Psalm 117

There's a rather interesting history of Hallel sequences which appeared on my radar this morning after I had decided to do the 'shortest' psalm next.

Psalms 117: Syllables: 34; Longest recitation: 6; Tenor:  e  26.47%;
Ornament density: 17.6%; Average phrase length: 11.3.

In the Masoretic text, Psalm 117 remains the shortest psalm. 8 words, 34 or 36 syllables (add one between the two l's of the first and last words). There are only two verses, one a bi-colon-A which occurs in 47 verses in exactly this form, and one a single unique phrase which could be subdivided at the revia at the end of bar 7.

1 Praise Yahweh, all nations. Commend him, all the clans.
א הֽלל֣ו את־י֭הוה כל־גוי֑ם ש֝בח֗והו כל־האמֽים	8 7		a hllu at-ihvh cl-goiim wbkuhu cl-haumim
2 ♪f For his mercy has prevailed over us, and the truth of Yahweh is forever. Praise Yah.
ב כ֥י ג֘ב֤ר על֨ינו חסד֗ו וֽאמת־יהו֥ה לעול֗ם הֽללו־יֽה	19		b ci gbr ylinu ksdo vamt-ihvh lyolm hllu-ih

This is a highly rhythmic psalm begging for percussion accompaniment. Haïk-Vantoura's handwritten copy is the same shape as my version above, but in a different mode.

Here's a possible arrangement. There are no performances on the web that I have found. Being so short, I repeated the psalm 3 times with the middle section changing the mode, so the ancient string player might want to have two differently tuned instruments for the performance.

The music in these posts is derived from the accents in the Hebrew Bible. Introductions - letters, music, text and music, and terminology, are here.