About the Psalter Transpositions
Since our new sanctuary includes a pipe organ, which has no transposer, we felt it necessary to have the Psalters available in several different key signatures to help with congregational singing.
A small group of volunteers was set up to make transposed versions of the Psalters. One person volunteered to scan the music into music notation software and fix up the main errors. Another person volunteered to proofread the notes, and someone else checked the words. Another task was setting up a file system and eventually programming this website. Together, this group of volunteers completed the process in about a year. We thought that other organists could benefit from these efforts, so we are making them available for free on this website.
This is a collection of the Psalters in digital form with multiple transpositions for each. The file names indicate how they are transposed. For example, file 2-1.pdf is Psalter 2, transposed down one semitone. Most of the Psalters are transposed down a number of semitones, but there are a few transposed up as well. Using all of these in combination can foster a better understanding of the words. For example, Psalter 353 can be done as written for the first stanza, then transposed down to D Major for stanza 2, which is more subdued, and then up to G Major for the third, more joyful stanza.
If you want a PDF of the entire Psalter book, you can download it here: Entire Psalter.
If you want a .zip file containing all the psalters below, you can download that here: All Files.zip.
Please enjoy this resource. If you notice any errors in the scores or have other suggestions, please email organist@nrcfortmacleod.ca.