Joseph Gelineau
(1920-2008) - May he rest in peace.View (or search) published editions and recordings by "Joseph Gelineau"
Gelineau's translation
and musical settings of the psalms have achieved nearly universal usage
in the Christian church of the Western world. These psalms faithfully
recapture the Hebrew poetic structure and images. To accommodate
this structure his psalm tones were designed to express the asymmetrical
three-line/four-line design of the psalm texts. He collaborated
with R. Tournay and R. Schwab and reworked the Jerusalem Bible Psalter.
Their joint effort produced the Psautier de la Bible de Jerusalem
and recording Psaumes, which won the Gran Prix de L' Academie
Charles Cros in 1953.
The musical settings followed four years later. Shortly after, the
Gregorian Institute of America published Twenty-four Psalms
and Canticles, which was the premier issue of his psalms in
the United States. Certainly, his text and his settings have provided
a feasible and beautiful solution to the singing of the psalms that
the 1963 reforms envisioned. Parishes, their cantors, and choirs
were well-equipped to sing the psalms when they embarked on the
Gelineau psalmody.
Gelineau was active in liturgical development from the very time
of his ordination in 1951. He taught at the Institut Catholique
de Paris and was active in several movements leading toward Vatican
II. His influence in the United States as well in Europe (he was
one of the founding organizers of Universa Laus, the international
church music association) is as far reaching as it is broad. Proof
of that is the number of times "My shepherd is the Lord"
has been reprinted and reprinted in numerous funeral worship leaflets,
collections, and hymnals.
His prolific career includes hundreds of compositions
ranging from litanies to responsories. His setting of
Psalm 106/107, "The Love of the Lord," for assembly, organ,
and orchestra premiéred at the 1989 National Association of
Pastoral Musicians convention in Long Beach, California.
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