Sing a new song: English and Scottish metrical psalmody from 1549‐1640 (original) (raw)
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Metrical Psalm-Singing and Emotion in Scottish Protestant Affective Piety, 1560–1650
Reformation & Renaissance Review, 2021
Psalm-singing was an emotional experience for early modern Scottish Protestants. This article explores the affective dimension of this practice. It identifies the experiences Scots had when they sang the metrical psalms, investigates why psalm-singing stimulated these emotional episodes, and situates the activity's role within the broader framework of Scottish Protestant introspective piety. The paper initially argues that many Scottish Protestants enjoyed psalm-singing. Particularly, listening to and singing the words and melodies of the psalms stimulated desired emotional experiences. The article's second part establishes that some Scottish Protestants approached psalm-singing as a form of prayer. Consequently, psalm-singing expressed lyrically and melodically the emotions – the speech of the soul to God in prayer – of the singer. The paper concludes that because psalm-singing evoked and expressed religious emotions, it constituted a core practice in Scottish Protestant pi...
A newly identified manuscript of metrical psalms in Manx Gaelic
2021
Manx National Heritage MS 09608/45 is a collection of 17 psalms (or fragments of psalms), plus a Christmas Hymn, an Easter Hymn, and a variety of doxologies, versified for singing, following the English model of Tate & Brady.1 The collection is mostly a subset of those pieces found in the 1769 Manx Prayer Book edited in Wheeler (2019), but there are a few verses in the ms. that are absent in 1769. The ms. is edited for the first time, set alongside the matching items from the 1769 collection, and Tate & Brady's English originals.
On Flexus, ‘oleh wə-yored, and the Murky World of Psalmody
Arc: The Journal of the School of Religious Studies
The Presbyterian College F rederik Wisse's ChristelijJce Gereformeerde Kerken community sang metrical Psalms. In fact few texts were so frequently memorized and so fervently held sacred as metrical Psalms. Little wonder then that Wisse looked with such a jaundiced eye on feeble attempts within Canadian Presbyterianism to introduce in its public worship the chanting of the Psalms.1 On a number of occasions Wisse has been heard to remark, "I hate chanting." How ironic, then, that one of the essays composed to honour his distinguished teaching career should have as its aim a contribution to the debates surrounding the advent and contemporary use of Psalm chanting. This essay will introduce the reader to Psalm chanting and its alternatives, offer some suggestions as to its origin, and be bold to encourage its use beyond high Anglican worship services. To start aright, let us define our terms. Metrical Psalms are rhymes based more or less closely on the Psalms and set to music. Chanting of Psalms, by contrast, is the more or less melodic intoning of the actual text of the Psalter, whether in Hebrew or in translation. Psalm chanting is the heart of Basal Gregorian chant or Anglican plainsong and is often called psalmody, although psalmody, properly speaking, includes any melodic rendition of Psalms, including metrical Psalms. Psalm chanting is, according to a Jewish musicologist, "a simple twowave melodic curve corresponding to the parallel-clause structure of the majority of the psalm verses (two hemistichs)."2 That is, Psalm chanting is designed to intone the parallelism of Semitic poetry. For example, in the familiar words of the Twenty-Third Psalm according to the Authorized Version, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures" is intoned in such a way as to correspond with "He leadeth me beside the still waters." The simplest form of Psalm chanting is Basal Gregorian chant, as reconstructed by musicologists from tenth-century Latin manuscripts.3 The first line of a Psalm opens with the initium, which is a two
A Popular Code for the Annunciation in Medieval English Lyrics
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia International Review of English Studies, 2006
The paper deals with a popular type of the Annunciation lyric in medieval English poetry. A brief survey of the role of the angelic announcement to Mary in medieval art and culture is given. The argument then pursues several distinctive traits of this kind of lyric in a number of poems from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries. The distinguishing features include a tripartite structure, a common set of words, phrases, ideas and images, emphasis on singing, a spring setting, tryst between lovers, and the use of popular genres, particularly ballads and carols. By analogy with music, it is argued that a certain popular code for the Annunciation existed, against which interesting artistic transformations of the theme were introduced. For example, the Annunciation was evoked in a highly compressed and allusive manner by means of but a few elements of the code. The principal elements of the alleged code derived from popular art and imagination. Their application to theological issues frequently led to the blurring of boundaries between the sacred and the profane, and between the Christian and the pagan. The paper proposes a distinction between Lent and alleluia subtypes of the Annunciation lyric. It also demonstrates how the pastourelle, aubade, and chanson d'aventure conventions of secular love poetry were adapted to represent the Annunciation. Finally, it suggests a connection between the lyric "At a spryng wel" and a specific statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, like the much-reverenced statue of Our Lady at Walsingham.
Transforming tradition: Gaelic psalms in the works of Capercaillie and Runrig
In this paper, a centuries-old religious tradition of song is presented, which is unique in the world in this form. Whereas it might seem unfamiliar and strange to inexperienced hearers, for the participants themselves the Gaelic psalm singing on the Outer Hebrides is a deeply moving, emotional and spiritual experience. First I will briefly sketch an overview of the origin(s), historical development and practice of this unique form of the praise of God. Subsequently I will attempt to demonstrate, using theoretical aspects of cultural (musical) hybridization, in what different ways modern artists deal with this historical tradition, subjecting it to a process of transformation and thus not only raising its public profile (on a national and international scale), but also making it accessible to a wider audience. http://norient.com/academic/gaelic-psalms/