Metrical Psalms Research Articles

The Significance Of Psalm Singing In Calvin's Liturgy Of The Lord's Supper And Its Relevance Today

In this article, the author argues of the significance of Psalm singing in Calvin's Liturgy of the Lord's Supper. Metrical psalm singing is one of Calvin's contributions towards the changes in reformation worship. Furthermore, his emphasis on its use in the Liturgy of the Lord's Supper is an important retrieval from the wider diversity in many contemporary church worship. Throughout the article, the author endorses a creative use of psalm singing in the church. Such practice must not be forgotten that has been formative to the reformation in the past.

From Court to Community: Francis Seager's Certayne Psalmes and the Popularization of Mid-Tudor Scriptural Verse

ABSTRACT Although previous scholarship has characterized Francis Seager’s metrical psalm paraphrase collection Certayne Psalmes select out of the Psalter of Dauid, and drawen into Englyshe Metre (1553), as a text designed for courtly audiences, the work is best understood as one designed to bring God’s word in compelling form to common men and women. New evidence for Seager’s background and career reveals his evangelical commitments and his focus on common audiences, attitudes shared by his text’s publisher William Seres. To attract common audiences, Seager selects psalms that speak particularly to the experiences and hopes of those of the lower classes, and he cast his psalm paraphrases as works to be communally sung rather than silently read, granting to them a form that allows their messages to travel beyond any individual owners of his work to all who might gather to sing or hear sung his psalms.

Musical Devotions for Mixed Audiences: Printed Metrical Song in the Edwardian Reformation

ABSTRACT While scholarship on the Edwardian Reformation often stresses reformers’ critiques of liturgical music as evidence for their disdain of religious music more broadly, this article posits that the numerous volumes of English-texted, verse scripture printed at this time demonstrate the central strategic importance of vernacular devotional song for reformers from a variety of backgrounds. Focusing on William Baldwin’s The Canticles or balades of Salomon (1549), William Samuel’s The abridgemente of goddess statutes (1551), and Christopher Tye’s The Actes of the Apostles (1553), this article re-centers the early collections of metrical psalms and other biblical verse paraphrases printed in Edwardian England as musical texts, demonstrating that reformers in mid-Tudor England embraced music as a means for England’s inhabitants to acquaint themselves with the theology and practices of the reformed Church of England. In doing so, they employed singing to confessionalize a public with diverse religious beliefs.

“To be songe to the tune of [the] 25th psalme”: Adapting The Whole Booke of Psalmes for Personal Devotion and Communal Singing

ABSTRACT By the end of the sixteenth century, The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1562, with yearly reprints) had become a symbol of English Protestantism, and its monophonic metrical psalms a hallmark of English Protestant music. Yet the psalter’s success, illustrated by its rapid and enthusiastic adoption by the English people for public worship and private devotion, was due in part to audiences failing to use it as directed. Close study of 133 editions, 222 book-copies, shows that in their use of the book, many readers of the WBP freely adapted this psalter to navigate a myriad of problems related to its printing—memorization demanded by page turns, conflicting tune references, and music typesetting errors—and to accommodate their own religious and musical desires. Congregations and individuals interacted with their WBPs in a dynamic process, freely adapting its texts, music, and even the pages themselves for purposes of convenience, recreation, and devotion.

Early Modern Scottish Metrical Psalmody: Origins and Practice

Non-literate societies are often dependent on music for transmitting news and ideas because of music’s ability to enhance memory. Sixteenth-century reformers were aware of this, but they had to compete with secular and Roman Catholic music that often contradicted Reformed doctrine. Highly influenced by the Strasbourg-based Martin Bucer and the writings of Saint Augustine, John Calvin insisted that Biblical Psalms, set in vernacular poetry, were most appropriate for both corporate worship and private devotion. The result was a series of metrical psalters that were intended to be performable by everyone. Some editions had explicitly liturgical designs, but most were intended for secular use as substitutes to secular ballads. The melodies that appeared in these psalters were usually simple and employed ranges that rarely exceeded an octave. It has generally been assumed that these narrow ranges would have allowed men, women, and children to sing the psalms together comfortably, singing in octaves with one another. However, a closer look reveals that the ranges of many metrical psalm tunes may have been difficult to sing. The following study explores the psalters produced by three centres of early modern Calvinist psalmody: Geneva, England, and Scotland. It argues that singers likely selected pitch ranges that were most comfortable rather than strictly adhering to those printed in metrical psalters. Despite this flexible performance practice, printers and editors faithfully reproduced the tunes in their original ranges. This sheds light on the shadowy origins of metrical psalm tunes, some of which were known before they became metrical psalms.

Early modern Scottish metrical psalmody: origins and practice

Non-literate societies are often dependent on music for transmitting news and ideas because of music’s ability to enhance memory. Sixteenth-century reformers were aware of this, but they had to compete with secular and Roman Catholic music that often contradicted Reformed doctrine. Highly influenced by the Strasbourg-based Martin Bucer and the writings of Saint Augustine, John Calvin insisted that Biblical Psalms, set in vernacular poetry, were most appropriate for both corporate worship and private devotion. The result was a series of metrical psalters that were intended to be performable by everyone. Some editions had explicitly liturgical designs, but most were intended for secular use as substitutes to secular ballads. The melodies that appeared in these psalters were usually simple and employed ranges that rarely exceeded an octave. It has generally been assumed that these narrow ranges would have allowed men, women, and children to sing the psalms together comfortably, singing in octaves with one another. However, a closer look reveals that the ranges of many metrical psalm tunes may have been difficult to sing. The following study explores the psalters produced by three centres of early modern Calvinist psalmody: Geneva, England, and Scotland. It argues that singers likely selected pitch ranges that were most comfortable rather than strictly adhering to those printed in metrical psalters. Despite this flexible performance practice, printers and editors faithfully reproduced the tunes in their original ranges. This sheds light on the shadowy origins of metrical psalm tunes, some of which were known before they became metrical psalms.

Hidden Music in Early Elizabethan Tragedy

In modern times, scholars have widely regarded early Elizabethan tragedy, like Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Gorboduc (1561/62) and its successors at the Inns of Court, as verbose and unlyrical. Those criticisms may reflect an incomplete understanding of the original performance tradition, however. Like Senecan tragedies from this period, those plays include act-ending choruses, mostly in pentameter and in various stanza configurations. This study proposes that in the English tragedies, at least, those choruses were very likely sung, most probably to tunes from the emerging repertoire of metrical psalms. These findings would significantly affect the character of such plays and how they are perceived by scholars and audiences alike.

The Institutionalization of the Congregational Singing of Metrical Psalms in the Elizabethan Reformation

Previous scholarship has often employed the categories of ‘voluntary’ and ‘established’ religion when studying lay involvement in parish religion; yet these categories do not provide adequate space for the vitality of lay religious initiatives during the English Reformation. Through a study of the singing of metrical psalms, this article argues that the categories of ‘inspiration’ and ‘institution’ provide a more nuanced understanding of lay religious initiatives during the English Reformation. It outlines the ways in which the singing of metrical psalms, taken from the Sternhold and Hopkins Whole Booke of Psalmes, moved from its origins in domestic devotions, through inspirational initiative, to become an institutionalized part of the worship of English congregations. This process developed over many years, coming to the fore during the reign of Elizabeth I, yet even once institutionalization had occurred, inspiration could still arise, providing fresh direction and development.

Metrical Psalm-Singing and Emotion in Scottish Protestant Affective Piety, 1560–1650

ABSTRACT Psalm-singing was an emotional experience for early modern Scottish Protestants. This article explores the affective dimension of this practice. It identifies the experiences Scots had when they sang the metrical psalms, investigates why psalm-singing stimulated these emotional episodes, and situates the activity's role within the broader framework of Scottish Protestant introspective piety. The paper initially argues that many Scottish Protestants enjoyed psalm-singing. Particularly, listening to and singing the words and melodies of the psalms stimulated desired emotional experiences. The article's second part establishes that some Scottish Protestants approached psalm-singing as a form of prayer. Consequently, psalm-singing expressed lyrically and melodically the emotions – the speech of the soul to God in prayer – of the singer. The paper concludes that because psalm-singing evoked and expressed religious emotions, it constituted a core practice in Scottish Protestant piety.

Victims of Compromise: The Elizabethan Psalm Tunes

AbstractThe music of The Whole Book of Psalms (first printed in 1562) was not a product of English tradition, but a new congregational system brought home from Geneva. Psalm tunes in Edward VI’s time had been secular, iambic and based on dance rhythms; in so far as Thomas Sternhold’s metrical psalms were sung in church, they were chanted by choirs to Sarum tones. The tunes created for congregational use by the Marian exiles had to satisfy Calvin’s principle that they must be distinct from secular songs. They avoided strong rhythms and imitated the Huguenot psalter, which catered for a very different French prosody. Elizabethan congregations were enthusiastic about singing, but did not take to many of these tunes. Evidence shows a growing tendency for the printed tunes to be ignored in practice, and to be replaced by orally transmitted ‘common tunes’ restoring the secular Edwardian idiom. These, rather than the Elizabethan tunes, became the lasting model for the English hymn tune.

Mere claptrap jumble? Music and Tudor cheap print

AbstractA Newe Ballade of a Louer Extollinge his Ladye, published in 1568 by William Griffith, is unusual because it contains a printed melody, ‘Damon and Pithias’. For many years it was seen as the epitome of printers’ incompetence when it came to publishing music. This article suggests that the melody has much in common with other vernacular song tunes of the time, including metrical psalms and thanksgiving songs. It provides possible alternative explanations for the incorrectly rendered musical notation, including the suggestion that the mistake was not necessarily made by the printer himself. It surveys other musical anomalies of the period, to argue that the presence of music on the broadside indicates that Griffith was willing to experiment with new genres. These combined aspects of the most popular vernacular songs of the day in order to appeal to a new market of musically‐literate amateurs.

Book Review: Metrical Psalms and Reflections for the Church Year

Book Review: Metrical Psalms and Reflections for the Church Year

John Heavyside's Manual of Psalmody for Public Worship of 1839: South Africa's First Anglican Collection of Metrical Psalms and Hymns

This article examines and contextualises John Heavyside's Manual of Psalmody for Public Worship (hereafter simply referred to as the Manual). It was published in 1839 in Grahamstown which, at the time, was in the Cape Colony. The Manual is the earliest South African Anglican collection of metrical psalms and hymns from the era. The article seeks to demonstrate that the Manual's editor clearly understood and appreciated the gradual popularisation of hymnody after the monopoly of metrical psalmody had been broken in 1820. It shows, too, that he was keen to introduce his own congregation to the newest international trends, not only from Anglican circles, but also Methodist and Congregational hymnody. It continues by concentrating on Heavyside's compilation, examining its contents and attempting to deduce which sources were consulted for the choice of hymns. An examination of Heavyside's editorial techniques is included to determine his contextual positioning of certain hymns. The analysis includes a commentary on the four locally composed hymns which form part of the Manual, along with an introduction to their possible author. The article concludes with a brief examination of how the hymnbook was received by the local community.

The Psalms and Medieval English Literature: From the Conversion to the Reformation ed. by Tamara Atkin, and Francis Leneghan

Reviewed by: The Psalms and Medieval English Literature: From the Conversion to the Reformation ed. by Tamara Atkin, and Francis Leneghan Emma Knowles Atkin, Tamara, and Francis Leneghan, eds, The Psalms and Medieval English Literature: From the Conversion to the Reformation, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2017; hardback; pp. xviii, 344; 18 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US $99.00, £60.00; ISBN 9781843844358. In his introduction to this valuable collection of thirteen essays Francis Leneghan identifies the psalter as 'the most highly prized, frequently copied and widely used of all books of the Bible' (p. 1) for medieval Christians. Throughout the volume its foundational role in intellectual culture is emphasized as contributors examine how memorization of and repeated exposure to the Psalms impacted literature. This, alongside a recurrent interest in the varieties of voice present in the Psalms, creates an ongoing conversation which is one of the volume's great successes. A thematic structure assists the creation of connections between essays. This usefully destabilizes period boundaries and establishes links between [End Page 180] vernacular engagements with the psalter across the volume's roughly 800-year scope (c. 700–c. 1500). In making these associations it offers an important and necessary contribution to the recent upsurge of scholarly interest in the Psalms by drawing together expert contributors from different periods and placing their work in dialogue. Leneghan's useful introductory essay traces the reception of Psalm 50.1–3 from the Vespasian Psalter to Thomas Brampton's fifteenth-century paraphrase of the Penitential Psalms, and highlights the constancies and differences present in approaches to the psalter over time. Opening the 'Translation' section, Jane Roberts's chapter examines the fifteen psalters with a vernacular gloss that survive from Anglo-Saxon England. She focuses on the relationship between gloss and manuscript, distinguishing between 'opportunistic' glosses at one end of the scale and 'integral' at the other (p. 40). Concentrating on one of the psalters Roberts discusses, Mark Faulkner argues persuasively that an archaic exemplar for the idiosyncratic Old English gloss found in the twelfth-century Eadwine Psalter was deliberately chosen. Annie Sutherland promotes the significance of the fourteenth-century Prose Psalter in her chapter. She demonstrates that the attitude to translation lying behind it, in which it 'translates not what the Psalter says but what the Psalter means' (p. 126), offers a different rhetorical approach to that found in more imitative translations. The consistent revision of vocabulary between the Earlier and Later Versions of the Psalms in the Wycliffite Bible leads Elizabeth Solopova to argue that these were texts created with different translation strategies in mind. She suggests that the revisions were part of an attempt to develop a 'standard terminology for theological and devotional discourse' (p. 145). The 'Translation' section ends with Katherine Zieman's chapter on Richard Rolle's English Psalter which carefully considers the stages of revision this text went through and the motivations that lay behind these. The 'Adaptation' section opens with Leneghan's compelling reading of the ornamental alliteration in the 'little admired' (p. 179) Old English Metrical Psalms. He argues, in perhaps the standout essay of the volume, that this created a musicality in the translation which aided memorization. Daniel Anlezark follows this with a discussion of the treatment of the Psalms in what he re-names the Old English Office (formerly the Old English Benedictine Office) and examines what this suggests about prayer in the Anglo-Saxon church. M. J. Toswell concludes a trio of chapters on Old English by demonstrating the ways in which the deep understanding of the Psalms in the period is reflected in syntactic and rhetorical parallels in a variety of Old English poetic genres. Completing the section Mike Rodman Jones demonstrates how certain disputational Psalms were deployed at 'distinct and specific textual moments' (p. 252) in Middle English alliterative poetry. The volume concludes with a section on 'Voice'. Lynn Staley opens this with an examination of the relationship between Richard Maidstone's Penitential Psalms and his Concordia that places them in their late fourteenth-century [End Page 181] political context. Vincent Gillespie surveys a series of classical and medieval sources to consider the connections between poetic theory and the interpretation...

Reading the Davison psalms in manuscript and print

This article discusses the production, dissemination, and reception of metrical psalms by Francis and Christopher Davison, using a full range of textual witnesses in manuscript and print. Although these metrical psalms have been well known through their transcriptions by the scribe Ralph Crane, the variety and extent of their material texts have not beenrecognised in previous scholarship. By paying attention to their contexts in manuscript and print, the article shows how a ‘book historical’ approach to early modern psalms informs us of many key issues in studies of early modern psalms. The Davison psalms were popular texts that attracted the attention of their readers and disseminators in various ways: initially circulated as devotional texts, they later found a home in far more miscellaneous contexts, where their copyists felt free to intervene and alter the texts as they saw fit. The Davison psalms may still remain minor texts in comparison with the most important early modern psalters, but their textual remains remind of how the period’s ‘psalm culture’ was sustained as much by eager readers as it was by enthusiastic authors.

Singing God’s Psalms: Metrical Psalms and Reflections for Each Sunday in the Church Year by Fred R. Anderson

Singing God’s Psalms: Metrical Psalms and Reflections for Each Sunday in the Church Year <i>by Fred R. Anderson</i>

Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton

Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton

Anderson's "Singing God's psalms: Metrical psalms and reflections for each Sunday in the church year" (Book Review)

Anderson's "Singing God's psalms: Metrical psalms and reflections for each Sunday in the church year" (Book Review)

Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton. Kenneth J. E. Graham. London: Routledge, 2016. Pp. xiv+206.

<i>Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton</i>. Kenneth J. E. Graham. London: Routledge, 2016. Pp. xiv+206.

Hymns across the water … translated and relocated: The reception of Scottish hymns in translation

In this article a broad overview of the reception of Scottish hymnody in translation is given. Considering the pivotal role the metrical Psalms used to play in the Scottish churches, they are considered first. Only one metrical Psalm made it to be translated widely and to be included in hymnals over the world. It is the metrical setting of Psalm 23, The Lord’s my Shepherd, paired to the tune of Scottish origin, CRIMOND. It is argued that the metrical psalm owes much of its popularity to the tune. A hymn with a text from the Scottish Paraphrases, paired to a Scottish tune, DUNDEE, and for long the only hymn in the Afrikaans churches with a Scottish connection, is discussed with regard to its reception in these churches. It serves as an example of how a hymn could be translated and relocated and function in a new context. In an overview of Scottish hymns translated and included in the newest hymnals in other countries, such as the Netherlands and Norway, it is shown that primarily hymns and songs of the Iona Community are translated and included in the newest hymnals, with John Lamberton Bell being the main exponent as text, hymn and song writer.