Plainchant setting
The recording below is based on the Sarum Psalm tones as presented in the St. Dunstan’s Plainsong Psalter. It is chanted to Tone I A 8.
Anglican chant setting
Below is a recording of a setting of this Psalm by Hugh Brooksbank (1854–94). It is sung the Ely Cathedral Choir, conducted by Paul Trepte, with organist David Price
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Ad Dominum cum tribularer
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) set this Psalm to music. Here is the text of the entire Psalm:
Ad Dominum cum tribularer clamavi, et exaudivit me.
When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord: and he heard me.
Domine, libera animam meam a labiis iniquis et a lingua dolosa.
Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips: and from a deceitful tongue.
Quid detur tibi, aut quid apponatur tibi ad linguam dolosam?
What reward shall be given or done unto thee, thou false tongue:
Sagittae potentis acutae, cum carbonibus desolatoriis.
even mighty and sharp arrows, with hot burning coals.
Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est! habitavi cum habitantibus Cedar;
Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech: and to have my habitation among the tents of Kedar.
multum incola fuit anima mea.
My soul hath long dwelt among them:
Cum his qui oderunt pacem
that are enemies unto peace.
eram pacificus; cum loquebar illis, impugnabant me gratis.
I labour for peace, but when I speak unto them thereof: they make them ready to battle.
Palestrina’s setting of Psalm 120 is sung here by the Choir of New College, Oxford, conducted by Edward Higginbottom.
Orlande de Lassus, Ad Dominum cum tribularer
Psalm 120 is a relatively short Psalm, but it describes a lot of tension: trouble, lying lips, deceitful tongues, enemies, and battles. Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594) set to music only the verses of Psalm 120 that are used in the Gradual for the Second Sunday after Trinity. But his use of unpredictable harmonies is one of the devices he uses to capture the sense of uncertainty in this moving text, which (it must be admitted) does not end on a triumphant note.
Lassus’s setting of Ad Dominum cum tribularer is sung here by the Collegium Vocale Gent, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe.
Hans Leo Hassler, Ad Dominum cum tribularer
Like the setting by Lassus above, Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) also captures the tension of Psalm 120 with both harmonic and melodic surprises. Most notable is Hassler’s use of melodic phrases that creep up (and later, down) in very small steps. Hassler’s Ad Dominum cum tribularer is sung here by the Ensemble Vocal Européen de la Chapelle Royale, conducted again by Philippe Herreweghe.
Heinrich Schütz, Ad Dominum cum tribularer
The first two verses of Psalm 120 are sung as the Gradual for the Second Sunday after Trinity. Many Latin-language settings of the text for this Gradual are designated as Ad Dominum cum tribularer, “To the Lord, in trouble,” which omits the verb clamavi (“I called”) used in the opening verse.
Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) was born exactly 100 years before Johann Sebastian Bach, and is often regarded as the greatest German composer before Bach. His setting of Ad Dominum cum tribularer is sung here by the Dresden Chamber Choir, directed by Hans-Christoph Rademann.