Stolz: Psalm 14

Tim "9house": Psalm 103

More from Tim Nijenhuis, this time Psalm 103:

CMK: Psalm 119

A men's choir sings Psalm 119 at a church in Doesburg, Netherlands, accompanied by flute, oboe, violins and piano. The words are from the 1773 Dutch versification.

Tim Nijenhuis: Psalm 119

I met the composer of this very fine fugue based on Psalm 119 at The Psalm Project's concert the other evening:

The Psalm Project: Teach Us to Pray Tour

The Psalm Project's tour of North America continues. They performed last evening at Redeemer University College, and there is still time to see them in London, Grand Rapids and Chicago. They are definitely worth hearing.



Here is the rest of their itinerary for those wanting to see them before they return to the Netherlands:

January 25
Calvin College
Grand Rapids MI

January 26, 27
Worship Symposium,
Grand Rapids MI

January 28
Eagle Rock
Community Church
Homer Glen IL

January 29
Bethel CRC
Lansing IL

Stolz: Psalm 13

Stolz: Psalms 10-12

Psalm 23: alternative versification

My versification of Psalm 23 is one of the first ones I wrote back in the mid-1980s. I have now posted another alternative versification that is closer to the original text, is unrhymed and consists of only two stanzas:

The LORD's my shepherd, I shall want for nothing.
He makes me lie in pastures lush and verdant.
He leads me to refreshing waters flowing,
restores my strength, leads me to righteous pathways
for his name's sake. Though I may walk in darkness,
I will not fear; for you are always with me.

Your rod and staff provide me constant comfort.
Before my foes, a feast you are preparing.
My head with finest oil you have anointed;
with you my cup is full to overflowing.
Goodness and mercy all my days pursue me,
and in the LORD's house I will dwell for ever.

Psalm 95 (St. George)

I have posted a second video at the ByzantineCalvinist youtube channel:

Stolz: Psalm 9

The count continues as Ernst Stolz has now posted Psalm 9:

Gaelic psalm-singing

The BBC reports on Gaelic psalm-singing in the Isle of Lewis. Oddly, the reporter misfires at the outset with an obviously inappropriate reference to nature worship, but the remainder of the report is worth hearing.

Youtube channel posted

I've finally established my own youtube channel, ByzantineCalvinist. Here is the first video I've posted, which contains my arrangement of Psalm 13 played on the guitar:

Ernst Stolz's psalms

The psalm posted yesterday was performed by early music artist Ernst Stolz, whose youtube channel is worth exploring. Here is his performance of Psalm 7, which was posted just two days ago.



Stolz appears to be systematically going through the Genevan Psalter from the beginning (to the end?) and posting his performances here. Let us hope that he will soon release a recording of these.

Psalm 1

And here is a recently posted performance of the first Psalm:

Ali Ufki's Psalm 8

More from Ali Ufki, Sarband and Chorakademie Dortmund, complete with whirling dervishes:

Jimmy Webb's Psalm One-Five-O

Some of us will remember the remarkable song-writer of the late 1960s and early '70s, Jimmy Webb, whose Wichita Lineman and Up Up and Away were runaway hits. I had not known until recently that he is a man of deep christian faith who once composed a jazz setting of Psalm 150. Although parts of it are somewhat dated nearly forty years later ("yeah, yeah, yeah"), it is nevertheless worth hearing.

Psalm 42: Mint a szép hűvös patakra

Katalin Szvorák and Péter Pejtsik give Psalm 42 something of a Celtic flavour, with a slightly modified melody line in the mixolydian mode, proving once again that the Hungarians do marvellous things with the Genevan Psalms.

The decline of psalm-singing: the rosary

We are given to understand that many religions have something akin to prayer beads to assist the devout in saying their prayers. The rosary is one such aid used especially by Roman Catholics. However, it seems that the prayers accompanying the rosary long ago supplanted the Psalms for the use of illiterate people who had no access to the latter. Here is the story, according to this website:

The Rosary is actually believed to have developed as a result of the monasteries, because in the monasteries the monks would pray the Psalms, 150 altogether. However, many monks as well as townspeople were unable to read, but wanted to be in solidarity in prayer with the monks, and so developed a means of praying 150 “Our Fathers” which later, given the rise in devotion to Mary, added the “Hail Mary” as well. This is why sometimes the Rosary is called “Mary’s Psalter.” However, what would happen is given the amount [sic] of prayers, it would be hard to keep track, so they developed a sort of abacus in order to keep count, originally it was stones but later developed into beads on a string.

This is confirmed elsewhere. Finally, here is the account given in the Catholic Encyclopedia (with sources deleted for ease of reading):

But there were other prayers to be counted more nearly connected with the Rosary than Kyrie eleisons. At an early date among the monastic orders the practice had established itself not only of offering Masses, but of saying vocal prayers as a suffrage for their deceased brethren. For this purpose the private recitation of the 150 psalms, or of 50 psalms, the third part, was constantly enjoined. Already in A.D. 800 we learn from the compact between St. Gall and Reichenau that for each deceased brother all the priests should say one Mass and also fifty psalms. A charter in Kemble prescribes that each monk is to sing two fifties (twa fiftig) for the souls of certain benefactors, while each priest is to sing two Masses and each deacon to read two Passions. But as time went on, and the conversi, or lay brothers, most of them quite illiterate, became distinct from the choir monks, it was felt that they also should be required to substitute some simple form of prayer in place of the psalms to which their more educated brethren were bound by rule. Thus we read in the "Ancient Customs of Cluny", collected by Udalrio in 1096, that when the death of any brother at a distance was announced, every priest was to offer Mass, and every non-priest was either to say fifty psalms or to repeat fifty times the Paternoster. Similarly among the Knights Templar, whose rule dates from about 1128, the knights who could not attend choir were required to say the Lord's Prayer 57 times in all and on the death of any of the brethren they had to say the Pater Noster a hundred times a day for a week.

I am unaware of any Reformed Christians using a rosary, and certainly no Reformed church endorses the practice. However, I have come across two efforts to reconnect the rosary with its origins in the Psalms and other scriptures: Pray the Rosary with the Psalms and The Daily Prayer Rosary.

Getting used to new texts

I will not cross-post it here, because it is not entirely on-topic, but I will link to this short piece for those with a more general interest in liturgical matters: 'And with your spirit'. However, for our purposes here it is relevant to recall that Roman Catholic parishes are becoming accustomed, not only to new liturgical texts for the mass, but also to a revised Grail Psalter, which the Vatican recently mandated for English-speaking churches already used to the 1963 edition. As with the ordinary of the mass, many composers have written settings for the '63 Grail Psalms. Producing a new sung Grail Psalter will likely take some time. Why the changes? Here is a good explanation that applies in some respects to both the mass and the psalter:

When the Grail Psalms were first translated in the 1950s and early 1960s, the desire to retain strict rhythmic patterns similar to those found in their original Hebrew setting was a primary principle for the translators. In attempting to adhere to these rhythmic patterns, they would often abbreviate or paraphrase a text in preference to a more literal translation. By doing so, some instances of the rich biblical imagery of the Psalter were lost. Furthermore, in later decades, significant progress was made in the understanding of Hebrew rhetoric and how to incorporate the Hebraic style in English translation. Finally, there also arose a desire to return to a more elevated sacred language, in contrast to the informal and colloquial approach of the 1950s and 1960s.

Although my primary interest on this site is metrical psalmody, it must be admitted that the problems with the 1963 Grail Psalter apply in large measure to metrical psalms as well. This is not an argument against their use, but I do wonder whether Reformed churches ought not to consider ways of singing the psalms that do not necessitate altering, and in some cases abbreviating, the texts.

Praising God in the langue d'oc

During the 16th century one of the areas of strength for the Reformation was the south of France. Here a distinctive romance language was (and is) spoken, known variously as the langue d'oc and Occitan. Here is Psalm 150 sung in the Occitan language. The Genevan melody is slightly altered in the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th lines. The portraits at .30 and 2.30 are of Marguerite d'Angoulême and her grandson, King Henri IV, respectively, both of whom played key roles in the religious struggles in France.