O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Psalm 8, King James Version

Psalm 8 is a song of praise, traditionally attributed to King David. It glorifies God’s creation, and man’s responsibility over this creation, man being “made in God’s image”. But what is man, compared to the immensity of the cosmos? In the covenant between God and humanity, however insignificant man may be, he was given power by God, in exchange for his faith, humility and praise.

The Midrash Tehillim[1], which gives an exegesis of the Psalms, offers further interpretations of Psalm 8 on which I have drawn to inspire associations between music and windows in this project. In many of the Tudeley windows, Psalm 8 is noticeable, with the presence of numerous animals (verses 7-8), the moon (verses 3), and the crowning of man “with glory and honour” – a reference to Moses’ shining face in Exodus 34:29.

The Tudeley windows also display elements that are less clearly associated with the Psalm, such as conventional biblical symbols: Adam and Eve, Christ and Jacob’s ladder in the memorial window, for example; and also extraneous elements, such as a representation of “Vava” (Valentina, Marc Chagall’s second wife).

In the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 8 is to be read on the evening of the first day of the month, as well as at Mattins on Ascension Day. In the Roman Catholic liturgy, it is often associated with Eucharistic celebrations and is read on several occasions during the liturgical year.

[1] The Midrash is Judaic biblical interpretation and commentary composed between 400 and 1200 BC.   

Pour moi, un vitrail représente la cloison transparente entre mon coeur et le coeur du monde. Le vitrail est exaltant, il lui faut de la gravité, de la passion. Il doit vivre à travers la lumière perçue. La lecture de la Bible est déjà la lumière, et le vitrail doit en manifester l’évidence par sa grâce et sa simplicité.[2]

For me, a stained glass window represents the transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world. Stained glass is exhilarating, it needs gravity, passion. It must live through the light it receives. The reading of the Bible is already the light, and the stained glass window must show this through its grace and simplicity.

[2] Marc Chagall, in conversation with André Verdet, Chagall méditerranéen, Paris, 1984.