Ernst Stolz: Psalm 25

A cappella Psalms

Here is another useful link for those with an interest in sung psalmody: The Psalms of David Sung A cappella. The website has been put together by one Connor S. Quigley, who has graciously permitted us to "Listen, Share & Download for Free." With pleasure!

URC Psalmody

The United Reformed Churches in North America (not to be confused with the vastly different United Reformed Church across the pond) began nearly two decades ago when a number of congregations broke with the Christian Reformed Church and formed their own denomination. Up until now these churches have been singing from the CRC's old blue Psalter Hymnal dating back to 1959 and 1976. But this book is long out of print, and continuing to sing from it is obviously not feasible over the long term. Accordingly the URC is planning a new Psalter Hymnal in co-operation with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Progress on this front can be tracked at URC Psalmody.

I myself grew up in the OPC, and we sang from the 1961 edition of the Trinity Hymnal, which was heavily based on the now century-old 1912 Psalter. Although it contained a large number of metrical psalms, it did not include the entirety of the biblical Psalter. By joining forces with the URC to produce a Psalter Hymnal, members of the OPC will now have access to all of the Psalms for the first time in 76 years, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

Stolz: Psalm 23 . . . encore une fois

June updates

Russell Stutler is a Christian residing in Japan who loves the biblical psalter and has posted Three ways to sing the Psalms. Included is a nice survey of published psalters appropriate for personal use, even on public transportation. I myself have taken to reading through the Psalms on my Kobo Touch eReader, which holds huge amounts of information in a small, easily portable unit. Perfect for the bus ride.

Sarah Noll has come up with a way to sing prose Psalms that closely resembles Gelineau Psalmody. Check out her efforts at Prose Psalm Singing (NKJV) to a steady tempo.

Those interested in hearing all 150 Psalms sung in Hebrew would do well to look at this website: Ashkenazi/Sefardim Torah Leining/Reading MP3 Audio, hosted by Daf Yomi Review. All 150 files can be downloaded for personal listening. If you don't understand Hebrew, perhaps it's time to learn.

Psalms on the chest organ

I had not heard of a chest organ before now, but here is a young man playing three Genevan Psalm tunes on this 17th-century instrument. The tunes are for Psalms 42, 134 and 65/72.

Stolz: Psalm 22

Ernst Stolz has rectified his apparent omission by recording and posting Psalm 22. Unlike his other recordings, this one features a baritone soloist singing the first stanza successively in French and German:

Stolz: Psalm 24

Stolz is picking up his pace a bit and has now recorded Psalm 24, whose tune is, of course, identical to that of Psalms 62, 95 and 111. He has already recorded Psalm 23 twice, but he looks to have skipped over Psalm 22.

Stolz' latest: Psalm 21

Ernst Stolz is recording the psalms in order, which brings him now to the 21st:

Psalm 1

I have just uploaded my performance of Psalm 1:

In defence of the Scottish Psalter: simplicity

Compared to the lively and irregular metres of the Genevan Psalter, the Scottish Psalter's ubiquitous common metre texts can seem monotonous in the extreme. However, the Rev David Silversides makes a legitimate point in defence of the latter in his piece on The Development of the Scottish Psalter:

It is a lovely biblical thought, is it not, that the Psalmody of the people of God should be such that as many as possible, even those of limited musical ability, can seek to join in? Yes, we should make our Psalmody as beautiful as possible, but without causing one of the saints of God to be left unable to attempt to sing because of its complexity. It should never become so elaborate that we end up with those who are musically skilled as the only ones who can really sing. At the Reformation, there was a deliberate reversal of Rome's practice of having the professional singers perform to a silent congregation. Our Reformers purposely sought to have the Psalms sung by the whole congregation of the people of God. John Calvin in Geneva resisted anything too complex in the singing of Psalms in order to ensure that the whole congregation could join in the praise of God.

Did the Scottish Psalter achieve this aim of simplicity? Well, let us ask the question: How many tunes do you need to know to be able to sing the whole Scottish Psalter through? The answer of course is one. It may not be desirable, but if you can manage one tune, you can sing every verse in the Book of Psalms from the Scottish Psalter. Where there is only one version of a particular Psalm, it is always in common metre (i.e. the number of syllables in the four lines respectively is 8:6:8:6). If there are two versions of a particular Psalm, one of them is always in common metre. This means that if you can remember the tune that our precentor used in singing Psalm 95 this evening, then you could sing every Psalm to that tune if you use the Scottish Psalter. Now that is simplicity if ever it existed.

Psalm 121

This is a soulful arrangement and performance of Psalm 121, a favourite of many believers down through the ages. I don't know who is performing it or who composed the lovely arrangement for winds and chorus, but it was uploaded to the Upquark2 channel.