psalm (selected verses at least) in response to the corona virus. I learned on Saturday that the service was canceled, and I spent most of today making the recording to post. First I will display the text of Psalm 91 that I used, then I will let you hear the composition:

Psalm 91 (Verses 1-6)(King James Edition)

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
³ Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
...
¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Here is the music:

Analysis

Every time I talk about analysis, I talk about the importance of form. In this case, the form is more or less through-composed. I tried to focus on setting the ideas of the text rather than adhering to a strict form. Because of this, I am going to analyze everything through the form. I will discuss which pieces of the music go with which text.

Verse 1 fits the first 8 measures of the piece.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I tried to use the motif in the higher register to represent the Almighty, and mimicked the motif in the lower register to represent the virtuous living in his shadow.

Verse 2 fits with the next 14 measures.

² I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

I always had a pedal point in the bass and an ostinato in the soprano to represent the idea that God is a strong refuge and fortress, and that he encompasses everything which occurs (like the unwavering soprano and bass encompassing the middle voice).

I would also discuss the rhythm and meter of the ostinato as it is interesting. For whatever reason, I decided to experiment with switching between 6/8 and 4/4 for certain sections of this piece. I have recently been exposed to The Firebird and Rite of Spring by Stravinsky where he utilizes similar metric ideas to create a new type of driving sound. I am quite fond of this. It is because of this that I experimented with it myself.

Verse 3 is depicted by measures 23-33

³ Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

This section starts out with a trend towards D minor, but then quickly leads to Bb Major to reflect God's delivery from "the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence".

The first part of verse 4 is depicted by measures 34-39.

⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. . .

Notice the motif from verse 2 which occurs again in the alto and tenor voices on the upbeats from measure 34-37. This helps to continue to enforce the idea of God as a protector which the motif represents.

Finally comes the big theme to depict the latter part of verse 4:

. . .his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

This theme is very special to me, and I included it in this week's composition for a specific reason. I actually composed it last year as a setting of the Pie Jesu text:

Latin Text	English Translation
Pie Jesu Domine	Merciful Lord Jesus
Dona eis requiem	Grant them rest.

I composed this music in response to a specific event, and this week marked one year since that event, so I wanted to work it in (since I have never published it before).

The remaining music represents the final verse (verse 16) to finish off the piece:

¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Now the pedal point is the tonic verses the subdominant, and a cadence occurs confirming the key as F major.

Previous Compositions

• YouTube Playlist All Weekly Church Compositions
• I [1/26] With God All Things are Possible
• II [2/9] God of Faith
• III [2/16] Holy
• IV [2/23] Just Mercy
• V [3/1] Compassionate Father
• VI [3/15] God is Good All the Time

Conclusion

Thanks for reading/listening to this! This week's piece is definitely a little bit different than the last one, and that is okay because if they all sounded the same, there wouldn't be a point in trying to compose a new one each week. Please remember that feedback is always greatly appreciated! There is no better way to learn than through the input of the audience. Thanks again for reading this, and have an excellent day (in social isolation if where you are is anything like where I am)!

(Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.