Over the past few days I have been posting on my YouTube channel videos of my guitar arrangements and performances of the Genevan Psalms. I have created a playlist which allows the viewer to play all of them in order. This can be accessed here: The Genevan Psalter. Here are two of my performances below:
I will be posting more such videos in the future. Stay tuned.
But of course all of this depended on ordinary Christians being able to read the Bible for themselves in their own languages and thereby to discern its true teachings. Today the English language in particular boasts a huge number of bible translations for every conceivable use and occasion. We speakers of the language are singularly blessed by such an abundance of spiritual riches. But there was once a time when most Christians did not have access to the Bible and had to depend on hearing only sections of it read in the liturgy in a language with which they might not be familiar. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century changed all this, laying the foundations for the Reformation.
So I was surprised—pleasantly so, to be sure—to discover that our friends behind De Nieuwe Psalmberijming have recently posted a Dutch metrical versification of this psalm set to the Genevan tune for Psalm 19: Psalm 151. To be clear, the arrangement is not precisely of the version found in the LXX but of a longer version found at Qumran and thus part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This psalm is unusual in being autobiographical in nature and is written in the voice of David himself. The story recounted is the familiar one in which David slays the Philistine warrior Goliath of Gath (1 Samuel 17).
O come, let us sing unto the Lord:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1).
But in the English Standard Version we read this:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;And in the New King James Version this:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Our friend Brian Wright has posted another psalm for our edification and enjoyment:
One more psalm from Roeland Scherff and company from the new Dutch versification of the Psalms:
Here is an inspiring version of Genevan Psalm 24 sung enthusiastically by a francophone congregation:
Here is a lovely rendition of Genevan Psalm 137 sung to Claude Goudimel's arrangement by the Ensemble Clément Janequin:
Last year I reviewed the wonderful album of Genevan Psalms in Polish produced by Cithara Sanctorum. This was shortly after I had had the privilege of spending time with Andrzej Polaszek, a Reformed pastor in Poland whose wife Agata directs Cithara Sanctorum. Because they live in the city of Poznan, the collection is known as the Psałterz Poznański. In my review, I highly recommended this album but hinted that it might be hard to come by for North Americans and others outside of Poland. However, the entire album has now been posted on YouTube for the entire world to enjoy: Psalmy -- album Cithara Sanctorum. Here is Psalm 11:
Two days ago, I alerted readers to Sam Robson's just released album of through-composed Psalms. Today he has posted a rendition of the familiar canticle often sung during Advent, Comfort, Comfort Now My People, a metrical versification of Isaiah 40:1-5 set to the tune for Genevan Psalm 42. Very nice indeed!
Our friends Andrzej and Agata Polaszek have just posted on their YouTube channel Psalm 46 from their new album, Cithara Sanctorum: Psalmy, which I reviewed last year. The text is from their collection of Polish-language Psalms, Psałterz Poznański.
Incidentally, I was privileged to spend time with Andrzei Polaszek here in Hamilton last September.
Sam Robson is a gifted British musician who, for several years now, has posted on his popular YouTube channel videos of himself singing all parts to songs he himself has arranged, demonstrating thereby his singular virtuosity. These include popular songs, folk songs, and hymns. Now he has released an album dedicated to the biblical Psalms, three of which he has posted online. These psalms are through-composed rather than metrical and use the English Standard Version of the Bible as text. Here are Psalms 3, 15, and 67:
A dozen years ago, a huge congregation assembled for the Reformed Presbyterian International Conference sang Psalm 100, set to the familiar tune, LOBE DEN HERREN.
This is quite lovely. A performance of three settings of Psalm 42, beginning with the Genevan version in French, proceeding to the version from Archbishop Parker's Psalter in English, and concluding with a Latin version composed by Palestrina. This was posted nine years ago, but somehow I managed to miss it until now.
Here is Psalm 14, which is a near doublet of Psalm 53. In this versification, stanzas 1, 2, and 4 are nearly identical in the two psalms, while 3 differs. In the Hebrew, Psalm 14 is a Yahwistic (LORD) version of the Elohistic (God) 53 (or perhaps vice versa), although this is not reflected in the new versification, except for two uses of the Dutch HEER in stanzas 1 and 3 of 14.
The congregation of the Hervormde Gemeente in Beekbergen sings Psalm 100 according to the new Dutch versification of the Psalms:
Our friend Brian Wright has posted a performance of Psalm 81. The text is from the RPCNA's Book of Psalms for Worship, and the tune, NEW MOON, is Wright's own composition.
And here now is Psalm 5 in the new Dutch versification of the Genevan Psalter:
I've long loved the Genevan tune for Psalm 121, especially Zoltán Kodály's moving arrangement. Here is Roeland Scherf and company singing their own version of this psalm using the text of the new Dutch versification:
This is not from the Genevan Psalter, but it is in French and uses
what would seem to be a standard hymn tune with a 9 8 9 8 4 metre. But I've
been unable to find it in my hymnals, and it's not familiar to me. It
may be better known in France than in North America. Here is Psalm 27 sung a cappella:
You can never hear too many versions of Genevan Psalm 25 en français! Here is a particularly delightful performance of this Psalm: A toi, mon Dieu, mon coeur monte.
Mission Timothée, on which I have posted before, offers us two Genevan Psalm performances below. The first is Psalm 25: A toi, mon Dieu, mon coeur monte. The second is Psalm 92: Oh, que c'est chose belle.
During this Paschal week it is appropriate to sing Psalm 118:
This is perhaps the best known of the Grail/Gelineau Psalms sung in Roman Catholic churches:
The Ambassadors Christian Male Chorus have been singing together since 1969 here in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Here they are performing Genevan Psalm 42 in a recording made in 1985:
Urk is a village of 21,000 in the Dutch province of Flevoland. Prior to the 1940s, Urk was an island with its own peculiar dialect. After that point, it ceased to be an island and became part of a polder, or land reclaimed from the sea. Urk is part of the Dutch bible belt and boasts an unusually large number of churches. Here in one of these we find Het Urker Mannenkoor ' Hallelujah' singing Genevan Psalm 138. With their sturdy voices, it would be difficult to imagine a starker contrast to those of the Kampen Boys Choir.
There is a certain quality we associate with the English choral tradition best embodied in the boys choir. Here the treble and bass voices are distributed amongst pre-pubescent and adolescent boys, giving the overall tone an ethereal lightness popularly ascribed to the angels in heaven. Choral evensong in the great cathedrals well exemplifies this tradition.
But to find this heritage carried on in the Netherlands is something of a surprise. One might expect the Kampen Boys Choir to be called Kampen Jongenskoor, but so committed is the ensemble to the English choral tradition that even its name is English. Dress the boys up in red cassocks and white surplices and parade them around the Bovenkerk, and you'd think you were in Oxford or Cambridge rather than in a city of 50,000 in the Dutch province of Overijssel.
Here is the Kampen Boys Choir singing Psalms 121 and 122, not from the Genevan Psalter, but from Miles Coverdale's prose psalter to Anglican chant:
Here is Psalm 46 as arranged by our Hamilton neighbour Tim Nijenhuis, locally known musician and visual artist:
Here is Archbishop Parker's rendition of Psalm 1, set to Thomas Tallis' tune, performed by The Cardinall's Musick, under the direction of Andrew Carwood. This particular video was posted not quite two months ago. It is good that the tenor soloist sings the melody first, because it is easy to lose track of the melody in a full choral performance.
Here is Parker's full versified text. Note once again the internal rhymes in the odd-numbered lines, as in his Psalm 2 text.
Read the entire article here.Last month I recounted my youthful discovery of the discipline of daily prayer, also known as the daily office. According to this pattern, whose origins almost certainly extend back to God’s people of the old covenant, the entire day is divided up into approximately three-hour intervals punctuated by the several prayer offices. The number varies between five and seven, and sometimes more.
However, one of these offices puzzled me, because it occurred in the middle of the night when I assumed most normal people would be sleeping. If we are sleeping an average of eight hours per night, wouldn’t rising to pray in the middle of this period be a huge disruption? Perhaps that’s why the daily office was relegated to the monks, who were accustomed to cultivating heroic disciplines for the sake of their Saviour.
More than ten years ago, I learned something that solved the puzzle.
Now this is delightful. I've often thought that the melodies of the Genevan Psalter, especially those in the Dorian and Phrygian modes, could easily lend themselves to jazz or blues treatment. Well, this one is in the Ionian mode (equivalent to our major scale), but our friends at Psalternatief in the Netherlands have posted what appears to be an improvised jazz arrangement for Psalm 1, and it works very nicely indeed. Gefeliciteerd, onze vrienden!
Earlier in the month, I posted about Archbishop Matthew's Parker largely forgotten metrical psalter of 1567, which included nine tunes by the incomparable English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis. Here is a recording of most of Psalm 2 as set to Tallis' THIRD MODE MELODY or THIRD PSALM TUNE. The full text in pre-standard spelling follows the video. Note the internal rhymes in lines 1 and 3.
When I was in my early twenties, I visited the bookstore of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and purchased a copy of The Daily Office, edited by Herbert Lindemann and published by Concordia in 1965. A small volume, it nevertheless runs to nearly 700 pages and includes liturgies for morning and evening prayer organized according to the church calendar. This ancient practice, usually associated with monastic communities, was unfamiliar to me, but it transformed my prayer life. . . .
What impressed me most about the daily office was the generous use of the Psalms.
In 1567, he published a Whole Psalter translated into English metre, which contayneth an hundreth and fifty Psalmes. The texts were set to eight tunes composed by the renowned Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). On the fate of Parker's texts, Timothy Duguid writes:
Our new friend Detlef Korsen has just posted a video of Genevan Psalm 141, which he sings while accompanying himself on guitar. Danke sehr, unser Freund. Sehr schön!
Incidentally, as I have pointed out before, the proper Genevan melody for this Psalm appears to borrow from the ancient hymn, Conditor Alme Siderum:
Our friend Brian Wright is at it again. He has just posted his own rendition of Psalm 85. The text is from The Book of Psalms for Worship from which members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America have sung since 2009.
This is Wright's description at his YouTube channel:
This is Psalm 85:8-13 set to “Shepherds,” a tune I wrote last year. In the verses before this, the authors, the Sons of Korah, wrestle with how long God’s people have been suffering. They ask God, “Will you be angry with us forever?…Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” And then the authors write the words I’ve sung here—confidence that God will restore, that grace and truth and righteousness and peace are the future of everyone who trusts in Him. A thousand years later, Jesus came speaking that peace, suffering in the place of sinners like me so that we might have peace with God. If you are asking God, “How long?” right now, believe these words and put your trust in the One who makes them true.
More such Psalms can be found at Anatomy of the Soul, a link to which I have put in the right sidebar of this blog.
Our friend Steve Benner informs us that the online Oremus Metrical Psalter is now complete. Each Psalm offers a musical score, followed by an organ recording of the music, then the lyrics, and finally the sources. The tunes are mostly familiar ones easily sung by most congregations in the English-speaking world. The Psalms are organized according to the 30-day schedule found in the Book of Common Prayer.
I have put a link to the Oremus Psalter in the right sidebar of this blog.
A publicação brasileira Lecionário republicou minha postagem recente sobre o legado litúrgico de Cranmer em português: O Legado Litúrgico de Cranmer. Um trecho:
Havia algum propósito por trás do trabalho de Cranmer que escapou aos reformadores litúrgicos do século passado? Isto nos leva ao livro de Hicks, uma análise fascinante da gramática teológica que condicionou o trabalho do Arcebispo.
Cantemus Choral Institute recently posted this compelling performance of Zoltán Kodály's arrangement of Genevan Psalm 150 by the Pro Musica Girls' Choir conducted by Dénes Szabó:
So many of us love to hear Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's arrangements of the Genevan Psalms. Here is the Semper Reformanda Vocal Ensemble of Gáspár Károli University of the Hungarian Reformed Church performing his arrangement of Psalm 24:
Here is the Ensemble Lamaraviglia of Winterthur, Switzerland, singing Claude Goudimel's arrangement of Psalm 25. The tenors sing the melody line.
Last month I acquired two fascinating books which I strongly recommend to Christians from a variety of traditions interested in the church's liturgy: Alan Jacobs, The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, and Zac Hicks, Worship by Faith Alone: Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Reformation of Liturgy. Although both writers take on the same subject, they approach it in quite different ways. Both volumes made for pleasurable reading over the Christmas holidays, and they prompted me to reflect further on the relationship between how we worship and how we live our lives before the face of God.
So what was this Evangelical and Reformed Church? It was created by the merger of two predecessor bodies, the (German) Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) and the (German) Evangelical Synod of North America. The German Reformed were the descendants of Reformed Christians who had immigrated from German-speaking Europe, especially Switzerland and the Palatinate, the latter of which was once ruled by Elector Frederick III “the Pious” (1515-1576), who commissioned the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563. The German Reformed began in 1725 and were initially under the care of Classis Amsterdam of the Dutch Reformed Church until 1793. During the late 19th century, efforts to unite with the (Dutch) Reformed Church in America were unsuccessful.
Thirty-five years ago I published an article in Reformed Worship titled, Straight from Scripture, in which I treated briefly Gelineau psalmody, a method of singing the Psalms using The Grail translation. Roman Catholics have sung the Psalms in this way for nearly seven decades, beginning in France with the publication of La Bible de Jérusalem. Here is an excerpt from my article:
One of the more interesting ways of singing the psalms was developed by Joseph Gelineau of France. Of all the methods of singing the psalms, Gelineau's chant best preserves the Hebrew poetic style, retaining both the parallelism and the metrical structure of the original. Ancient Hebrew meter is somewhat like early English meter (e.g., nursery rhymes) in that it focuses on the number of stresses within a line rather than on the number of syllables. Gelineau psalmody is often sung to the Grail translation, which was produced specifically for this purpose. The following passage (again from Psalm 54) is "pointed" to indicate the regular rhythmic stresses in each line:
