This piece came about as a request from my dad for a setting of Psalm 150 for his seventieth birthday. While planning it, I remembered an unfinished setting of Psalm 13 from my late teens which suggested a three movement piece, a sort of miniature version of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms that could be sung by an ordinary church choir. Psalm 100 was the right length to balance Psalm 150 and contained the words "For the Lord is good" which is about as close as I can come nowadays to a statement of faith.
The tresillo rhythmn (123 123 12) is for me strongly associated with dance and energy, and seemed appropriate for the slightly unhinged joyousness of the words for the outer movements. The clapping at the end is inspired by gospel music.
The third movement was first performed on Easter Day, 2011 at St Peter's Church, Limpsfield. My thanks to Anne Osborn, Graham Dinnage and the choir for their hard work in preparing a challenging piece.