Although I changed to political science during my second year, music is more than a sideline for me. My latest obsession is the “Genevan Psalter,” a metrical Psalter completed in 1562, in which several people set the biblical Psalms to verse and composed melodies for them, some of which were based on familiar Gregorian chant tunes. It took me from 1985 to 2021, but I set all 150 Psalms to verse in English meter so they could be sung to these tunes. I hope to publish this collection eventually, and I’ve received funding from two sources for this project. During the past week or so, I have recorded guitar performances of several of these tunes and posted them on my YouTube channel.
Many contemporary Protestants don’t know that their forebears sang the Psalms, but they did — right into the 19th century. Some traditions still do so, but they are a minority, sad to say. My ultimate goal is to revive the ancient practice of singing the Psalms, which should be an integral part of all Christian liturgies.
