I composed this setting of Psalm 32 for the Delaware River Consort, a vocal quartet, three of whose members sang with me in Princeton Pro Musica. A member of the group brought me the text one evening at rehearsal, finding it evocative and thinking it might inspire something. The double-bass accompaniment was requested so that a player close to the group could take part. The scoring is for SATB with double bass, but cello or organ may substitute ad lib. The piece works equally for a solo quartet or chorus.

The work opens with a Phrygian-influenced E-minor melody in the double bass, marked grave e doloroso. The voices enter softly in homophonic style, swell at “my very bones wasted away,” and then fall away in a long diminuendo. As the text turns to ceaseless wailing and crying, the voices depict the lament while the double bass imitates them with glissandi and extremes of range. “The weight of your hand” brings a heavier texture, and “my vigor withered” is set with descending melismas in the voices and further glissandi in the bass.

The confession that follows is depicted marcato in unisons and minor seconds, punctuated by accented double-bass attacks. At “I declared,” a poco meno mosso section continues the confession in E minor, the bass now offering gentler punctuations, including a high harmonic at the cadence. An a tempo then releases the accumulated tension: as the voices give thanks for the forgiveness of “the guilt of my sin,” the tonality turns to E major. The consolations of mercy ring out in a joyful chord, marked dolce. A short dance-like coda in the double bass echoes that joy, and comes to rest on a high major third.

The audio sample is the first two psalm verses. The text is my own altered rendering of Psalm 32 (31): 3–5 and 10–11: