The shofar psalms - what is their shape

You will remember the shape: 

Definitely designed for a wind instrument like trumpet or shofar.

The psalms with the shofar incipit only occur in the first three books so I thought as aa break from looking at everything at once, I should examine these 8 psalms in more detail. The link in the first column will show you the music.

PSALM	Syllables	d	e	f#	g	A	B	C
36	237	.00	25.32	11.39	20.68	17.30	21.94	3.38	For the leader. Of a servant of Yahweh. Of David.
44	495	1.21	20.81	18.18	18.38	19.19	18.38	3.84	For the leader. Of the children of Korah, an insight.
47	173	1.73	19.65	19.08	20.23	12.72	17.34	9.25	For the leader. Of the children of Korah. A psalm.
49	358	.00	19.83	12.29	22.35	16.48	20.39	8.66	For the leader. Of the children of Korah. A psalm.
61	163	.00	22.70	12.88	17.18	17.79	24.54	4.91	For the leader with strings. Of David.
69	734	.68	19.62	18.12	13.90	21.25	20.30	6.13	For the leader. Upon lilies. Of David.
81	310	.00	21.29	11.61	20.97	22.58	20.00	3.55	For the leader on musing, of Asaph.
85	241	.83	22.82	12.45	15.77	24.48	19.50	4.15	For the leader. Of the children of Korah. A psalm.

Notice the variety of tenor with this incipit (0 on f#). Conclusion: the incipit does not determine the tenor. The tenor does not specify mode. By mode I mean the sharpening or not of selected tones in the scale.

Does the tenor tell us about the mood? To see that we need to examine the psalms as a whole. So here are brief introductions. What are the common characteristics of these psalms?

• Psalm 36 is one of two oracles in the psalter, the other being psalm 110.
• Psalm 44 is the corporate lament with its emphasis on the first person plural.
• Psalm 47 has the ascension verse 6 including the phrase 'with the voice of the shofar'. Notice that psalm 48 on the city of God is surrounded by these two shophar psalms, both of them with the rarer tenor on g. 
• Psalm 49, the riddle of the preciousness of ransom, contrasts the city of God with the dust-bowls of humanity.

(An aside: The fact that there are ornaments and significant recitations on g in the poetry tells us why the default mode for the poetry (f# g natural) is different from that for prose (f g#). There are no ornaments on the third degree of the scale in the prose books with the exception of the chapters containing the decalogue, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, and Genesis 35:22. In this one verse on filial deceit, the ornaments are remarkable for their presence. There is significance to the music -- it is not one of God's afterthoughts. The music should be an integral part of learning of the text. Where it is lacking, there will be misinterpretation.)

• In psalm 61, singing psalms forever is the fulfillment of the psalmist's vow.
• In psalm 69, the psalmist is sinking in overflowing floods. Each of these words recurs for the first time in the psalter in this psalm.
• Psalm 81 anticipates the Jubilate (psalm 100).
• Psalm 85 reflects the revelation to Moses in the kiss of righteousness and peace. These last three psalms have the tenor of A - at rest.

This interval of a fifth e to B and B to e is much more heavily used in the poetry (60% of verses) than the prose (26%). As a final cadence, B e, munah to silluq, is frequent in the poetry (35% of verses in Psalms, 46% in Job and Proverbs) compared to the prose - once only in 1 Chronicles 1:53 -- and who knows, this might be a slip of the stylus. In these 8 poems, the final cadence is 'B e' in 45% of the verses. Perhaps this is significant -- hard to tell with such a small sample.