Ainsworth's debt to Geneva

Within the larger communion of Reformed churches, there are two principal traditions of metrical psalmody, as we have noted before:

1. The Genevan tradition, beginning in 1539 in Strasbourg and culminating in the publication of the full Psalter in 1562. This tradition is characterized by a wide variety of metrical patterns, syncopated rhythms, and simple tunes dependent on western chant and the church modes. The Genevan tradition is associated with the continental Reformed churches, especially in the Netherlands and Hungary, but also in the churches founded by immigrants from these countries in North America, South Africa, and Australia. 

2. The Anglo-Celtic tradition, beginning with the Sternhold & Hopkins Psalter, also published in 1562, which would be carried on in the Tate & Brady (1696), the Scottish Psalter (1650), and the Bay Psalm Book (1640) in North America. The influential 1912 Psalter stands in this tradition, which is dominated by a very few regular metres, such as common metre (CM and CMD: 8 6 8 6), long metre (LM and LMD: 8 8 8 8), and short metre (SM: 6 6 8 6). The Christian Reformed Church's Psalter Hymnal stands largely in this tradition, although the various editions have included Genevan tunes as well.

To this we can add a third, nonmetrical tradition:

3. Prose psalmody. In the Reformed churches, Miles Coverdale's Psalter, as found in the Book of Common Prayer, is probably the most used example of this. Since the 16th century, other translations have been used in the liturgy, set to either Gregorian or Anglican chant, the latter of which uses harmonized tunes with a pronounced metrical flavour. The Lutheran churches nowadays chant prose psalmody in their liturgies, although Luther himself authored several metrical psalm paraphrases, most notably Ein' Feste Burg and Aus Tiefer Not.

Henry Ainsworth's Psalter, brought to the New World by the Pilgrims in 1620, uniquely follows the Genevan tradition, although the tendency towards more regular metres is already evident in this collection. Waldo Selden Pratt published a book in 1921, titled, The Music of the Pilgrims: A Description of the Psalm-book brought to Plymouth in 1620. Included in this volume are all the tunes used in the collection, many of which are adapted from the Genevan Psalter. Pratt has used modern musical notation to render the tunes, indicates which Psalms were sung to each tune, and appends analytical notes beneath. Oddly, however, he appears to have missed the Genevan origins of some tunes, such as the one on p. 35 to which Psalms 2, 18, 38, 45, 52, 63, 69, 72, 107, and 140 were sung. It is quite obviously Genevan Psalm 23, reworked to conform to a 10 10 10 10 10 10 metre.

The Ainsworth Psalter went through subsequent editions in 1617, 1626, 1639, 1644, and 1690. While the Pilgrims at Plymouth remained separate from the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay for several decades, by the end of the century they had lost their distinctiveness within the larger Puritan commonwealth. Accordingly, the Ainsworth Psalter was gradually supplanted by the Bay Psalm Book with its regular metres, and the tradition Ainsworth represented was largely forgotten until the 20th century.

Pratt (1857-1939), who taught at Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut, published his volume to commemorate the tercentenary of the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. A century later, we would do well to take another look at the historic Ainsworth Psalter.