Celebrations, composed by Vincent Persichetti, draws on the texts of Walt Whitman. Composed in nine movements that vary widely in style and mood, Persichetti's simple, judicious scoring passes rhythmic energy and musical line back and forth between chorus and winds, allowing space for every syllable of text to be heard.

The title of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms refers less to any specific classical form than to the original meaning of the word symphony - sounding together. Stravinsky wrote that his goal was "to create an organic whole without conforming to various models adopted by custom, but still retaining the periodic order by which the symphony is distinguished from the suite... a choral and instrumental ensemble in which the two elements should be on equal footing."