MusicSpoke | Artist Owned Sheet Music™

About the Score

Psalm 23 began in 2003 as a gift to Karen and Wilma, two singers in my first church choir who asked if I would write a duet for them to sing. As a young (21-year-old) composer, this project afforded me an opportunity to focus on composing music to a text of my choosing, with specific voices in mind. I wanted something universal—appropriate in any season and known beyond the church walls—so Psalm 23 quickly became the natural choice. Since then, the piece has had life in choral ensembles of all ages, proving to be equally effective for worship services and the concert stage in both small and large-ensemble settings. My intial musical idea came at the piano: an ascending pair of perfect fourths which resolve stepwise down to the tonic (seen first in measures 15–18). From that moment, the melody took shape quickly. I aimed to give each voice part its own melodic independence and expressive value. While much of the piece is homorhythmic, you'll encounter some light counterpoint at letter B and a brief, single-statement canon just before the final “Amen.” Though written in two parts with no divisi, I hope singers find musical interest in the interplay between the vocal lines and the piano, which is meant to be both supportive and musically viable on its own.

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