Pilgrim Songs

The sequence of fifteen psalms numbered 120–134 all share a common feature – they have a superscription (title) of Shir Hama’aloth, meaning “Song of the Ascents”, or, in the case of Psalm 121, Shir Lama’aloth, meaning “a song regarding ascents”. This has led them to be referred to as Songs of the Ascents – they are also sometimes called Gradual Psalms, Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs.
Many scholars believe that the common titles indicate that these psalms were sung by pilgrims as they either ascended the road to Jerusalem or possibly as they climbed the fifteen steps leading up to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Pilgrim Songs are well suited to being sung due to their other shared characteristics – they are short, poetic in form, witty in style, and generally hopeful in tone.
This short collection features through-composed SATB a cappella settings of the whole texts of five of the Pilgrim Songs:
Psalm 121 – I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills
Psalm 122 – I was glad
Psalm 128 – Blessed are all they that fear the Lord
Psalm 130 – Out of the deep
Psalm 134 – Behold now, praise the Lord
All are written in a straightforward style intended to closely match the words in rhythm and expression. Consequently the settings feature very little repetition of words, apart from the final setting, of Psalm 134, which repeats most of the verses due to its short length of only four verses. As these settings include all the verses of each psalm, they could conceivably be sung liturgically in which case the Gloria Patri may be sung afterwards to an appropriate chant – I have written a compatible chant for each, based upon musical material from the psalm setting.