Psalms in Our Time

Psalm 103: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

This psalm offering wholehearted praise and thanksgiving, is given a deeply personal interpretation by a German Reformed hymnwriter.

Text: Joachim Neander, 1680; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1863

Meter: 14,14,4,7,7 Dactylic

Rhyme scheme: aabba

This psalm is a closely reasoned paean beginning with the singer, surveying all time and space, and finally calling on all creation to praise the Creator.

This hymn is a relatively free rendition, with its own tight symmetric structure: both the singer and all creation are mentioned in both the opening and closing stanza. Its complex metrical form conceals a tight poetic structure. The psalm's meditation on God's work in time is reflected in the hymn's symmetry based on time. The opening stanza calls all to assemble to praise God, the final stanza calls for renewed dedication at the close of service. The center stanzas are also symmetric, responding to God's actions, structurally placing God at the center of the hymn. This is perhaps the best example in this collection of how Montgomery's ideals of poetic form can work in practice.

Joachim Neander (1650-1680) is considered the most important German Reformed hymnwriter: he wrote only sixty hymns, but many are still in use in Reformed, Lutheran, and even free church traditions. Through history, rarely has one person distinguished himself writing both hymns and hymn tunes; but Neander also wrote 19 hymn tunes, several of which are also still in use. As head-master of the Reformed Grammar School at Düsseldorf, he associated with the Pietists¹; his private religious meetings and unofficial preaching provoked opposition.² He then briefly served as pastor in Bremen, where he published his hymns, before dying of "consumption."

His hymns have been described as "personal" or "subjective"; this may partly be attributed to the fact that the Reformed churches then used exclusively psalms in worship, and he expected his hymns to be used in personal or family devotions. This may also account for the emphasis on the personal element from this psalm, even with its communal and universal references.

The translation by Catherine Winkworth for her A Chorale Book for England³ has found wide acceptance. Her effective use of this most unusual meter is an example of her consummate skill in adapting German hymns to English. Each stanza falls into two parts: the four-syllable acclamation "Praise to the Lord!" introduces two lines emphasizing what God is and does. The third line turns to the worshipper, with four matching syllables, calling for a response: "Come! See! Ponder! Praise and adore!"

"Lobe den Herren"

Incipit: ddsmrdtlsltdrd; 11532 17656 71211

Melodic scheme: aab

This anonymous tune first appeared in the Stralsund Gesangbuch for a hymn Hast du denn, Liebster. One handbook calls it "a magnificent tune; one of the finest and most popular tunes of the Lutheran repertoire." Neander adapted it for his hymn, and the two have been attached ever since. Small wonder: the tune fits the (translated!) text like an O. J. Simpson glove. The first four notes, taken from the notes of a tonic chord, ring out like a clarion call; the third line responds with four notes (three repeated notes in the melody, while the parts move through the three most important major chords: tonic, dominant, tonic, subdominant). Such harmonization may seem seem perfectly ordinary, but every measure in the first two lines contains at least one minor chord: but from this melodic climax, the harmony for the next two lines consists only of major chords The last line is an expanded variant of the first two, with similar harmony. It is a most distinctive and most effective tune, with the kind of inner logic that is only enriched by repetition.

This arrangement is by William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt, the musical editors of A Chorale Book for England. In keeping with German practice, they advocated and followed the principal of retaining the "proper tunes" for hymns. They noted the degeneration of singing which accompanied the appearance of hymnals without music; they deplore the "predominance of the organ in the worship at the expense of the singing of the congregation;" they strongly deprecate the practice of introducing between every line an interlude performed by the organist.⁴ Their arrangements were intended to "combine solemnity with simplicity, and give harmonies, which, though offering no difficulty in execution, should yet approach the strength and purity peculiar to the best Church music of all times."

Use:

Thoughtful, individual, universal, God-centered, firmly rooted in divine revelation and personal experience, this is truly an essential poem of praise. This psalm is not well represented in our books: as a result, our whole concept of praise is debased. There is surely room for several versions⁵ of it; neither of the two versions here fully represent the psalmist's thought.

Excursus: Vocal Harmony

A Chorale Book for England includes a musical preface whose early protest against the organistic Victorian harmonies, and emphasis on historically validated tunes is noteworthy. An early reviewer said,

"The harmony is essentially vocal. It is quite a luxury to follow even with the eye the bold, free movement of the parts which distinguishes every page of the book, contrasting so pleasantly with the prevalent ... style of hymn-book harmony... The independent melodic treatment of each part is preserved, tenfold interest being given to the work of each individual singer. The universal use of keyed instruments has somewhat dulled the popular perception of the beauty of vocal harmony; and a piano-forte-player falls insensible into the habit of regarding harmony as a succession of chords. These chorales are just the thing to counteract this tendency. They should be sung, not played. They are essentially vocal music...."

Does this deprecatory description of the prevalent style not all too aptly describe many of our gospel songs?⁶ And what was then true of the piano-forte is a fortiori true of the guitar. Singing the bass part, I notice how often the inner voices consist of more drone than tune. The tympanist in a symphony orchestra may sit for ten minutes at a time without flicking a stick, and still fulfill his purpose; but our purpose is to sing together. And we really haven't accomplished that when some sing, and some merely drone the accompaniment.

This reminder of the true nature of vocal harmony should instill in all would-be hymn tune writers a solemn reminder of their responsibility -- not to elicit the most sentimentally attractive sounds that may be achieved with very little effort, but to provide melodies for voices in all ranges to sing. The tunes in this collection show how this may be well done across a broad range of cultures and styles; in addition, they provide a far richer (and ultimately more satisfactory) harmonic palette than either the three-chord honky-tonk Gospel arrangements, or the shallow parallel-fifth inanities of of illiterate guitar music and recent "praise choruses."

Notes:

⁰See the alternate version, Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, for a more detailed outline.

¹A movement that focused on personal religious activity rather than theological creeds; this was partly a reaction on the credal strife that impacted both Neander and Gerhardt; partly a reaction to the large but dead state churches. It gave a renewed emphasis to congregational singing. See also Freylinghausen.

^1aThe 14-syllable opening is apparently the longest first line in common use.

²The legend that he left town and lived for some months in a cave near Mettman on the Rhine, is without historical foundation, although he was known for his love of the beauty of nature, and he probably knew the cave. It is still called "Neander's Cave", and the gorge, "Neanderthal" ("Thal" is German for "Valley"), where remains of the eponymous "Neanderthal" race of man were first found.

³See also If you will only let him guide you and Out of the depths; Catherine Winkworth's complete poetic works are online at CCEL.

⁴See the discussion in Blessed is the man that never, which has a very famous arrangement featuring such an interlude.

^4aGreat Songs of the Church, Revised is an honorable exception, with both of these versions and two others. Songs of Faith and Praise contains this version.

⁵ See also Praise, my soul, the King of heaven

⁶For example, The love of God ("Since the love of God has shed") originally contained arpeggio piano chords interpolated not just after every line but after every four syllables. Our hymnal editors removed the piano, but not the pianistic part writing; they simply gave those most unvocal arpeggios to the bass part. The same clumsy, inappropriate transposition from instrumental part to vocal line can be seen in other arrangements (from both classical and pop sources) in our hymnals; it should not be tolerated!

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