Adelaide festival’s choral concerts are the latest in a global series reframing ancient psalms, which composers believe are as relevant as ever
They were gathered up to 3,000 years ago, but the 150 songs that became the Hebrew Tehillim and then the Old Testament’s Book of Psalms – songs about abandonment, powerlessness and suffering – are as relevant today, in a world marked by refugees, oppression, hastily erected barriers and closed minds, as they were then.
And over four days at this year’s Adelaide festival, the songs, many composed or reconceived by contemporary
Australian and international songwriters, will be presented at 12 a capella concerts hosted in places of worship – the fourth iteration of an international project aiming to breathe new life into them.