The same straightforward approach seen in The Lamentation
can be found in Bairstow’s setting of Psalm 114 In Exitu Israel
, where the conventional Anglican psalm-chant undergoes modification with dramatic results. In this case a single chant undergoes a series of variants. These include the dramatic fortissimo at the words ‘Tremble, thou earth’, together with a 32-foot pedal reed stop and the unusual treatment of the words ‘springing well’. This psalm-chant first appeared in the York Minster chant book in 1929. One of Bairstow’s favourite devices is employed to good effect in both The Lamentation and Psalm 114—that of a sudden excursion into the flats: in The Lamentation the key of A flat major was used at the words ‘Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us’, and in Psalm 114 this takes the form of an unexpected harmonic shift at the words ‘What ailest thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest’.
from notes by William McVicker © 1997