Wait on the Lord or The Plaguel Cadence

Harriet Petherick Bushman

A Motet: performed on Zoom by singers from Kuwait, Europe, India and the U.S. during the COVID-19 era. In response to Psalms 14, 27, 57.

Commissioned by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts as part of the Art for Uncertain Times grant

In troubled biblical history, psalms were written and sung…

With the devastation and fear caused by COVID-19, [I] responded to a call from the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts in New York City to create a piece of work expressing Art in Uncertain Times. In troubled biblical history, psalms were written and sung and the beauty of their words was an inspiration in the composition of Wait on the Lord. Lines from 14, 27 and 52 ask that our prayers and mediation should keep us safe in the shadow of heavenly wings until calamities pass, and that we should be heartened and encouraged by the Lord’s loving kindness. Unaccompanied or ‘a capella’ is an ancient tradition relying on the harmonies and the balance of voices for its beauty and purity of sound. It has a delight to work with choristers from India, the US and Europe to create, even virtually, such a sound to commemorate this moment in time. —Harriet Petherick Bushman, 2020

Harriet Petherick Bushman

is a composer and musician. She was born and raised in London and started composing while at St. Paul’s Girls’ School under John Gardner. She later trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in Florence and Rome, Italy, and Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland. Following her training, she toured as a solo pianist and chamber musician mainly in the Middle East where she and her husband lived for ten years.

Upon returning to England, she scored documentary music for BBC and Channel 4 TV. She also accompanied and wrote for choirs, and with lyricist Marita Phillips, she composed her first musical. In 2006, she and her husband and two sons moved to Kuwait. In Kuwait, she collaborated with Alison Shan Price and a talented youth theater group to create musicals, songs, and music for Shakespearean plays including Othello and The Winter’s Tale. Her impressive list of compositions includes: Now Behold (1987, a cantata), Pomes Penyeach (1987, a song cycle on the cycle of 13 poems by James Joyce), Hymns for the Soul (2001, a CD and Songbook (mp3) with singers Alex Boyé and Fiona Smith), The Dream Dealer (2002, musical written for Devonshire House School, London for children 11-13 years and performed in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East), 1856 Long Walk Home (2006, a concert opera to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Willie and Martin Handcart Company), and The Little Prince (2007, a musical). She has collaborated with poet Susan Howe on several projects.

Pianist and composer Harriet Petherick Bushman has three children and lives with banker/opera conductor husband Richard in Kuwait City, Kuwait.