Psalm à la Mozart

For the Mozart Coronation Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Dr. William Picher asked if I’d like to collaborate on the musical setting of the psalm to be used at Mass that evening. Since most of the music for Mass is by Mozart, he had found a phrase from a Mozart string quintet to use as the refrain and asked if I’d write music for the verses. Bill has used several of my psalm settings previously, so was looking for a simple tone much like those I’ve sent him previously.
After having a look at the last movement of K. 516 that Bill used for the refrain, I found a portion of the string quintet that lent itself as a nice chord progression for the psalm verses. Knowing that there would at least be strings available, it made sense to me to create an entire orchestration for the composition. A recording of the live performance is now available here.