English Metrical PsalmodyI. Introductory statements Apart from the Lutheran version of the Protestant Reformation which gave rise to Lutheran Hymnody, which was the rebirth of TRUE congregational hymn singing for the first time in about 1000 years, there were two other branches of the Protestant Reformation, namely :
Each of these made specific contributions to the history of hymnody and will have to be examined independently. [In the following article, MH refers to The United Methodist Hymnal; PH refers to the Presbyterian Hymnal; H82 refers to The [Episcopal] Hymnal 1982.] II. English Metrical Psalmody The Protestant Reformation in England was specifically a political reformation. Among the first acts by Henry VIII was the confiscation of the Papal lands and moneys. In one quick move, fully one quarter of the whole realm of England was transferred to Henry together with gold, jewels, plate, and other valuables totaling around $150,000,000.00 . Though Henry and his Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, were able to break with Rome, they found themselves with a new problem on their hands. They had a national Church that had been Roman Catholic and still was, with its entire service of prayers, hymns, sacraments and Mass in Latin; now they had to make it over into an English Church in order that the people might have no excuse to go back to Roman ways. In the new English Service, Cranmer got rid of all but two of the Offices -- Morning and Evening Prayer. Also, Cranmer omitted ALL hymns. There were practical reasons behind this act. Ordinary citizens could not read Latin (or English, for that matter) and without choirs of monks who new the intricacies of plainsong tunes, singing by the congregation was impossible. Therefore, by a quick stroke of the Archbishop's pen, into the trash heap went all the hymns. Not until the middle of the nineteenth century were any of these Latin hymns recovered for English-speaking people. Perhaps the greatest single act performed by Cranmer was the creation of the English Book of Common Prayer. This was not a brand-new creation, but a revamping and condensing of the Latin material from the Roman Breviary. Actually the first great landmark in the history of the English Church, the Prayerbook was made compulsory by Parliament in 1552 and the Protestants readily and rapidly adopted it. Except for slight modifications, the Book of Common Prayer is the same as in use today by the The Church of England, The Episcopal Church in the USA, and other churches of the Anglican Communion. Perhaps the most important point for us regarding the history of congregational song is that through the process of conversion from the Roman Catholic to the Anglican tradition, hymn singing disappeared. There are complicated reasons for this. However, a simplistic explanation goes something like this:
Cranmer did keep two office hymns, however: the TE DEUM (which was used at Morning Prayer) and the Veni Creator Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit- which is generally used at Ordinations). The "official" use of hymns in the English Servics was not authorized until 1821. (Erik Routley, The Music of Christian Hymns, p. 35.) With the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the English Protestant church was destined to eventually take a turn for the worst. However, Edward ascended the throne in 1547 and almost immediately passed the Act of Uniformity which forbade the use of any form of public worship other than Cranmer's Prayer Book. Things looked promising for a while, but Edward died in 1553 of Tuberculosis. Mary ascended the throne and immediately outlawed everything but Catholicism. Church lands were reinstated and Cranmer was sent to the Tower. Later, near the point of death and rejected by her prospective Catholic husband, Prince Philip of Spain, she had Cranmer burned at the stake (what a great opera this would make!!). English Protestants were greatly persecuted during this time and many took refuge on the mainland, particularly in Germany -- where they were introduced to the choral-singing of the Lutherans, and in Switzerland -- where they were introduced to the singing of metrical psalms by the Calvinists. Calvin became the chief exponent of Protestantism in Europe. Flocking back to England after Elizabeth became queen, these exiles brought back chiefly three things:
Having been thus exposed to the successful Psalm singing of Geneva, the returning exiles brought back with them a strong inclination toward the singing of the Psalms. An Anglo-Genevan Psalter eventually appeared around 1556-1561. It would be easy to conclude that this was the main impetus for the creation of an English Psalter. However, a tradition of metrical psalmody had already been established before 1550 when Thomas Sternhold, a servant in the courts of King Henry VIII and Edward VI, published 19 Psalm versions which he sang to popular ballade tunes for his own private devotions. He, of course, dedicated these to King Edward. After Sternhold's death in 1549, his friend John Hopkins added another 60 or so Psalms to the Psalter and published it in 1551 and this gave it its popular name, The Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter. A complete version gradually evolved over the next 10 years which contained many versions of Psalms from the Anglo-Genevan Psalter. A Complete English Psalter was published in 1562 and was ultimately the result of work by many people, although Sternhold and Hopkins were the chief contributors. A later, more poetic version of the Psalms was published in 1696 by Tate and Brady. These two English Psalters are collectively known as “The Old Version” and “The New Version.” In 1539, Miles Coverdale's English translation of the Bible was completed and began to be used in England. Known as "The Great Bible of Henry III," this English translation would be generally used in Great Britain until it was replaced in 1611 by The Authorized Version (King James). See The Bible (from Believe). For our purposes today, the influence of the Sternhold and Hopkins (Old Version) is primarily in the category of tunes, not texts. Its easy to understand why. Here's an example from Sternhold and Hopkins (The Old Version) compared to Tate and Brady (The New Version):
Also see Psalm 137 from the Scottish Psalter. Here are two modern versions:
Although, the original Old Version had no tunes, they were written mainly in the common poetic meters: CM & SM. Several music versions of Sternhold and Hopkins were published after 1562 which contained tunes that are still in use today. Here is a short list of the more famous and important music-versions of Sternhold and Hopkins:
From about 1550 the English Psalter begun by Sternhold (the “proto-Old Version” before Hopkins finished with it) was being used in Scotland. A few years later the Scots, (along with the English who fled from the Catholic persecution to Geneva) used the Anglo-Genevan Psalter. Their great reformer, John Knox, was pastor to the Genevan congregation of refugees for two years. After Knox's return to his homeland in 1559 the Scots began to revise the Anglo-Genevan Psalter, a process which resulted in their own Psalter in 1564 known as the Scottish Psalter. However, only about 1/3 of this book's metrical psalms were of Scottish authorship. [From Sing with Understanding, by Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath (Nashville: Church Street Press, 2nd edition, 1995.] Here is a version of Psalm 137 from the Scottish Psalter: (see above the same Psalm from Sternhold & Hopkins and Tate & Brady)
Here is an "old Scots version of Psalm 13[7]", according to CS Lewis in his, Letters to an American Lady:
The Scottish Psalter contained 105 tunes (melodies only) and is regarded as musically superior to the various versions of the Sternhold & Hopkins because of its greater use of French Psalm tunes. The 1650 edition of the Scottish Psalter (The Psalms of David in Meeter, [sic] ) had several texts which are still in use today:
In addition, several tunes from the Scottish Psalter have survived and are in use today:
See the Scottish Psalmody link for more detailed information about this important collection. Apart from the Established Church of England, there gradually sprung up a number of Dissenting Churches which were opposed to the traditional forms of faith, order, and worship as defined by the Church of England. They were opposed to prescribed clerical vestments, kneeling at the reception of the communion, to the use of the ring in marriage and the sign of the cross in baptism. They felt that the authority should come specifically from the people and not from a bishop or clergy. Known collectively as Puritans, Independents, Presbyterians, Baptists, Nonconformists, Separatists, Quakers, and Dissenters, these groups held to a stronger or lesser degree to the above mentioned beliefs. Metrical Psalmody was imported into the American Colonies in 1620 with the Pilgrims, who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, bringing with them the Ainsworth Psalter (1612). This was a Psalter compiled by Henry Ainsworth, an English Separatist minister and Hebrew scholar who was living in Amsterdam. It included 39 tunes which drew from English and Genevan sources. A decade later in the 1630's the Puritans also established a colony in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They brought with them the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter of 1562. Other American colonies were settled by various nationalities including French and Dutch Protestants and they also brought various Psalters with them from their respective homelands. In 1640 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Puritans published the Bay Psalm Book, the first book of any kind to be printed in British North America. The Puritan ministers were dissatisfied with the less-than-poetic rendition of the Psalms in the existing Psalters and sought to provide a rendering that was smoother and closer to the original Hebrew than any of the existing Psalters, particularly those of Sternhold and Hopkins. The original version of the Bay Psalm Book contained no music but referred the users to the tunes of the Ravenscroft Psalter. A tune version of the Bay Psalm Book was finally published in 1698, drawing from the well know Psalm tunes of England. [From Sing with Understanding, by Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath (Nashville: Church Street Press, 2nd edition, 1995.] See the American Psalmody link for more detailed information about this important collection. Only a few of the original versions of Psalms from the above Psalters are actually in use today. Here are some examples:
This certainly is by no means an indication that metrical psalmody is only an historical footnote. Psalmody is alive and well and practiced with enthusiasm by many Christian groups today. See Modern Psalmody for detailed information about how this tradition evolved and how it is thriving in the late 20th century. See Introduction to the Elizabethan Homilies |
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