#Psalmtweet #Psalter 8:5

This post has the chromatic mode with the augmented fourth. Sung here.

Mode is a subjective decision. In earlier days I thought this mode too difficult to sing, but hear the performance of Chanticleer in Psalms 29. It is a striking performance. Occasionally my software will change a g to g# in this mode. I haven't found the place where I should correct it! For this mode, as the performance indicates, the change on an ornament is not required.

This is the first key verse that illustrates a broad structure within the 150 Psalms as a whole. There is a chiasm formed by the poems that precede the acrostics and certain keywords. Psalms 8:5 and 144:3 are the outer pair. Psalms 36 and 110 the inner pair, these being the only two oracles in the Psalter. The music for this verse and the corresponding one in 144 are described here in a trio I wrote to explore this key question - just what is this human being that we are - now the second largest biomass on the earth - second only to cows.

Here is the image of the structure.

A chiastic relationship between the poems prior to the acrostics in the Psalter

מָֽה־אֱנ֥וֹשׁ כִּֽי־תִזְכְּרֶ֑נּוּ וּבֶן־אָ֝דָ֗ם כִּ֣י תִפְקְדֶֽנּוּ		5 What is a mortal? for you remember it. And a child of humanity? for you visit it,
h mh-anow ci-tzcrnu ubn-adm ci tpqdnu	8 9	mh anvw ci t/zcr\nv v/bn adm ci t/pqd\nv