Whose psalmody?

Abstract

Eighteenth-century psalmody looks like any other Musica Britannica volume: large, weighty and imposing, it exudes loftiness of purpose. My first encounter with some of the music in this volume was in humble manuscript form. My immediate reaction was that much of this material might never before have been in such an exulted setting. This is a far from trivial matter: what does the placing of this music in this format do for our perception of it? Certainly it makes available 103 examples of the church music of a variety of English composers of the period, but it does this by placing the pieces in a setting which is monumental in a number of senses, giving parochial and everyday music a place alongside the works of William Byrd and Hubert Parry. Musica Britannica was set up to be an ‘authoritative collection of British music’ and to see authority embrace inclusivity may be a welcome development—can we look forward to a volume of early music-hall songs? However, my unease remains and the notion of incorporation hovers at the back of my mind.