Chichester Psalms

Every summer, Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, England and its neighbours from Winchester and Salisbury mobilise all their energies to lift one of Britain's most important Church Music festivals (Southern Cathedral's Festival). For the festival in 1965, Leonard Bernstein was commissioned with a composition - the occasion for the now very popular Chichester Psalms. The three-part work is based on Hebrew Psalms, the amber itself put together and underline its liturgical character. Bernstein was released from his duties with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for a sabbatical year in the year of the Chichester Psalms, and used this opportunity to compose. He reports: "At that time I wrote only twelve-tone music and even more experimental stuff almost the whole year. I was happy to be able to bring out these new sounds; but after about six months of work, I threw everything away. That was not my music; it was not sincere. And as a result, the Chichester Psalms were born - surely the most catchy B flat major tonal piece I've ever written. "