One chorus that I am in, the Summertime Singers, performed Mozarts's Vesparae solennes de confessore, KV 339 two days ago.
The words are psalms 111, 112, 113.
It is full of small quartets and solos, with the soprano the most exposed. We had 7 sopranos and 5 of us did solos or quartets.
I sang the Beatus vir soprano part of the quartet. It is exposed and I worked with a teacher. Late, because the teacher I was going to work with cancelled for a family emergency.
I sang a solo last summer, Pie Jesu. I was very comfortable with those word... but the Beattus vir is Psalm 112: Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.
Ok, it's all male. And it's about a righteous male and he has enemies and by gosh they are wicked and they will get what they deserve. Ick. I read the psalm carefully in hopes that it would help me sing it, but frankly ick.
I changed it: The lord becomes the Beloved, who is neither male nor female to me, and I thought of the enemies as those parts of ourselves that we project on others. Our own fear, our greed, our wanting to be righteous, wanting to be rich so that we can gift to the other lazy slovenly unrighteous losers who we pity....how many of the seven sins are in that psalm? Certainly greed, pride, wrath. If I think of it as MY greed, pride and wrath and the psalm as a prayer to the Beloved to forgive me and protect me from projecting it on people, to make me loving....
....then I could sing it, as my teacher says, as beautifully as I can imagine.
BQ 294