Here is Psalm 43 from the 1650 Scottish Psalter sung to the tune MARTYRS. Note that it is in the Dorian mode, whose use is quite rare amongst the tunes to which this 17th-century collection has been set. This gives the text an unusually plaintive feel, although the Dorian mode covers an emotional range beyond the plaintive as well. The Genevan Psalter, by contrast, sets just over a third of the Psalm texts to tunes in the Dorian or Hypo-dorian modes. One explanation for this difference is that the tunes of the Genevan Psalter were influenced by gregorian chant and the traditional church modes, while the Scottish Psalter was less dependent on these historic elements, having originated at a time when western music was transitioning from its mediaeval form and assuming the tonal patterns more familiar to us today.
4 comments:
Magnificent!
I can’t make out the lyrics
Beautiful! I have that CD. Being of the Scottish Covenanter background that tune and those words are familiar and beloved to me!
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause
against th' ungodly nation;
From the unjust and crafty man,
O be thou my salvation.
For thou the God art of my strength;
why thrusts thou me thee fro'?
For th' enemy's oppression
why do I mourning go?
O send thy light forth and thy truth;
let them be guides to me,
And bring me to thine holy hill,
ev'n where thy dwellings be.
Then will I to God's altar go,
to God my chiefest joy:
Yea, God, my God, thy name to praise
my harp I will employ.
Why art thou then cast down, my soul?
what should discourage thee?
And why with vexing thoughts art thou
disquieted in me?
Still trust in God; for him to praise
good cause I yet shall have:
He of my count'nance is the health,
my God that doth me save.
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