The St Martin's Psalter is a great hit! The Dean and I both expected it not to be and are almost ecstatic at the response. People really sing the antiphons, the choir loves the harmonizations and I have used just about every imaginable configuration of the harmonies to accommodate the choir on Sundays. After years of struggle that had me on the verge of asking permission to skip the Psalms and use hymns (I even used improvisational liturgical dance as a threat), this Psalter has restored the balance between choir and congregation and made the Psalms singable and enjoyable for everyone.
— Michael Burroughs, Director of Music, Trinity Cathedral, San Jose, CA
St. Martin's Psalter
The Revised Common Lectionary - Years A, B and C
based on Hymn Tunes & Other Familiar Melodies
arr. by Thomas Pavlechko
Each year on CD-ROM - $60
The Complete St. Martin's Psalter (CD-ROM)- $150
» photocopyable «
- A Collection of Pointed Psalms, Psalm Tones & Antiphons
- More than 550 Psalm Settings
- All files included for placing into bulletins/service leaflets
For Clergy & Church Musicians
How can St. Martin’s Psalter enhance your congregation’s worship?
- Has your parish recently switched to the Revised Common Lectionary and are you looking for resources?
- Has your congregation been struggling to chant the Psalms, and needing something more practical?
- Has your choir been chanting the Psalms for years while your congregation sits idly in the pews?
- Has your choir or congregation been chanting the Psalms, but would like something new?
- Have Psalms not been chanted by your choir or congregation?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the questions above, St. Martin’s Psalter may be for you.
The reason St. Martin’s Psalter is so practical and sing-able is because the music is based upon hymns and other familiar melodies. It can be adapted to sung by a cantor, the choir or the congregation in any number of combinations. The Psalter was developed by a 30-year veteran in church music who has served full-time with Episcopal, Lutheran and Catholic churches, part-time with Presbyterian and American Baptist churches, and who thoroughly understands congregational song and assembly singing.
Purchasers of the collection are granted permission to copy anything they wish for the choir and congregation. The new pointing system, tested for ten years in Lutheran and Episcopal parishes and a seminary, is very intuitive and easy to sight-read. Both choirs and congregations will find the accents and phrases fall naturally in the right places. Clergy and church musicians will find their congregations chanting the Psalms with as much enthusiasm as they would sing a well-known hymn, due to their familiarity with the tunes.
FOR EPISCOPALIANS
Carl Daw and Kevin Hacket’s Hymntune Psalter has enjoyed tremendous use and popularity since it was released by Church Publishing in 1998. Thomas Pavlechko actually began his hymn-based Psalter in 1994. After ten years of testing, it was published in book form by St. James Music Press in 2004. The Psalter is now available in electronic format.
St. Martin’s Psalter is based on the Psalms in The Revised Common Lectionary and includes both Ecumenical and specifically Episcopal options offered in that Lectionary. Different than the Daw/Hacket Psalter, St. Martin’s Psalter matches antiphons with hymn-based psalm tones that are a happy medium between Anglican Chant and Simplified Anglican Chant. Please see the examples in St. Martin’s Sampler.(You may download a FREE copy!)
FOR LUTHERANS
Lutherans are familiar with Pavlechko’s work as one of the composers of Setting One in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. An additional Gloria, Gospel Acclamation and four of his hymns are also included in that resource.
Pavlechko thoroughly understands congregational song and assembly singing. Some of his very practical hymn-based Psalm refrains were published in Augsburg-Fortress’ first Psalter for Worship. In St. Martin’s Psalter, not only does he offer antiphons based on hymntunes and other familiar melodies, but he also includes corresponding hymn-based Psalm tones in the same meter as those originally introduced in the Lutheran Book of Worship and Lutheran Worship, and continued in Evangelical Lutheran Worship and The Lutheran Service Book. Several of his settings are included in Augsburg’s new Psalm Settings for the Church Year.
FOR ALL DENOMINATIONS
Whether you are an Episcopal Church whose professional choir has been singing Anglican Chant perfectly since 1650, a Lutheran Church whose congregation learned to chant the Psalms in the late 1970’s, a Catholic church which has been successful at introducing Gelineau or other Psalm settings, or a Methodist, Presbyterian or Baptist church who wish to be chanting the Psalms, but are not, St. Martin’s Psalter is a practical addition to your congregational service music.
Download a PDF of St. Martin's Sampler here!
Listen to these streaming files of the Psalms (and follow along.)
First Sunday of Advent
Christmas Eve
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Palm Sunday (Liturgy of the Word)
The Day of Pentecost
REVIEWS
Mr. Thomas Pavlechko's new St. Martin's Psalter should go a long way in helping our congregations participate in and enjoy singing the psalms. His instructions are concise and clear, the pointing is natural and musical, and the use of familiar seasonal hymn tunes make the chants easily accessible and singable. I recommend it.
- William Teague, retired Organist/Choirmaster at St. Mark's Cathedral, Shreveport, LA, Concert Artist with Karen McFarlane
These fresh settings give new life to congregational psalm singing. We [at the Choristers Guild] are especially pleased that children's choirs can serve as leaders.
- Jim Rindelaub, Executive Director, Choristers Guild
A simple, yet elegant way to render the psalms in worship, St. Martin's Psalter is a welcome addition to the psalters I currently employ in worship. I'm pleased to see a psalter that melds the harmonic simplicity of Anglican-style chant with sturdy and melodically interesting antiphons.
- The Rev. Patrick McGuire, Pastor and Musician, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Metropolitan Chicago Synod Worship Team
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Thomas Pavlechko is the Cantor and Composer-in-Residence at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. He served this church from 1994-2000 as Director of Music and Principal Organist, introducing these Psalm settings in his first year. From 2000-2006, Pavlechko was the Organist-Choirmaster at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he continued to develop the Psalter. Previously, he served as Organist-Choirmaster at St. Matthew Catholic Church & School, Akron, Ohio, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Petersburg, Virginia, All Saints Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Youngstown, Ohio. Baptized a Lutheran and confirmed an Episcopalian, Pavlechko remains committed to both denominations.
A church musician for over thirty years, Pavlechko has also been a member of the adjunct faculty at Richard Bland College, an arm of Williamsburg’s College of William and Mary, and served as chapel musician, adjunct faculty, and liturgical consultant to the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest, Austin, another testing site for St. Martin’s Psalter in its early years. He held a seat on the Liturgical Music Editorial Team for the new worship book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and continues to work with the ELCA and Augsburg Fortress Publishers in developing supplementary materials for this primary resource of the Church.
Selected as the 2002 Emerging Hymn Tune Composer by the Hymn Society, Pavlechko has composed over 85 hymns, over 30 choral works, and over 1,000 Psalm settings, all in print with nine publishers throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. He is the co-editor with Carl P. Daw of the new three-volume worship planning resource for the Episcopal Church U.S.A., Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary with Church Publishing. Pavlechko’s music can be found with Augsburg-Fortress, Church Publishing, GIA, Hope, Live Oak House, Selah and St. James Music Press. His compositions for brass, orchestra and wind symphony, have enjoyed premiere performances by such groups as the Austin City Brass and the Memphis Symphony, and are currently being honed and expanded through private study with composer Donald Grantham at the University of Texas at Austin.
Pavlechko’s family includes eight organists, among them, his mother and great grandfather. With no interest in sports, and really no other choice, Pavlechko began piano lessons at the age of 7, glockenspiel and tuba lessons at the age of 10, taught himself to play the organ and played for a church service for the first time at the age of 13, was hired at the age of 15 for services conducted entirely in Slovak, then, at the age of 18, took his first organ lesson at Youngstown’s St. Columba Cathedral, subsequently earning organ performance degrees from the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, both in his native Ohio.
During Pavlechko’s career in church music, he has also revived a 100-year-old Antebellum music festival in Virginia, played and directed the first-ever hymn festival at Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival, conducted a 500-voice diocesan choir, served two terms on the Music Advisory Panel of the City of Austin Arts Council, directed his church choirs at Washington National Cathedral, played recitals at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the National Cathedral, conducted eight performances of Handel’s Messiah, oversaw several Medieval Boar’s Head Feasts, conducted noon-time Christmas Pops concerts with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, collaborated with musicians from Memphis’ historic Beale Street music district in Jazz, Blues, Gospel and World Music; and, with a jazz combo that included the Calvary Church Rector, performed old southern river songs in the presence of the retired Archbishop of Canterbury, The Right Reverend and Right Honourable The Lord Carey of Clifton PC.
Pavlechko is also a commissioned Stephen Minister, has completed the pilgrimage and initial training to be a Labyrinth facilitator through Veriditas, has earned the first level certificate in the Healing Touch Program, and enjoys the ancient practice of feng shui in home renovation and design.
