Urgent - Help!

APPEAL!URGENT!

I've been searching for Welsh Language recordings of Psalms 23 & 121, Bishop Morgan translation of 1588 (see below), so I can be sure I have pronunciation and intonations right for the performances. I've googled exhaustively, but have found zilch. Here's the appeal: if a Welsh speaker out there could read these wonderful psalms aloud, slo-o-o-o-wly, into their built-in computer mic, and forward them to songsofgod@live.com , I will not only be eternally grateful: I will give the following to each of the first three persons to do this for me: full credit on my website: www.songsofgod.net , and here, as well as my Songs of God program and brochure; and two free admissions to the performance whenever I'm appearing in your locality.*

Here are the texts:

SALM 23

Yr Arglwydd [yw] fy mugail: ni bydd eisieu arnaf.

Efe a bar i'm orwedd mewn porfeudd gwelltoc: efe a'm tywys ger llaw dyfroedd tawel.

Efe a ddychwel fy enaid, ac a'm harwain ar hyd llwybrau cyfiawnder er mwyn ei enw. A phe rhodiwn ar hyd glynn cyscod angeu nid ofnaf niwed, o herwydd dy [fod] ti gyd â mi: dy wialen, a'th ffon a'm cyssûrant.

Ti a arlwyi fort ger fy mron, yn erbyn fyng-wrthwyneb-wyr: iraist fy mhen ag olew, fy phiol [sydd] lawn.

Daioni, a thrugâredd yn ddiau a'm canlynant oll ddyddiau fy mywyd: a phresswyliaf yn nhŷ'r Arglwydd yn dragywydd.


SALM 121

Dyrchafaf fy llygaid i'r mynyddoedd o 'r lle y daw fy nghymorth

Fy nghymmorth a ddaw oddiwrth yr Arglwydd, yr hwn a wnaeth nefoedd a daear
Ni âd efe i’th droed lithro: ac ni huna dy geidwad
Wele, ni huna ac ni chwsg ceidwad Israel.
Yr Arglwydd yw dy geidwad: yr Arglwydd yw dy gysgod ar dy ddeheulaw.
Ni’th dery yr haul y dydd, na’r lleuad y nos.

Yr Arglwydd a'th geidw rhag pob drwg: efe a geidw dy enaid.
Yr Arglwydd a geidw dy fynediad a’th ddyfodiad, o’r pryd hwn hyd yn dragywydd.

Thanks!

Phil

*Phil would like personally to thank 'Swansea Jack' for providing a web link to a Welsh spoken word version of Salm 23; though not the 1588 one, it has been of considerable help to me. Swansea Jack is a contributor to 'Americymru', a web site for Welsh ex-pats living in N. America. Follow the link to this web site on my Contacts & Links page ...

Selah!

Just had an email from my elder brother, the Rev Norman Ryder, with some (expectedly) erudite comments on the above topic (see my previous post):

"Dear Phil,

Deborah has forwarded to me your request re the Hebrew word selah with reference to your 'Songs of God' project. I did some research on this word some years ago, and one of my sources was a dissertation from an academic in East Anglia whose name, delightfully, was 'Winsome Tuke'. After all sorts of analysis such as frequency of occurrence in the relevant psalms, position of the word in all occurrences, and root meanings as far as anyone can judge them, she concluded that the term is an instruction to singers, musicians, ritual performers, amd the like to "LIFT UP". Next question: what were they to LIFT UP?

One suggestion is that it was the Ark of the Covenant carried along in procession to and from the temple in Jerusalem. Problem: there is no hint of such a ritual anywhere in the Bible. Another is that it refers to pilgrims etc mounting the steps leading up to the temple -- see psalms 120 onwards, with titles 'A song of ascents' which could equally as well be translated as 'A song for the temple steps' -- that is, at this point in a psalm everyone moves up one step. Problem -- does selah occur in these psalms???

General conclusion is that the word is, as you suggest, a musical term -- go up an octave or sing a descant, perhaps. My musical knowledge is too weak to permit me to judge how likely this is. So it may simply mean that the pilgrim at this point is to wave aloft his palm branch or whatever symbolic object he is carrying.

For what it is worth, I note that the word also appears in the Prophecy of Haggai, in his psalm which forms chapter 3 -- see verses 3 and 13.

Over to you! "

 

Also, Liz has her Jewish friensd Rachel looking into this matter ... What have I started???

 

Watch this space!

 

Phil

Psalm 67

This will shortly be 'nailed down' - i.e. ready for pefromance by rote!

Advice/opinions from anyone please, on how to deal with the interjection, 'Selah', commonly placed, in the King James Version, at the end of certain lines. I've read numerous theories about what 'Selah' means, ranging from a musical instruction to a word of praise, similar to 'Allelujah'. I am currently using the latter, because it 'works ' dramatically.
Ideas??

The New Order!

Just revised the running order of 'Songs of God', to give it more shape and direction ..

It's now:

Psalm 67
The Song of Moses (Exodus 15)
Paradise Lost Book 1 (Milton): Satan assembles the Fallen Angels
David's Lament for the Death of Jonathan & Saul (2 Samuel 1)
Psalm 121
The Song of Deborah (Judges 5)
The Magnificat (Luke 1)
May Magnificat (GM Hopkins)
God's Grandeur (GM Hopkins)
A Meditation (St Columba)
Meditation XVII "No Man is an Iland" (John Donne)
Sonnet "Death Be Not Proud" (John Donne)
Trinity (St Patrick)
Heaven-Haven (GM Hopkins)
Psalm 23
Jerusalem (William Blake)

PS "Easter" by George Herbert will be added as & when Liz has composed the music for it ...
     Poems by Raleigh ("Give me my Scallop Shell of Quiet") and Sylvia Plath ("A Better
     Resurrection") will also be added by July ...

Watch this space!!

Phil

Every morning is a new song!

In more ways than one. This morning, as all mornings, is like no other! Also, I just 'nailed', i.e. finished learning by rote & prepped for performance, the Song of Moses, which celebrates the ruination of the Egyptian host when it tried to pursue the 'sojourners of Goshen' - the children of Israel -  across the Red Sea. You may remember that Pharaoh expelled the Israelites from Egypt because of the plagues visited on them by God, and afterwards regretted this, because there was no-one left to serve tea and mow the lawns! Hence the attempt to fetch them back.
This thrilling song is paired in 'Songs of God' with an excerpt from Paradise Lost, Book 1, in which there are two extended similes, referring to (a) the plague of locusts and (b) the destruction of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea.
I'm now working on nailing down Psalm 67, which will be the new 'opener'.
Talking of 'nailing down', I aim to put my rendering of 'The Song of Deborah' on here as an audio file in the next couple of weeks. This will come with a 'not for the squeamish' health warning. (Sisera, captain of Jabin's host, is literally nailed to the ground - through his temple - with a tent peg, hammered in by Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. And Sisera thought she was his friend! Yeah, right ...).