One of the first enduring products of the English reformation was the 1549 Book of Common Prayer1. It included a complete version of the psalms2, marked ("pointed") either for responsive reading or for chanting according to the new, harmonized, "Anglican chant".3) Through the late nineteenth century, this version of the psalms would have been most familiar in Anglican services. It was primarily intended for presentation of God's word to the congregation, not for use in praise. The Act of Parliament authorizing it also allowed
... in churches ... chapels or oratories or other places to use openly any Psalme or prayer taken out of the Bible ... not omitting thereby the service or any part thereof mentioned [in the prayer book].
This was later taken as authorization for both congregational singing of metrical psalms, and choral presentation of "anthems:" that is, musical settings of any passage of scripture. It did not authorize4 texts that were not based directly on specific Biblical texts.
The BCP, throughout all its revisions, has retained an independent translation of the psalms5, Although not directly suitable for congregational singing, it has directly inspired or influenced metric psalters.6
Thomas Sternhold's 37 metrical psalm versions were also published (posthumously) in 1549. In 1551 a reprint added seven versions by John Hopkins.
Queen Mary (1553-1558) tried to roll back these changes by violent suppression of reformed practices and oppression of reformers; her savagery did much to confirm the people's determination to maintain religious independence. Protestant leaders fled to less hostile cities in Europe, where they absorbed influences from other national reformation movements. A community formed at Geneva and, following Calvin's concept of worship, began to collect an Order of Service including a metrical psalter built around the the (carefully revised7) work of Sternhold and Hopkins. As a result, the complete psalter became known as "Sternhold and Hopkins," although at least ten other authors contributed to it.
Following Mary's death, some of the Genevan exiles returned to England, where successive editions added more psalms, up to a complete version of 1562, and a final official version in 1565.
This psalter was a product of its age: before the King James Version, before the great Elizabethan age of English poetry, we could not expect high poetic aspirations or expositions of subtleties of the Hebrew. Hardly any of the original texts have remained in use. But Kethe's Psalm 100 and (in a revised form) Psalm 104 need no apology for their continued use.
The English editors were obviously concerned about the literal faithfulness of their versions; their own revisions sometimes even anticipated corrections made in the King James Version of 1611. Their concern for public use was shown in another way, by the innovation of "common tunes."
The Genevan psalter had planned for a separate tune (and perhaps a distinctive meter) for each psalm. The English revisers used only a few "common meters8" ("ballad meter," or "common meter", 8,6,8,6 Iambic) for most of the psalms, and "short meter" (6,6,8,6 Iambic) for most of the rest. This allowed tunes and texts to be freely interchanged: congregations could use whatever tunes they knew, for whatever psalms they needed to sing; and new tunes could be freely introduced wherever a need was felt. Unlike for the Genevan Psalter, there was never an official set of tunes; simply a series of tunebooks. Later hymnals and singers have been especially indebted to the work of John Day, Thomas Este, and Thomas Ravenscroft.
Thomas Este was a famous music publisher in London, publishing music by the English school of madrigal composers.3 In 1592, he printed an edition of the English Psalter with tunes. Most of those tunes, including this one for Psalm 146, were published anonymously, but all were "newly written or harmonized by some of the most eminent composers of the time3." He later4 said of that edition:
The word of God delighteth those which are spiritually minded; the art of music recreateth such, as are not sensually affected: where zeal in the one, and skill in the other do meet, the whole man is revived.... Blessed is that man which delighteth [in the psalms] and meditateth on the same continually. He that is heavy, hath the Psalms to help his prayer: He that is merry, hath the Psalms to guide his affections, and he that hath a desire to be seriously employed in either of these duties, hath this excellent gift of God the knowledge of music offered him for his further help: that the heart rejoicing in the word, and the ears delighting in the notes and tunes, both these might join together unto the praise of God. Some have pleased themselves with Pastorals, others with Madrigals, but such as are endued with David's heart, desire with David to sing unto God Psalms and Hymns, and spiritual songs. For whose sake I have set forth this work, that they may busy themselves in the psalms of this holy man, being by men of skill9 put into four parts that each man may sing that part, which best may serve his voice.
This book also introduced the habit of naming tunes.9d
In the late 1600's, problems with the psalter were widely recognized; its primitive poetic form and increasingly archaic language both caused offense. Nahum Tate and Matthew Brady were commissioned to produce a new version (1695-1698, known as "Tate and Brady" or simply "The New Version10"). Their psalm versions were smoother, more often obviously paraphrased, and generally not widely accepted. When congregations abandoned what was now more often called the "Old Version," they often adopted Watts' Psalms, or even hymnals, instead.
A few texts have remained in use, including God is our refuge and our strength and As pants the hart.
It is hard to evaluate this approach, so different from our own tradition. In the long run, it provided English congregations a much larger body of tunes than were available to French-singing Calvinist reformers. And in the short run, it certainly made psalm-singing more accessible to barely-literate congregations: the 1650 Scottish Psalter reverted to this approach because of necessity. And yet: the habit of printing psalters without music could not have been conducive to the general development of singing. There is a huge and illegitimate leap (which nevertheless is often made) between "we can get to heaven without being able to read music" and "why encourage (or allow) anyone to read music if they don't need it to get to heaven?"
As in most questions of expediency, a black and white approach is guaranteed to fall short of ideal. Our hymnals traditionally contain almost exactly one tune for each text, and vice versa. This is useful: the association between words and music helps people memorize more texts, as well as more tunes; and that musical variety is treasured by many people. We may either accept this as the "inspired tradition"; or we may "break with tradition" and revel in our freedom to soothe our itching ears with random combinations of trite original tunes. Both approaches are dead wrong. The tradition is valuable because of the thousands of lines of hymns memorized by many Christians: available, even in the absence of a hymnal, for expressing joy or giving comfort. To wantonly throw that away for the lust of a transient popular style, or the pride of ownership of a few bars of music, is the act of a diabolical vandal. But such a tradition is "lossy" -- hymns drop out of our repertoire every generation. If we do not give thoughtful attention to the elements from which that tradition can be rejuvenated, we will have nothing worth vandalising. The English psalm tune tradition contains both elements worth preserving, and elements of renewal. Can we fairly say that our own hymnals have given genuine thought or adequate provision to either?
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Copyright © 2002,2003,2004, Stephen Hutcheson
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| These studies are created by members of the West Allen Church of Christ in Allen, Texas |