John Calvin heard and saw the Lutheran metrical psalms and hymns while he was in Strasburg; there, in 1541, he published his first psalter with 17 psalms. When he returned to Geneva, he issued successively expanded editions, until finally in 1562, all 150 psalms (as well as the Ten Commandments and the Song of Simeon) were available.

Calvin was neither a poet nor a musician; at first he provided several of his own versifications, but replaced them when better ones became available. A more important source was the French courtier and poet Clement Marot, who had been writing metrical psalms since before 1533, but not for congregational use: it was the fashion of the time, as the national languages of Europe were finding their literary voice, to translate literature from the ancient "literary" languages. The threat of oppression also drove Marot to Geneva, where he contributed new psalms. When Marot returned to France, Calvin persuaded Theodore de Bèze to take up the task. Theodore Beza was a distinguished classical scholar and teacher, and after Calvin's death the recognized leader of the reformed movement which had spread far beyond Switzerland.

Clement Marot returned to France before completing a psalter; several years later, Calvin persuaded Theodore Beza to

Translation: William Kethe, 1561

In the 1550s, British refugees had begun to appear in European cities, driven by the cruel oppression of Queen Mary. William Kethe, who is said to have come from Scotland, appeared in 1555 in Frankfort, but soon joined the large English-speaking community in Geneva. Following Calvin's lead, they began to compile a metrical psalter in English (the 1561 "Anglo-Genevan" psalter). Kethe contributed 25 psalms (compare Psalm 104).

When Mary died and Elizabeth became queen, the exiles brought their incomplete psalter home, where it became the core of the English Psalter of 1562 and Scottish Psalter of 1565. Kethe's versions were included in the Scottish Psalter, but since the English Psalter (and the 1650 Scottish Psalter) avoided psalms in unusual meters (see #23a), the rest of Kethe's work fell out of use. (But compare #104.)

During the attempted restoration of Roman Catholicism in England, Protestant-minded refugees fled to Europe. ; The Scots adapted the entire collection as the core of the "Scottish Psalter" of 1564. Ten of Kethe's psalms were also included in the English Psalter of Sternhold & Hopkins of 1565. Following the Genevan example, Kethe and the other Anglo-Genevan compilers had used a number of different metrical forms. But with the failing musical standards (see Psalm 23a), nearly all fell out of use (but compare Psalm 104), and only this text remained in the Scottish Psalter of 1650, and not unchanged. The change was very minor: the word "fear" in stanza 1 was replaced by "mirth", to more accurately reflect the original Hebrew.

The result is often not line Almost never will one find anything added to, omitted from, sentimentalized, paraphrased for Nor can it have been accidental, b Another ideal was

This tune, first composed by Louis Bourgeois for Psalm 134 in the Genevan Psalter, is surely the most successful hymn tune ever written. In addition to use wherever the original meters of the Genevan psalter were retained in translation, it was adapted for psalm 100 in John Day's psalter (a musical version of Sternhold & Hopkins of 1562), and was included in the Great Scottish Psalter of 1635. It also came into use in Germany through Klopstock's translation of the Genevan Psalter, and was also used as a hymn tune there. All of the others fell out of use when the This is by far the most successful of those: it was included in the English and Scottish psalters of the 1560's, and passed almost unchanged into the "New" Scottish Psalter of ( f those: his original home may have been Scotland. He returned to England about 1563 first appears, William Kethe This is the Kethe/

Use:

Calling God's people to praise Him --

Notes: