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Yale Journal of & Religion

Volume 5 | Number 1 Article 1

2019 Singing as English Protestants: The Whole Booke of Psalmes’ Theology of Music Samantha Arten Saint Louis University

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Recommended Citation Arten, Samantha (2019) "Singing as English Protestants: The Whole Booke of Psalmes’ Theology of Music," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1119

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Cover Page Footnote My thanks to Thomas Brothers, Kerry McCarthy, and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable assistance with this project.

This article is available in Yale Journal of Music & Religion: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr/vol5/iss1/1 Singing as English Protestants The Whole Booke of Psalmes’ Theology of Music Samantha Arten

Several of the sixteenth-century Protestant music. Music historians are fond of quoting defined themselves in part Cranmer’s recommendation “for every by their particular styles of congregational syllable a note,” which dictates syllabic singing. Lutheran hymnals and Calvinist rather than melismatic text setting for allowed the distribution of sacred music: denominationally distinctive musical and but in mine opinion, the song that textual content that helped teach theology, shall be made thereunto would not be shape and reinforce confessional identities, full of notes, but, as near as may be, and enable worship and devotional practices. for every syllable a note; so that it may In song, the would (consciously be sung distinctly and devoutly, as be or not) absorb the tenets of their new in the Matins and , Venite, the , , Benedictus, Protestant faith. The most straightforward , , and all the way for a collection of music intended as and Versicles; and in the mass congregational song to become authorized Gloria in Excelsis, Gloria Patri, the and popularized within its reformed Creed, the Preface, the Pater noster, and tradition was the advocacy of a prominent some of the Sanctus and Agnus.1 reformer, particularly if such advocacy for However, this advice referred to adaptations certain forms of sacred music generally— of Latin chant for the new English service and this music in particular—was included and was not intended as a guide to either as a preface within the work itself. Lutheran congregational or choral music. As Robin hymnals often included prefaces by Martin Leaver has pointed out, Cranmer, unlike Luther, and the Geneva was printed Luther and Calvin, did not develop with an by . These letters and promote an extensive theological to the reader offered the opportunity for understanding of music centered on the the reformers to share their understanding congregation. In fact, Cranmer’s liturgical of the purpose and right use of music in reforms (the 1549 and 1552 Books Christian devotion, and to advocate for of Common Prayer) made no explicit their own theologically informed ideology provision for congregational singing.2 of music. More important for our purposes, this The challenge was greater in England passage appeared in a private letter to King than on the Continent. While Tudor Henry VIII, not in public and certainly not England had prominent reformers, the most in print. Beyond this single letter, Cranmer important of whom was , was not overly concerned with English no single key figure guided the musical musical reform. reforms associated with its , Yet even without a prefatory letter from and thus books of congregational song a prominent reformer, ’s Whole were unable to frame their musical contents Booke of Psalmes, first published in 1562, with authoritative instructions regarding somehow managed to popularize a new

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 1 genre of metrical psalmody as the normative John Day, made a multifaceted effort to form of congregational song in Elizabethan establish the WBP as an authoritative England. Despite its title, the WBP was not Protestant text through appeals to scripture, merely a psalter but contained a variety of scholarship, the ancient , and the other texts that expanded its possible uses state. Advertising rigorous scholarship and in liturgy and private devotion. In addition translational accuracy, the WBP set itself to metrical versions of all 150 psalms, it up as in opposition to the extrabiblical contained twenty-one hymns and , innovations the reformers identified in as well as two prefatory essays (one Roman Catholicism, presenting itself as a introductory music theory treatise and return to the purity and truth of the ancient one English translation of a letter by the church. Furthermore, without any official fourth-century church father Athanasius of monarchical or ecclesiastical authorization Alexandria) and a set of closing prayers.3 of metrical psalmody for use in church, Day The influence of the WBP and its positioned the WBP as authorized through position among the primary religious reference to the 1559 Royal Injunctions publications of the sixteenth-century and by advertising Day’s psalter patent, cannot be overstated. granted by Queen Elizabeth herself. In Most other English hymnals and metrical doing so, he aligned the book firmly with psalters published in the sixteenth century the English crown and the Church of appeared in only one edition. In contrast, England, whose religious practices were the WBP was reissued nearly every year, tightly regulated. Day therefore attempted often in multiple editions. There are fully to position his WBP as an invaluable 143 extant editions of the WBP published resource for the English laity, an authorized between 1562 and 1603, and it is certain publication that met with Elizabeth’s that many more did not survive. Even approval, and an authoritative Protestant estimating a conservative print run of only text that stood with the Church of England 1,500 copies per edition, there could have and was appropriate for its services. It is been about 220,000 copies in circulation worth noting that while Day’s presentation by 1603, and there were perhaps a million of the WBP as authorized by Queen copies produced by 1640.4 Rapidly and Elizabeth was disingenuous at best, it was enthusiastically adopted by the English ultimately tacitly approved by the queen people for both public worship and private in Day’s second monarchical privilege for devotion, the WBP proved to be a critical the printing of metrical psalters.5 Between means of teaching and enabling Church of its self-presentation and its widespread England practice and belief. By the end of popularity, the WBP became the most the sixteenth century, the book had become visible symbol of English Protestant music a symbol of English , along making, and was directly responsible for with English , Books of Common the formation of the Church of England’s Prayer, and official Books of Homilies culture of congregational and devotional mandated for use in parish churches. and psalm singing. Through its The congregational hymnal derived popular use, the hymnal promoted a its apparent religious authority from the particular theology of music within church and from the state. Its publisher, sixteenth-century English Protestantism.

2 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) Luther’s and Calvin’s own theologies of of the changes in musical sensibilities music differed greatly, including contrasting due to reformers’ “intense concern with arguments regarding the nature of texts words”—Stevens shows how the Protestant allowed to be used for liturgical music emphasis on words and understanding and the appropriateness of instrumental them had profound effects on musical accompaniment.6 In Reformation England, performance and composition, including multiple and often conflicting theologically monophony, syllabic treatment of text, informed philosophies of music circulated, simplified melodies and rhythms, “sober,” including fierce debates regarding the place “modest,” and “distinct” performance of organs in churches, debates that often without ornamentation, and affective text led to widespread destruction of these setting designed to represent the meaning expensive instruments. Yet in the absence of the words.8 Similar discussions can also of a single prominent musical reformer, be found outside musicology in work by there was no complete, worked-out scholars of religious studies, theology, and theology of music in the sixteenth-century history.9 Church of England. Without writings akin The typical pattern of musicological to those of Luther and Calvin to turn to, scholarship examines how liturgical scholars are forced to rely on a wide variety reform (as seen in the Book of Common of primary sources (usually the writings of Prayer, cathedral and royal injunctions, often minor English reformers in published and, of course, Cranmer’s letter) influenced works, sermons, and letters), which are musical changes. Indeed, the lack of a by no means cohesive or consistent and formal and single source for a widespread which do not represent a single preeminent and authoritative theology of music in the theological understanding of music guiding helps explain the the Church of England or promoted by it. level of scholarly attention to Cranmer’s Book V of Richard Hooker’s Of the Lawes of admittedly limited letter advising “for every Ecclesiasticall Politie contained an extended syllable a note.” The more complete analytical defense of music—and particularly church sequence, however, examines how shifts in music—from a theological standpoint, but theological commitment informed those this text was not published until 1597, liturgical changes. Since English reformers long after Henry’s break with Rome. The were primarily concerned with liturgical major overviews of English Reformation– reform, using liturgy as the full expression era sacred music—Peter le Huray’s Music and practice of this new denomination, the and the Reformation in England, Edmund liturgy and its associated texts are among H. Fellowes’s English Cathedral Music, and the best places to look for the expression of Nicholas Temperley’s Music of the English their theology. It is my intention with this Parish Church—do not engage with theology article to suggest that the congregational to any great extent, taking instead liturgical hymnal widely used in the Church of reform as the background for their studies England provides a fruitful avenue by which of musical shifts and genres.7 Discussions of to examine a theological account of music as English Reformation theology as it relates to it was presented to the people in a period music can be found if you look, particularly that had little formal musical guidance in John Stevens’s excellent explication from religious officials. TheWBP is a

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 3 hitherto unexamined source in our scholarly hymnal containing Lutheran-style hymns, understanding of theological commitments the WBP promotes an English theology of regarding music in the English Reformation, music that draws upon both Lutheran and I suspect because the book itself is a musical Calvinist commitments. work and thus considered in the third part of the sequence (musical changes) and not Versification as Interpretation the first (theological shifts). The psalter Translators of scripture are forced to answers questions such as: What is music? navigate the conflicting impulses of fidelity What is it for? How should it be written to the original text, the ideological impulses and performed? What—and where—is of the translator, and the transmission of the music’s proper place in worship? How did scripture to its audience in a way that allows this hymnal reflect and guide confessional meaningful engagement with its contents. identity and musical reform? According to Translation is by definition interpretation. the WBP, what did it mean to sing like an The process of versifying prose into poetic English Protestant? form—as we will see, the WBP was largely In this article I will analyze the adapted from Miles Coverdale’s prose theological account of music as presented psalter—introduces additional challenges. by Day’s first edition of the WBP (1562), that is rhymed and metrical is highly closely reading its psalm versifications and restrictive, and word choice may prioritize paratext in order to consider questions of the demands of the form over precision participation, accessibility, text selection, of the translation. In the case of the WBP, aesthetics, and instrumentation.10 In doing most of its psalms were versified into so, I expand our understanding of the varied common meter, often called “Sternhold’s Protestant theologies of music to include meter”: paired “fourteeners” made up of study of the that functioned two lines of eight and six syllables, with as propaganda, educational material, end rhymes. Due to the limitations imposed and a devotional tool for the Church of by its short phrases and frequent rhymes, England. According to the WBP, singing this style has often been dismissed as bad like a Protestant in Elizabeth’s England poetry. , for example, wrote meant singing monophonic congregational of “the miserable, scandalous doggerel of hymnody using metricized texts from Hopkins and Sternhold.”11 The WBP was scripture and the , not a sophisticated poetic version of the and especially from the Book of Psalms (itself Book of Psalms like that of Mary Sidney; a celebration of worship through music). however, its enthusiastic adoption by the The WBP falls on the pro-organ side of the general populace may have been because of, English debate, taking a definitive stand in rather than in spite of, this fact. Its poetry is support of the use of instruments in church, accessible, easy to read and understand, and and the psalter places strong emphasis its message is straightforward. on the attitude of the individual even as Part of this message is a clear and it advocates for singing in community. deliberate articulation of musical aspects Unexpectedly for a psalter modeled after of Protestant devotion. The psalms of the the Geneva Psalter and published under the WBP were not newly composed texts. As Tudor regime that banned the only English

4 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) versifications of English translations, they to the WBP adapted Miles Coverdale’s created the opportunity to adapt these existing English translation of the Book of biblical texts for particular purposes. Just as Psalms, found in the 1535 Coverdale the Geneva Psalter helped create a Calvinist (as well as Coverdale’s subsequent revision confessional identity both as a material for the 1539 ; Coverdale’s artifact (a congregational songbook that “Parallel Psalter” of 1540, which adapted became a marker of Calvinist practice) the Coverdale Bible’s psalter to align more and through its textual content (its words closely with the Vulgate for the benefit of helping define a particularly Calvinist the laity as the psalms were read in Latin understanding of the Bible), so the WBP in church services; Coverdale’s 1535 helped construct English Protestantism as published translation of Jan van Campen’s it played out in Church of England churches psalm paraphrases; and the Vulgate).12 and in English homes. , Thus their work emerged directly out of an John Hopkins, William Whittingham, and existing and official English Protestant text. the other poets who contributed psalms The first Book of Common Prayer (1549)

Figure 1: Title Page of the 1562 WBP, photograph © British Library Board, C.25.g.3., sig. +.1.r.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 5 prescribed Coverdale’s prose psalms as part thereby implying something about intended of the Church of England’s liturgy, making readership, central readership, and even them a central component of English excluded readership. Social status, level of Protestant religious practice. Although education, and gender could be (and often John Day (who chose and commissioned were) strongly suggested by sixteenth- the psalms included in his final version century English printed title pages. The act of the complete psalter) and the versifiers of suggesting the ideal reader also included were limited by their source material—the demonstrating who the audience was not in psalms themselves and Coverdale’s English order to persuade the proper audience to translation—they nevertheless found ways become purchasers of the book. A title page to convey their own interpretation. in Latin, for example, might indicate the exclusion of those who read only English, “All sortes of people”: The Songs of a and signaled a higher level of scholarship Christian Community in the hopes of attracting the more literate.14 The WBP, on the other hand, does not According to the Book of Psalms, faith in God exclude anyone from its readership. It is marked by praise of God in thanksgiving is “Very mete to be vsed of all sortes of for God’s actions. For , the psalms people” and for “any [who] be afflicted,” demonstrate the belief that proper piety for the benefit of themselves and “one includes this praise both in speech and in another.” The WBP was meant to appeal to song. For reformers, the psalter was caught all churchgoing English Christians across up in broader statements about what it the bounds of their particular religious meant to be Protestant. Roman Catholics affiliations. English Reformation scholars sang psalms, but in Latin rather than the have identified several distinct groups: vernacular, and in Catholic liturgy, psalms moderate “parish Anglicans,” “prayer book were sung by and choir rather than Protestants” who developed affection for by congregation. Protestants saw these the Church of England, the “hotter sort” practices as creating two barriers to access ( who differed from more moderate for the ordinary churchgoer, who neither Protestants in temperature rather than understood the language in which the degree), and even “church papists,” those psalms were sung nor sang themselves. Catholics who obediently appeared in the Being Protestant meant singing in praise compulsory of the Church of God as a community, and the WBP, of England.15 The title page does not limit its which included much more reference to desired readership to a particular age range, music and musical performance in its psalm even promoting its psalms as advantageous versifications than the official liturgical for easily corruptible youth. Coverdale Psalter, reflects this Protestant The title of the preface that follows ideology more thoroughly. reinforces this open readership by The WBP makes a powerful statement announcing that this “Shorte Introduction about who is able to sing. This begins with into the Science of Musicke” (and by its title page (see Fig. 1), which is clear about extension, as this is the first page of the its intended audience: “all sortes of people” book, the entire contents) is “made for can use this book.13 Sixteenth-century title such as are desirous to haue the knowledge pages sought to define their customers,

6 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) therof, for the singing of these Psalmes.” In All of this is completely in keeping other words, this psalter is for anyone who with Protestant thought, which sought to wants to sing psalms. The implications minimize the gap between laity and . are further: everyone can sing, and psalms The English Reformation in particular are designed to be sung, not merely read. was characterized by a unity that was The opening lines of the preface place the both ideological and enforced. Unlike emphasis on a certain subset of reader who its continental counterparts, English wishes to sing psalms: “the rude & ignorant Protestantism was not marked by multiple in Song.” Although this designation may liturgical options, several endorsed and seem somewhat discourteous today, these competing , or Protestant terms were customary and inoffensive splinter groups. The Book of Common descriptors for the common people at the Prayer demanded liturgical and theological time. This address to “the rude & ignorant” unity across the Church of England. provides an early indicator of a crucial Similarly, the English monarch in his/her shift in the history of the printed book in role as “supreme head” (later, “supreme England. In the late sixteenth century and governor”) of the Church of England into the seventeenth, reading and book authorized official Books of Homilies and ownership in England were becoming English translations of the Bible. The increasingly available to a broader audience immense popularity of the WBP makes beyond the gentry and clergy (the “gentle” it another key source in understanding or “learned” readers). In many letters to the how Protestantism was promulgated and reader, this wider audience was named the received. Certainly John Day would have “great Variety” of readers, encompassing been delighted for financial reasons when gentry and common reader alike. Book his psalter became the standard metrical prefaces began addressing “vulgar” readers psalter for Elizabethan England, both directly and framing their contents as in terms of the psalter privilege, which suitable for all social classes in an attempt restricted the publication of metrical to capitalize on the growing market for psalmody to John Day, and its widespread books. Yet even as the authors of letters to popularity. No doubt both he and the these readers acknowledged this expanding religious authorities who were carefully audience, they did not always speak of it crafting this united front for the Church positively, and were often rather dismissive of England were glad to have only a or critical of rudimentary readers’ ability to single metrical version of the psalms in fully engage with their book.16 The WBP, wide circulation, one that enabled and published in 1562, was already attempting encouraged all English people to sing a to engage a broad audience of all literate uniform set of psalms.18 Thus the WBP readers, not just learned elite. Unusual in promotes singing as an essential part of an its early date for this explicitly common inclusive Christian community, advancing audience, the music preface also refrained the idea that English Protestantism is—or from criticizing its readers’ reading ability, should be—marked by communal praise of promoting itself as an introductory aid God. All true believers are exhorted to sing intended to assist untrained readers to together. master its contents.17

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 7 The psalter itself enables this through any accidentals.22 Finally, these tunes are its inclusion of simple melodies intended as primarily made up of stepwise motion music to be sung by the general populace. filling in intervallic leaps, making them These tunes were monophonic (a single easily singable. Table 1 provides a summary musical line sung by the community of these musical features. in unison or in octaves), syllabic, and Consider the tune assigned to the first unaccompanied (although the lack of psalm (see Fig. 2). It begins and ends on the formal accompaniment does not prove that final, D, and spans an octave, the climactic congregations did not use organs as an aid high D falling at the two-thirds mark (around in learning and singing these melodies; I the Golden Mean). This music follows will return to the question of instrumental conventional rules for the composition of accompaniment shortly). By far the most melodies: the melody reverses direction common range for a single tune is an after leaps, and large intervals are usually octave; two tunes span a sixth, eight a filled in with stepwise motion. With no seventh, eighteen a ninth, and five a tenth.19 melodic interval larger than a fifth and a All tunes collectively span two octaves from high percentage of movement by step, this C3 to C5, but most lie between C3 and tune, like the others throughout, is difficult G4. Some tunes, then, are uncomfortable neither to learn nor to sing. for women either at pitch or transposed However, not all scholars agree that the up an octave, but when sung without tunes of the WBP are easy or that they are accompaniment are easily transposable. universally of reasonable musical quality. Most tunes begin and end on the same Perhaps the most commonly criticized pitch.20 With two exceptions, in which musical feature of the WBP tunes in tunes end on an unexpected sharp third, the modern scholarship is rhythm.23 We can concluding pitch is always the tune’s modal see some of these rhythmic weaknesses center.21 No tune uses a key signature other in the Psalm 1 tune. It is made up of only than one or no flats, and only eleven contain three note values: whole note (semibreve),

Range Sixth Seventh Octave Ninth Tenth 2 tunes 8 32 18 5

Starting Pitch Same as the Fifth above Fifth below Whole step Third below final above 52 tunes 9 2 1 1

Ending Pitch Tonic Raised third 63 tunes 2

Accidentals No accidentals Accidentals 54 tunes 11 Table 1: Musical Features of the WBP’s Psalm Tunes

8 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) dotted whole note, and half note (minim). effect. However, the beginning of each Each musical phrase is set with smaller note phrase is not so effective. Unimportant values as it reaches its end, a string of half articles and conjunctions—“the,” “nor,” notes that has the effect of speeding up the “but,” “both,” “and”—are stressed, rather delivery of the conclusion of each line of than the more important nouns and verbs text. This acceleration has great rhetorical that immediately follow.

Figure 2: Psalm 1, photograph © British Library Board, C.25.g.3., sig. C.1.r-v.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 9 While few of the tunes of the WBP reference singing. It is a convenient rhyme, were taken directly from the Geneva Psalter, certainly—“one accord” pairs nicely with most were stylistically influenced by those “Lord,” which is helpful for a poetic form French tunes. The rhythms of Geneva characterized by short phrases and frequent Psalter tunes were carefully crafted to fit rhymes—but the consistency with which the French language, long and short notes the WBP emphasizes the unity of Christians matching their texts’ patterns of stressed when singing communally “in one accord” and unstressed syllables. Unfortunately, this remains striking. Like other Protestant pairing does not translate well into other writings, the WBP presents all Christians languages. Among these rhythmic features as a unified group, with ordained priests was a long first syllable for each line of text. and laity joined together in praise. Frequent Though this trait does not fit English text references to the singing of the “saints” well, it nonetheless became characteristic of follows the Protestant understanding that the tunes of the WBP. Thus, while the music all Christians are saints (not merely those of the Geneva Psalter stressed intelligibility canonized by the Roman ). and accessibility, its words easily understood Protestants across England and the by congregations and its melodies easily Continent would have identified strongly sung by amateur singers, this goal was not with the WBP’s version of Psalm 30:4: so well executed in its English iteration.24 “Sing prayse ye sainctes that proue and see, / The tunes of the WBP therefore the goodness of the Lord: / In memorye of attempted, with varying levels of musical his maiestie, / Reioyse with one accord.” success, to make sacred singing easy and accessible for the laity. The idea that singing “In psalmes, Hymnes & spirituall songs”: is characteristic of Christian believers is Genre in The Whole Booke of Psalmes reinforced by the psalm texts about music, We have examined who, according to the which emphasize both who can sing and WBP, can and should sing. I turn now to the who cannot. Throughout the WBP, the question of what they should sing. Generally, psalm texts state that true believers can and the psalms identify the works to be sung as should sing, and they are often exhorted simply “songs.” Psalm 96:1 reads, “SYng ye to sing together as a community. In Psalm with prayse vnto the Lorde, / New songs of 47:1, for example, the WBP strengthens the ioy and mirthe.” Psalm 98:1 says similarly, command found in the Coverdale Psalter for “O Syng ye now vnto the Lorde, / a new and “all ye people” to clap their hands and sing pleasaunt songe.” Several more times, the unto God. The WBP contains that same songs are specified as “new”: “A new song instruction, but expands it: “YE people all in I will sing O God”; “SIng ye vnto the Lorde one accorde, / clappe handes and eke reioyce: our God, / a new reioysing song.”25 Of / Be glad and sing vnto the Lorde.” The course, this description of “new songs” is WBP conveys the impression that not only not original to English translations of the should all Christians sing, but they should psalms, but for those English churchgoers sing together as a single voice (using the who could remember the pre-Reformation provided monophonic psalm tunes?). The days of chant by professional choir, the phrase “in one accord” or “with one accord” congregational metrical psalms of the WBP appears in eight of the WBP’s passages that must have seemed very new indeed. Psalm

10 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 129, which would in later editions of the instructions that psalm singing should play WBP be replaced by a different version, even a role in both one’s individual life (cf. James suggests the topic for a song: “Of Israell thys 5) and common life (cf. Colossians 3). Of may now be the song, / euen from my youth course, by the sixteenth century, appeals my foes haue oft me noied / A thousand to these particular verses as reasons to euils since, I was tendre & yonge / Thy haue sing the Psalms were not new, nor was the wrought, yet was I not destroyed.”26 WBP unique in promoting them. They had Occasionally, in comparison with the appeared on the title pages of earlier English Coverdale Psalter, the designation “songs” books of devotional music: Coverdale’s is joined or replaced by the more specific Goostly Psalmes (printed by John Rastell term “psalms.” I read this as a kind of for John Gough, ca. 1535) and the partial conscious self-promotion, the musical psalters Day had published prior to the WBP. psalter encouraging sung performance of the Such prominent placement of scriptural psalms. The WBP adds reference to psalms verses on title pages was characteristic of five times throughout the psalter. In Psalm Protestant prints, which often argued that 9:11, where the Coverdale Psalter counseled Protestantism had recaptured the spirit and readers to “praise the Lord which dwelleth in truth of the ancient church as a corrective to Sion,” the WBP becomes even more specific, Roman Catholic innovations.27 telling its readers to “Sing Psalmes therfore Even today, Christians remain unsure vnto the Lorde, / that dwelleth in Sion hill.” of the intended distinction in Colossians The WBP further specifies the singing of 3:16 among “psalms, hymns, and spiritual psalms in Psalms 27:8, 33:2, and 68:32; songs.” Are these three genres different in the Coverdale Psalter made mention of text, theology, musical style, or use? Are psalms in these passages. The WBP’s Psalm they, in fact, three descriptors for a broader 40:3 even indicates God as the source of genre of sacred vocal music? It is perhaps psalm singing: “To me he taught a psalme instructive to consider how these terms of prayse.” were understood in early modern musical From its very beginning, the WBP culture. Johannes Tinctoris’s Terminorum supported the singing of psalms in musicae diffinitorium (Dictionary of Musical Christian practice, its title page prominently Terms; compiled before 1475 and printed ca. displaying two quotations from the Bible: 1495) was among the first such glossaries “If any be afflicted let him praye, and if any of musical terminology. In this treatise, be mery let hym syng Psalmes” and “Let Tinctoris defined “hymn” and “hymnist” in the worde of God dwell plentuouslye in all only general terms: “Hymnus est laus dei wisedom teachinge & exhorting one another cum cantico” (A hymn is the praise of God in in psalmes, Hymnes & spirituall songs, & song); “Hymnista est ille qui hymnos canit” sing vnto the Lord in your herts.” These (A hymnist is one who sings hymns). The verses, James 5[:13] and Colossians 3[:16], Brussels manuscript of Terminorum musicae are drawn from writings diffinitorium adds the following definition referencing the Book of Psalms, which serve of a “song”: “Carmen est quicquid cantari to validate the Hebrew Psalms as a part potest” (A song is anything that can be of Christian worship. These two sung).28 These definitions tell us little of to early Christian communities provide a possible perceived distinction between a

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 11 “song” and a “spiritual song,” or between a genres that can appropriately be used in “hymn” and any other sacred vocal work. liturgical settings. Unlike “rude and rusticall An English source, more closely related things,” psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs than the continental Tinctoris, is more are edifying to the congregation, teaching helpful. John Merbecke [Marbeck], author and admonishing the singers in addition to of the 1550 Booke of Common praier noted giving thanks to God. Following his gloss and therefore one of England’s foremost upon Colossians 3:16, Merbecke turns to Protestant musical thinkers, published discuss 1 Corinthians 14:26, concluding his commonplace book A Booke of Notes that “singers of songes and Psalmes, had and Common places in 1581. In his entry their place in the Church.” From Merbecke “Singing,” Merbecke wrote: we learn that English Protestant musical Let the word of the Lord abound thought—or at least one of its most plenteously in you, teach & admonish ye one another, in Psalmes, Hymnes, and prominent thinkers—made no effort to spirituall songs [marginal note: Coll. distinguish among psalms, hymns, and 3.16], singing in your hearts with grace. spiritual songs, but instead between music By these wordes Paule expresseth two that was appropriate for church and music thinges, first that our songs be the word of God, which must abounde plenteously that was not. This distinction was based on in us, and they must not serue onely to text source and on function: sacred songs giuing of thankes, but also to teach and had texts drawn from scripture (“the word admonish. And then it is added with of God”) and could be recognized by the grace, which is thus to understand, as edification that resulted from singing them. though he shoulde haue sayde aptlye This may help to explain why the main and properlye both to the senses and to measures, and also unto the voices. Let content of the WBP was structured in three them not sing rude and rusticall things, parts—a set of hymns, all 150 psalms, then neither let it be immoderately, as doe another set of hymns—without comment. the Tauerne hunters. To the Corinthians, The hymns, which included some metrical where he intreateth of an holy assembly, versions of canticles for Morning and the same Apostle writeth after this Evening Prayer, as well as some key manner. When ye assemble together catechetical texts (see Table 2), stood according as euery one of you hath a Psalme, or hath doctrine, or hath tongue, alongside the Psalms as useful religious 30 or hath reuelation, or hath interpretation, texts. By including metrical versions let all things bee done unto edifieng. By of many of the canticles of the English which wordes is declared that singers of services required by the 1559 Book of songes and Psalmes, had their place in Common Prayer—Venite exultemus, Te the Church.29 Deum, Benedicite (Song of the Three Even when quoting and then com- Children), Benedictus, and Quicunque vult menting upon Colossians 3:16 specifically, for Morning Prayer; and Magnificat, Nunc Merbecke too fails to make a strict distinction dimittis, and Veni Creator for Evening Prayer—the WBP made a strong case for among “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” the appropriateness of its own liturgical as separate categories. Instead, he identifies use.31 And, like Merbecke’s distinction the three as a broader group of musical among psalms, hymns, and spiritual

12 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) Opening Hymns Closing Hymns Veni creator The x commaundements (Audi Israel) Venite ((((((with A prayer) Te deum The Lords praier The songe of the thre Children (Benedicite) The xii articles of our faith (The Crede) The song of Zacharias (Benedictus) A prayer vnto the holy ghost Magnificat Da pacem domine Nunc dimittis The complaint of a sinner The Crede (Quicunque vult) A prayer (A Lamentation) The lamentation of a sinner A thankesgeuing The humble sute of the sinner Preserue vs Lorde The Lordes prayer (Pater noster) The x commaundements

Table 2: Hymns in the WBP

songs and “rude and rusticall things,” the for daily song. Psalm 108[:2] suggests WBP’s title page argues that the contents music making in the morning (“Awake of this hymnal are intended to displace my viole and my harpe, / swete melody to “all vngodly Songes and Ballades, which make, / And in the morning I my selfe, / tende only to the nourishing of vyce and right early will awake.”), and Psalm 77:6 at corrupting of youth.” night (“By night my songes I call to mynde, / once made thy prayse to shew: / And with “Now in thy congregations” and my hart, much taulke I finde, / my spirites “priuately for their solace & comfort”: doth searche to knowe”). Each day should When and Where to Sing contain song, both morning and night, as Psalm 92:1–2 makes clear: Designations of what to sing are joined by descriptions of the proper location and IT is a thing, bothe good and meete, frequency of worshipful song. According to to praise the highest Lorde: And to thine name O thou most hye, the WBP, praise of God should be sung daily, to sing in one accorde. even multiple times a day. :164 To shew the kindnes of the Lorde, depicts an extravagant devotion that offers betime ere day be light, God frequent praise in thanksgiving for And eke declare his truth abrode, God’s abundant goodness: “Seuen times when it doth draw to nyght. a day I prayse the Lord / singing with Like the rhyme “Lord”/“one accord,” hart and voyce: / Thy rightuous actes “always” pairs conveniently with “praise.” and wonderfull, / so cause me to reioyse.” Thus in Psalms 35:30, 40:3, and 71:8, Psalms 61:8 and 96:2 also make the case believers are exhorted to sing with

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 13 thankfulness “always” in order to laud, psalms “priuatly by them selues, or at home praise, and honor God. And in Psalm 89:1, in their houses.”33 This prefatory essay, like the psalmist claims that “TO syng the the title page, created space for the singing of mercyes of the Lorde, / my tounge shall neuer psalms by individuals privately, devotionally spare.” According to the WBP, worshipful as a household, and as a congregation in singing should take place constantly: every church. Further encouragement of domestic day, morning and evening, and always; not performance can be found within the psalms only on certain days or at limited times. themselves. Psalm 118[:14–15] suggests Where should this singing take place— singing in the home: “The lorde is my in a church or at home? The WBP advocates defence and strengthe / my ioy, my mirth for both. Psalm 68:25 makes allowances and song: / He is become for me in dede, for congregational singing: “The singers / a sauiour most strong. / The right hand goo befrre[before] with ioy, / the minstrels of the lord our God, / doth bring to pas folow after: / And in the midst the damsels great thinges: / He causeth voyce of ioy and play, / with timbrell and with taber. / Now health, / in rightous mennes dwellynges.” in thy congregations, / (O Israell) prayse the The multifaceted nature of performance Lord: / And Iacobs whole posteritie, / geue encouraged in the psalter was born out in thankes with one accorde.” However, most its actual use in sixteenth-century England; of the argument for using these psalms in a there is ample scholarship exploring the church setting is found not in the text of the performance of the WBP’s metrical psalms psalms themselves but among the prefatory at home as an active form of domestic material. The WBP’s title page (Fig. 1) claims devotion and in church as congregational that the book has been “Faithfully perused song.34 As a group, these metrical psalms and alowed according to thordreappointed advocate for singing in community—in in the Quenes maiesties Iniunctions,” a the company of other Christians, “in one statement that is usually interpreted today accord”—far more strongly than they specify and was clearly interpreted by some in the a location. Communal congregational period to be a reference to the forty-ninth singing was only sporadically a part of pre- Elizabethan Injunction, which allowed Reformation Roman Catholic practice,35 for the singing of “an hymn, or suchlike and the Reformation shift to the vernacular song to the praise of Almighty God” in the enabled communal singing in an entirely liturgies of the Church of England.32 The new fashion. And indeed, while domestic title page goes on to describe how readers of devotion was undeniably a vital part of the psalter can use the book: in addition to medieval English Catholicism,36 Protestants enabling congregational singing, the WBP across Europe stressed and re-stressed is advertised as “Very mete to be vsed of all communal devotion within the home and the sortes of people priuately [domestically] for importance of families in religious education. their solace & comfort.” The music preface, In Lutheran reformed thought, parents— too, characterized the “singing of Psalmes” especially fathers—were expected to be the as a “godly exercise” in which a community source of significant religious instruction “in the common place of prayer . . . with one for their children (even as the reformers voyce” may “render thankes & prayses to God.” also expressed some anxiety regarding Alternately, purchasers of this book can sing the individual parent’s judgment).37 In

14 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) Reformation England, too, the godly “rejoice,” “give thanks,” and “praise”—to­ “sing.” household was considered a crucial site This increase in the musical qualities of the of religious change, one in which, despite psalm texts themselves serves to enhance the cultural fears about the weakness of women, psalter’s own identity, explicitly presenting mothers as well as fathers took an active psalms not only as scriptural texts but also as role in the domestic religious education of songs.41 Such differences between the WBP’s children and servants.38 With its musical metrical psalms and the Coverdale Psalter’s metrical psalms allowing for communal prose psalms may seem minor, but they psalm singing and its catechetical hymns, are significant in the context of theWBP ’s the WBP itself may have been among the theological project. Versification represents texts they used for their children’s religious interpretation, and the WBP is remarkably formation.39 consistent in its manner of speaking about It is interesting to note that in two of music as a Protestant imperative. the passages quoted in this section (Psalms 119:164 and 35:30), the parallel text in the “Prayse ye the Lorde with harp and songe”: prose Coverdale Psalter does not make the Aesthetics and Instrumentation same argument about the value of praising The final question I will explore is that God through musical worship—indeed, the of aesthetics and instrumentation: How Coverdale passages do not reference music should the WBP’s psalms and canticles be at all. While all psalms in any translation sung? What advice do the WBP’s psalms will by their very nature contain mention of give regarding the manner of singing, and songs and singing, the WBP is remarkable does the psalter express any partiality to in its sheer frequency of mentions of particular vocal qualities or possible musical music, often adding musical references in accompaniment? instances where the Coverdale Psalter did Some psalms display preferences not contain them (see the Appendix below regarding musical aesthetics. Psalm 47:1 for a comparison of psalm texts): while asks “YE people all in one accorde” to “Be the Coverdale Psalter mentioned music, glad and sing vnto the Lorde, / with swete song, or instruments in 62 passages, the and pleasaunt voyce.” Psalm 71:25 echoes WBP made musical references in 71. Only this sentiment, the psalmist describing his very rarely does the WBP remove a musical singing as demonstrating “pleasant voyce,” reference found in the Coverdale Psalter. and Psalm 97:9 prompts Sion and Judah to Some of these additions and removals may “make a pleasaunt noyce.” Sweet, pleasant be driven simply by the needs of the poetic singing is praiseworthy, while other vocal form, but it seems to me that the resultant attributes beyond timbre, such as range and statement about music is too consistent for volume, go unremarked.42 the sum of these changes to be inadvertent. The Psalms describe ideal tone quality In comparison to the Coverdale Psalter, but not a potential singer’s ability to the WBP adds mention of music 15 times, sightread, lead others in song, or invent while removing reference to music in six their own songs. However, while the ability passages.40 The WBP often converts the to improvise or to serve as a musical leader Coverdale Psalter’s nonmusical verbs was beyond the needs of congregational and verb phrases—such as “speak,” “talk,”

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 15 psalmody, this does not mean that the WBP Finally, I turn to the fraught question of regarded musical knowledge as unnecessary. instruments. The debate over the inclusion Psalm 47:6 exhorts readers to “all skillful, of instruments in worship was a tense prayses syng.” The ideal psalm singer is not point of contention in Protestant thought. only pleasant in voice but also skillful in Luther and most (but not all) Lutherans musical knowledge. encouraged the continued use of organs.44 More important than vocal quality is Calvin and subsequent Calvinists rejected the attitude of the singer. In his Institutes of the use of instruments, approving only of the Christian Religion (1536), John Calvin unaccompanied psalm singing.45 Zwingli explained that because liturgical song is a occupied the other far end of the spectrum, form of prayer, it must be approached by the allowing no instruments and indeed no singer with the proper posture, stemming music at all in church services.46 In England, from the heart: “it is fully evident that unless too, instruments were the source of much voice and song, if interposed in prayer, spring debate, with many English reformers from deep feeling of heart, neither has any aiming to silence the organ altogether, value or profit in the least with God.” Calvin while others continued to support the use of goes on: “we do not here condemn speaking instruments in worship. Official Church of and singing but rather strongly commend England policy was agnostic; there was no them, provided they are associated with the mention of organs in the royal injunctions heart’s affection.”43 The WBP places similar of 1547 or 1559, and an attempt to ban emphasis on the emotional condition of the “the use of organs and curious singing” at singer: believers should sing with an attitude the Convocation of 1563 failed. Arguments of thankfulness and joy. Psalm 33:1 notes for and against the use of organs in churches that “it is a semely sight: / That vpright men can be found throughout the period, as can with thankfull voyce, / should prayse the God evidence both of organ destruction and of of might.” Psalm 69:32 advises that praise church payment for organs and organists.47 be shown “with a song: / I will extoll the When considered in relation to the same alwayes, / with harty thankes among.” spectrum of Protestant thought, from Psalms 66:7 and 98:5 command singing Luther’s support of instruments through “with joyful voice,” the latter further advising Calvin’s rejection of instruments in favor that readers “Geue thankes to God, sing and of unaccompanied unison congregational reioyce / to him with ioy and mirth.” Psalms singing to Zwingli’s rejection of any 100:1, 118[:14], 132[:9], and 132[:17] music at all, the WBP demonstrates a all prompt believers to sing with joy and/ Lutheran bent (or indeed, a holdover of the or with mirth. Even instrumentalists are in Roman Catholic embrace of instrumental Psalm 92:3–4 encouraged to play “With accompaniment). Because these psalms are all the mirth you can inuent” and, like the not newly composed texts but versifications psalmist, to “have ioy, in harte and voyce.” of scripture, they cannot stray too far from (In England, this sentiment is not unique their source material, psalms that named to the WBP; encouragement to sing with instruments. Sometimes the instrumental thankfulness, joy, and mirth also appears in music described in the WBP’s psalms is the Coverdale Psalter, although to a slightly worshipful in its own right, most obviously lesser degree.) and exuberantly in Psalm 150[:3–5]:

16 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) “His prayses with the princely noyse, / of instruments; the accompaniment of sacred sounding tropet blowe. / Praise him vpon music thus becomes concretely encouraged the viole and, / vpon the harp also. / Praise rather than abstractly hypothetical. By far him with timbrell and with flute, / orgaines the most common instrument mentioned and virginalles: / With sounding cimbals in the psalm versifications is the harp, and praise ye him: / praise him with loud string instruments as a group dominate. cimballs.” More often, instruments function This is entirely in keeping with the nature as accompaniment to their own players’ of the Psalms; their original Hebrew texts, songs or those of others. Exhortations like while sometimes difficult to translate that of Psalm 33:2—“Prayse ye the Lorde precisely, name string instruments in the with harp and songe, / in Psalmes and overwhelming majority.48 The harp or pleasant thinges: / with lute and instrument lyre, famed instrument of choice of King among, / that soundeth with ten stringes”— David, is a symbol of the Psalms themselves are common. Twelve instruments in total are and appears with frequency in the WBP’s named in the WBP’s psalm versifications: versifications. But in contrast to the original harp, lute, trumpet, timbrel, viol, the generic Hebrew texts, and, more important, “string,” flute, tabor, shawm, organ, virginal, unlike the Coverdale translation, the WBP and cymbals. Table 3 lists the psalms in adds additional Elizabethan instruments, which these appear. particularly in Psalm 150, itself a catalogue What makes the WBP’s presentation of of instruments appropriate for praise of proper musical worship remarkable is the God. The Coverdale Psalter names harp, deliberate addition of common Elizabethan lute, trumpet, timbrel, tabor (tabret), Instrument Psalms in Which It Appears Harp 33, 43, 49, 57, 71, 81, 92, 98, 108, 137, 147, 149, 150 Lute 33, 57, 71, 81, 92 Trumpet 47, 81, 87, 98, 150 Timbrel (tabret) 68, 149, 150 Viol 108, 144, 150 Generic “string” 33, 57, 92, 144 Flute 149, 150 Tabor (tabret) 68 Shawm 98 Organ 150 Virginal 150 Cymbals 150

Table 3: Musical Instruments in the WBP’s Versifications

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 17 shawm, and cymbals. However, flute and to come down strongly in support of the use organ are the WBP’s additions, as are viol of instruments in both domestic and church (Psalms 108, 144, and 150) and virginal musical worship. (Yet it is interesting to (Psalm 150). These latter two instruments note that there is little evidence that the were among the most characteristic of metrical psalmody of the WBP was actually Elizabethan instruments and were staples performed with organ accompaniment, of amateur music education, especially for despite the advocacy found within the young gentlewomen.49 In stark contrast, psalter itself.52) the English-language , while also listing trumpet, viol, harp, timbrel, The Whole Booke of Psalmes’ English flute, virginal, organ, and cymbals in its Protestant Musical Identity translation of Psalm 150, also prominently In its musical ideology, the WBP displays prints a marginal gloss that makes it clear a distinctive Protestant identity. This that these instruments are not appropriate printed religious book was influenced by in modern musical worship: “Exhorting the both Lutheran and Calvinist ideas, but it people onely to reioice in praysing God, he privileged certain aspects of each in order maketh mention of those instrume[n]ts to accommodate and reinforce the state- which by Gods comandement were sponsored Church of England, of which appointed in the olde Law, but vnder Christ all English Christians were officially a the vse thereof is abolished in the Church.”50 part, regardless of their own personal The inclusion of Elizabethan instru- theological commitments. Many of the ments (without caveat) ties the WBP’s official and unofficial pronouncements of psalm texts to this historical time and place, the Church of England held a Calvinist making these verses immediate and relevant bent, demonstrating (depending on the for readers, who can see their own culture document) a mild to scathing distrust reflected in these depictions of music of music.53 Other writings were more making. Psalm 150 in particular (quoted ambivalent, and sixteenth-century English above) reads as a reasonably inclusive list of Protestantism was marked by complex Elizabethan instruments, naming trumpet, arguments regarding the meaning of music viol, harp, timbrel, flute, organ, virginal, and its ideal practice. In this environment, and cymbals. The original Hebrew text the WBP contributed a philosophy of music contained a ram’s horn (shofar), two forms and a framework for worship that was to of lyre (which Coverdale translated as lute influence the English church for several and harp), timbrel, strings, two types of centuries. Consider the WBP’s relationship cymbals, and an air-powered instrument to the Church of England. By claiming that translates better as “woodwinds” than state authorization, the WBP reinforced as “organ.”51 The addition of not one but the idea that any aspect of English two keyboard instruments in Psalm 150— Protestantism required the approval of organ and virginal—further distances the official state church. Ambiguity in the the WBP from the original Hebrew. By Elizabethan Injunctions and the Book of not merely naming generic or ancient Common Prayer meant that while metrical Hebrew instruments, but noticeably adding psalms were not explicitly allowed, neither Elizabethan ones, this metrical psalter seems were they barred from liturgy, and many

18 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) parishes across England took advantage of ever identified. (This is especially interesting the loophole. considering the rising importance of musical The WBP also accords with many of the authorship in early modern printing.54) theological commitments of the Protestant Collectively, the texts and paratexts Reformation, claiming continuity with of the WBP are undeniably Protestant. scriptural practices and the ancient church. Sometimes the psalter’s themes incline It makes the role of the laity more significant, toward , due in large part to increasing their congregational participation the influence of the Geneva Psalter. Yet and providing new opportunities for surprisingly, in light of the aborted domestic devotion. The WBP contains only possibility of a Lutheran-based English monophonic music rather than polyphony, congregational song tradition represented enforcing musical (and implying social) by Coverdale’s Goostly Psalmes (banned unity. Its tunes are accessible, easy to sing by Henry VIII in 1546), the WBP also and to learn, and the book even contains an promotes distinctively Lutheran sentiments. introductory music theory treatise that can Only true Christian believers sing, the psalm teach the musically uneducated the skills texts argue, and they should sing daily, they need to participate. While it included both in church and at home. They should no explicit discussion of the didactic role sing psalms (a Calvinist commitment) of music in teaching religious doctrine, the but may also sing hymns and canticles (a WBP was employed as a useful resource for Lutheran perspective). More important is domestic devotion and religious education. the proper attitude of the singer, who must The WBP seems to have a complicated always sing to God with thankfulness and relationship with one of the most important joyfulness, and with a pleasant and skillful Protestant commitments: the primacy of the voice. Psalms can, and perhaps should, be word. Nowhere does the text—main content accompanied by instruments—through or prefatory material—state that music is its addition of specifically Elizabethan employed in the service of the words. In instruments to the psalm texts, especially fact, the music preface is placed before the its invocation of the organ in Psalm 150, “Treatise made by Athanasius,” giving music the WBP takes a definite stance against greater prominence than the text explaining Calvinists’ and Zwinglians’ opposition to the proper use of the psalms. In many the use of instruments (and especially the subsequent editions, the music preface organ) in worship. Taken together, the would be removed but Athanasius’s treatise prefatory matter, hymns, and psalms of would remain. The prefatory matter of the the WBP constructed a particularly English initial edition, however, seemed to elevate Protestant understanding of music as a part music over the psalm texts. Yet only the of the psalter’s role in creating the religious ordering of the prefatory essays conveys this culture of a unified Church of England. Even idea. In all other respects, text is implicitly though the English church never officially presented as more important than music. adopted this vision and musical practices While every psalm is prefaced with the remained diverse, and the WBP compiled initials of the versifier (and Sternhold’s and psalm versifications written by a number Hopkins’s names are prominently displayed of authors, the consistency of the WBP’s on the title page), none of the composers is theology of music remains remarkable.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 19 Appendix: Musical References in The Whole Booke of Psalmes and the Coverdale Psalter Only the white-background passages reference music. Verses that do not reference music are highlighted grey for easy comparison.

Psalm Coverdale Psalter (1535)i The Whole Booke of Psalmes (1562) Verses 7:18 I will give thanks unto the Lord, I will geue thankes to God therfore, / that according to his righteousness: and I iudgeth rightuously: / And with my song will praise the Name of the Lord prayse will the name, / of hym that is most High. most hye. 9:1–2 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, WIth hart and mouthe, vnto the Lorde, / with my whole heart: I will speak of will I syng laude and prayse: / And all thy marvellous works. I will be speake of all thy wondrous workes, / and glad and rejoice in thee: yea, my them declare alwayes. / I will be glad and songs will I make of thy name, O muche reioyce, / in thee (O God) moste thou most Highest. hie: / And make my songes extoll thy name, / aboue the sterry skie. 9:11 O praise the Lord which dwelleth in Sing Psalmes therfore vnto the Lorde, / Sion: shew the people of his doings. that dwelleth in Sion hill: 13:6 I will sing of the Lord, because he I will geue thankes vnto the Lorde, / and hath dealt so lovingly with me: yea, prayses to hym syng: / Because he hathe I will praise the Name of the Lord hard my request, / and graunted my most Highest. wishyng. 18:2 I will call upon the Lord, which is When I sing laud vnto the Lorde, / most (18:3 in worthy to be praised: so shall I be worthy to be serued: / Then fro[m] my WBP) safe from mine enemies. foes I am right sure, / that I shalbe preserued. 18:50 For this cause will I give thanks And for this cause, O Lorde my God, / to (18:48 in unto thee, O Lord, among the thee geue thankes I shall: / And syng out WBP) Gentiles: and sing praises unto thy prayses to thy name, / among the Gentils Name. all. 21:13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own Be thou exalted Lorde therfore, / in thy strength: so will we sing, and praise strength euery houre: / So shall we sing thy power. right solempnely, / praisyng thy might and power. 27:7 Therefore will I offer in his dwelling Therfore within his house will I, / Geue (27:8 in an oblation with great gladness: I sacrifice of prayse: / With Psalmes and WBP) will sing, and speak praises unto the songes I will applye, / to laude the Lorde Lord. alwayes.

i Ernest Clapton, Our Prayer Book Psalter: Containing Coverdale’s Version from His 1535 Bible and the Prayer Book Version by Coverdale from the Great Bible 1539–41 Printed Side by Side (London: Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1934). The Coverdale Psalter was prescribed for liturgical 20use beginning with the 1549Yale BookJournal of of Common Music & ReligionPrayer. Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 28:8 The Lord is my strength and my He is my shield and fortitude, / my (28:7 in shield; my heart hath trusted in him, buckeler in destresse. / My hope, my WBP) and I am helped: therefore my heart helpe, my hartes relyef, / my songe shall danceth for joy, and in my song will him confesse. I praise him. 30:4 Sing praises unto the Lord, O ye Sing prayse ye sainctes that proue and saints of his: and give thanks unto see, / the goodness of the Lord: / In him for a remembrance of his memorye of his maiestie, / Reioyse with holiness. one accord. 30:13 Therefore shall every good man sing Wherfore my soule vncessauntly, / shall (30:12 in of thy praise without ceasing: O my syng vnto thy prayse: / My Lorde, my WBP) God, I will give thanks unto thee for God, to thee will I, / Geue laude and ever. thankes alwayes. 32:8 Thou art a place to hide me in, thou When trouble and aduersitie, / doo shalt preserve me from trouble: thou compasse me about: / Thou art my refuge shalt compass me about with songs and my ioye, / and thou doest rid me out. of deliverance. 33:1–3 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: YE rightuous in the Lorde reioyse, / it is for it becometh well the just to be a semely sight: / That vpright men with thankful. Praise the Lord with harp: thankfull voyce, / should prayse the God sing praises unto him with the lute, of might. / Prayse ye the Lorde with harp and instrument of ten strings. Sing and songe, / in Psalmes and pleasant unto the Lord a new song: sing thinges: / with lute and instrument praises lustily unto him with a good among, / that soundeth with ten stringes. courage. / Sing to the Lord a song most new, / with courage geue him prayes: 35:28 And as for my tongue, it shall be Wherfore my tonge I will applye, / thy (35:30 in talking of thy righteousness: and of righteousnes to pryse: / Unto the Lorde, WBP) thy praise all the day long. my God will I, / sing laudes with thankes alwayse. 40:3 And he hath put a new song in my To me he [God] taught a psalme of mouth: even a thanksgiving unto our prayse, / whiche I must shew abrode: / God. And sing new songes of thankes alwayse, / vnto the Lorde our God. 42:4 Now when I think thereupon, I pour When I did marche in good aray, / (42:4b in out my heart by myself: for I went furnished with my trayne: / Unto the WBP) with the multitude, and brought temple was one way, / with songes and them forth into the house of God; harts most fayne. 42:10 The Lord hath granted his loving- Yet I by day felt his goodnes, / and helpe kindness in the daytime: and in the at all assayes: / Lykewise by night I did night-season did I sing of him, and not cease, / the liuyng God to prayse. made my prayer unto the God of my life.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 21 43:4 And that I may go unto the altar of Then shal I to the aultar go, / of God my God, even unto the God of my joy ioy and cheare: / And on my harpe geue and gladness: and upon the harp will thankes to thee / O God, my God most I give thanks unto thee, O God, my deare. God. 45:1–2 My heart is inditing of a good My hart doth now, take in hande, / Some matter: I speak of the things which I godly songe to singe: / Thy prayse I shall have made unto the King. My shew therein, / perteyneth to the kynge. / tongue is the pen: of a ready writer. My tounge shalbe as quicke, / his honor to endite: / As is the pen of any scribe, / that vseth faste to wryte. 47:1 O clap your hands together, all ye YE people all in one accorde, / clappe people: O sing unto God with the handes and eke reioyce: / Be glad and voice of melody. sing vnto the Lorde, / with swete and pleasaunt voyce. 47:5–7 God is gone up with a merry noise: Our God ascended vp on hye, / with ioy (47:5–6 and the Lord with the sound of the and pleasaunt noyce, / The Lorde goeth in WBP) trump. O sing praises, sing praises vp aboue the skye, / with trompets royall unto our God: O sing praises, sing voyce. / Sing prayse to God, sing prayse, praises unto our King. For God is / sing prayses to our kynge: / For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye king of all the earth, / all skilfull, prayses praises with understanding. syng. 49:4 I will incline mine ear to the I will inclyne myne eare to knowe, / the parable: and shew my dark speech parables so darke. / And open all my upon the harp. doubtfull speache, / in on my harpe. 51:14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O O God that of my health art Lorde, / God, thou that art the God of my forgeue me thys my bloudy vice: / My health: and my tongue shall sing of hart and toung shall then accorde, / to thy righteousness. sing thy mercies and iustice.

Another Psalm 51 (not given verse numbers): O God that art God of my health, / from blood deliuer me: / That prayses of thy righteousnes / my tonge may syng to thee. / My lippes that yet fast closed be, / doo thou, O Lorde vnlose: / The prayses of thy maiestie / my mouth shall so disclose:

22 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 57:8–10 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart My harte is set to laude the Lorde, / in (57:9–11 is fixed: I will sing, and give praise. hym to ioye alwayes. / My hart I say doth in WBP) Awake up, my glory; awake, lute well accorde, / to syng hys laude and and harp: I myself will awake right prayse. / Awake my ioy, awake I say, / early. I will give thanks unto thee, O my lute, my harpe and strynge: / For I my Lord, among the people: and I will sealf before the daye, / will rise, reioyce sing unto thee among the nations. and syng / Amonge the people I will tell, / the goodnes of my God: / And shew hys prayse that doeth excell, in Heathen landes abrode. 59:16–17 As for me, I will sing of thy power, But I will shew thy strength abrode, / thy and will praise thy mercy betimes in goodnes I will prayse: / For thou arte my the morning: for thou hast been my defence and God, / at nede in all assayes. defence and refuge in the day of my / Thou art my strength, thou hast me staid trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, / O Lorde I synge to thee: / Thou arte my will I sing: for thou, O God, art my forte, my fence and ayde, / a louing God refuge, and my merciful God. to me. 61:8 So will I always sing praise unto thy Then shall I singe for euer still, / with Name: that I may daily perform my prayse vnto thy name: / That all my vows. voues I may fulfill, / and dayly pay the same. 63:6 My soul shall be satisfied, even as it My soule is filled as with marow, / (63:5 in were with marrow and fatness: when whiche is bothe fat and swete: / My WBP) my mouth praiseth thee with joyful mouth therfore shall sing such songs / as lips. are for thee most mete. 65:14 The folds shall be full of sheep: the In places playne the flocke shall fede, / valleys also shall stand so thick with and couer all the earth: / The valies with corn, that they shall laugh and sing. corne shall so excede, / that men shall sing for mirth. 66:1–3 O be joyful in God, all ye lands: Ye men on earth in God reioyce, / with sing praises unto the honour of his prayse set forth his name: / Extoll his Name, make his praise to be might with hart and voyce / geue glory to glorious. Say unto God, O how the same. / How wonderfull, O Lorde, wonderful art thou in thy works: say ye, / in all thy workes thou art: / Thy through the greatness of thy power foes for feare doo seke to thee, / full sore shall thine enemies be found liars agaynst theyr hart. / All men that dwell unto thee. For all the world shall the earth throughout / doo prayse the worship thee: sing of thee, and name of God: / The laude therof the praise thy name. worlde about, / is shewd and set abrode. 66:7 O praise our God, ye people: and ye people geue vnto our God, / due laude make the voice of his praise to be and thankes alwayes, / With ioyful voyce heard; declare abrode, / and syng vnto hys prayse.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 23 68:4 O sing unto God, and sing praises Sing prayse, sing prayse vnto the Lord / unto his Name: magnify him that who rideth on the skie: / Extoll this name rideth upon the heavens, as it were of Iah our God, / and him do magnifie. upon an horse; praise him in his name JAH, and rejoice before him. 68:25 The singers go before, the minstrels The singers goo befrre [before] with ioy, follow after: in the midst are the / the minstrels folow after: / And in the damsels playing with the timbrels. midst the damsels play, / with timbrell Give thanks, O Israel, unto God the and with taber. / Now in thy Lord in the congregations: from the congregations, / (O Israell) prayse the ground of the heart. Lord: / And Iacobs whole posteritie, / geue thankes with one accorde. 68:32 Sing unto God, O ye kingdoms of Therfore ye kingdomes of the earth, / the earth: O sing praises unto the geue prayse vnto the Lorde: / Sing Lord; Psalmes to God with one consent, / therto let all accorde. 69:12 They that sit in the gate speak Both hie and lowe, and all the throng, / (69:13– against me: and the drunkards make that sit within the gate: / They haue me 14 in songs upon me. euer in theyr tong, / of me they talke and WBP) prate. 69:31 I will praise the Name of God with a That I may geue thy name the prayse, / (69:32 in song: and magnify it with and shew it with a song: / I will extoll the WBP) thanksgiving. same alwayes, / with harty thankes among. 71:7 Let my mouth be filled with thy Wherfore my mouth no tune shall lacke, / (71:8 in praise: that I may sing of thy glory thy glory and thy prayse: / And eke my WBP) and honour all the day long. tong shall not be slack, to honor thee alwayse. 71:20-21 Therefore will I praise thee and thy Therfore thy faithfulnes to prayse, / I will (71:24– faithfulness, O God, playing upon bothe lute and sing: / My harp shall 25 in an instrument of musick: unto thee sound thy laude alwayes / O Israels holy WBP) will I sing upon the harp, O thou king. / My mouth will ioy with pleasant Holy One of Israel. My lips will be voyce / when I shall sing to thee: / And fain when I sing unto thee: and so eke my soule will muche reioyce, / for will my soul whom thou hast thou hast made me free. delivered. 72:18–19 Blessed be the Lord God, even the Praise ye the Lord of hostes and sing, / to (72:19– God of Israel: which only doeth Israels God eche one: / For he doth euery 20 in wondrous things; / And blessed be wondrous thing, / yea he him self alone. / WBP) the Name of his majesty for ever: And blessed be his holy name, all times and all the earth shall be filled with eternally: / That all the earth may prayse his majesty. Amen, Amen. the same, / Amen, Amen, say I.

24 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 77:6 I call to remembrance my song: and By night my songes I call to mynde, / in the night I commune with mine once made thy prayse to shew: / And own heart, and search out my spirits. with my hart, much taulke I finde, / my spirites doth searche to knowe. 81:1-3 Sing we merrily unto God our BE lyghte and glad in God reioyce / strength: make a cheerful noise unto which is our strength & staie / be ioyfull the God of Jacob. / Take the psalm, and lyfte vp your voyce, to Iacobs God I bring hither the tabret: the merry say, / prepare your instrumentes most harp with the lute. Blow up the mete / some ioyfull psalme to synge, / trumpet in the new-moon: even in stryke vp with harp and lute so swete / on the time appointed, and upon our euery pleasant stryng. / Blow as it were solemn feast-day. in the new mone, / with trumpets of the best: / As it is vsed to be done, at any solemne feast. 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found her an The sparrowes find a rome to rest, / and (84:3–4 house, and the swallow a nest where saue them selues from wrong: / And eke in WBP) she may lay her young: even thy the swalow hath a neste, / wherin to kepe altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and her yong. / These birdes full nigh, thin my God. aulter maye) / haue place to sitte and synge: / O Lorde of hostes thou art I say, / my God and eke my kynge. 87:7 The singers also and trumpeters The trumpetters with such as syng, / (87:8 in shall he rehearse: All my fresh therin great plenty be: / My fountayns & WBP) springs shall be in thee. my pleasant springs / are compast all in thee. 89:1 My song shall be alway of the TO syng the mercyes of the Lorde, / my loving-kindness of the Lord: with tounge shall neuer spare: / And with my my mouth will I ever be shewing thy mouth from age to age, / thy truthe I will truth from one generation to another. declare. 92:1–4 It is a good thing to give thanks unto IT is a thing, bothe good and meete, / to the Lord: and to sing praises unto praise the highest Lorde: / And to thine thy Name, O most Highest. To tell name O thou most hye, / to sing in one of thy loving-kindness early in the accorde. / To shew the kindnes of the morning: and of thy truth in the Lorde, / betime ere day be light, / And night-season. Upon an instrument of eke declare his truth abrode, / when it ten strings, and upon the lute: upon a doth draw to nyght. / Upon ten strynged loud instrument, and upon the harp. instru[m]ent, / on lute and harpe so For thou, Lord, hast made me glad swete: / With all the mirth you can through thy works: and I will rejoice inuent, / of instruments most meete, / For in giving praise for the operations of thou hast made me to reioyse, / in thinges thy hands. so wrought by thee: / And I haue ioy, in harte and voyce, / thy handy workes to see.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 25 95:1-2 O come, let us sing unto the Lord: O Come let vs lyfte vp oure voyce, / and let us heartily rejoice in the strength synge vnto the Lorde, / in him our rock of our salvation. Let us come before of health reioyce, / let vs with one his presence with thanksgiving: and accorde, / yea let vs come before his face, shew ourselves glad in him with to geue him thanks and prayse, / in psalms. singing Psalmes vnto his grace, / let vs be glad all wayes. 96:1-2 O sing unto the Lord a new song: SYng ye with prayse vnto the Lorde, / sing unto the Lord, all the whole New songs of ioy and mirthe / Sing vnto earth. Sing unto the Lord, and praise him with one accorde, / all people on the his name: be telling of his salvation yearthe. / yea sing vnto the Lorde, I saye, from day to day. / prayse ye his holy name / Declare and shew from day to daye, / saluation by the same. 96:11-12 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the The heauens shall great ioy begin, / the earth be glad: let the sea make a earth shall eke reioyce: / The sea with all noise, and all that therein is. Let the that is therin, / shall shoute and make a field be joyful, and all that is in it: noice. / The field shall ioye and euery then shall all the trees of the wood thing, / that spryngeth of the earth: / The rejoice before the Lord. wod and euery tree shall sing, / with gladnes and with mirth. 97:8 Sion heard of it, and rejoiced: and With ioy shall Sion here this thyng, / and (97:9 in the daughters of Judah were glad, Juda shall reioyce: / For at thy WBP) because of thy judgements, O Lord. iudgements they shall sing, / and make a pleasaunt noyce. 98:1 O sing unto the Lord a new song: for O Syng ye now vnto the Lorde, / a new he hath done marvellous things. and pleasaunt songe: / For he hath wrought throughout the world / His wonders great & strong. 98:5–7 Shew yourselves joyful unto the Be glad in him, with ioyfull voyce, / all (98:5–6 Lord, all ye lands: sing, rejoice, and people of the earth: / Geue thankes to in WBP) give thanks. Praise the Lord upon God, sing and reioyce / to him with ioy the harp: sing to the harp with a and mirth. / Upon the harp vnto him sing, psalm of thanksgiving. With / geue thankes to him with psalmes: / trumpets also and shawms: O shew Reioyce before the Lord our king, / with yourselves joyful before the Lord trumpets and with shalmes. the King. 100:1 O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: IN God the Lorde be glad and lyght, / serve the Lord with gladness, and prayse him throughout the yearthe: / come before his presence with a Serue him and come before his sight, / song. with singing and with mirth.

26 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 101:1 My song shall be of mercy and I Mercye will and iudgement sing, / O (WBP has judgement: unto thee, O Lord, will I Lorde God vnto thee: no verse sing. numbers) 104:12 Beside them shall the fowls of the By these pleasant springs / or fountaynes air have their habitation: and sing full fayre. The foules of the ayre / abide among the branches. shall and dwell: Who moued by nature / to hoppe here and there, / Among the grene branches / their songs shall excell. 104:33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I To thys Lorde and God / sing will I live: I will praise my God while I alwayes: / So long as I liue, / my God have my being. prayse will I 105:1–2 O give thanks unto the Lord, and GEue prayses vnto God the Lorde, / and (WBP has call upon his Name: tell the people call vpon his name: / Among the people no verse what things he hath done. O let your eke declare, / his workes, to spred his numbers) songs be of him, and praise him: and fame. / Sing ye vnto the Lorde, I say, / let your talking be of all his and sing vnto him prayse, / And talke of wondrous works. all the wondrous workes, / that he hath wrought alwayes. 106:12 Then believed they his words: and Then they beleued his wordes, & praise / (WBP has sang praise unto him. in song they did him geue. no verse numbers) 108:1–3 O God, my heart is ready, my heart O God, my harte prepared is, / and eke is ready: I will sing and give praise my tong is so. / I will aduaunce my voyce with the best member that I have. in song, / and geuyug [giving] prayse Awake, thou lute, and harp: I myself also. / Awake my viole and my harpe, / will awake right early. I will give swete melody to make, / And in the thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the morning I my selfe, / right early will people: I will sing praises among the awake. / By me among the people, Lorde, nations. / still praysed shalt thou be, / And I among thy Heathen folke, / will sing, O Lorde, to thee. 118:14– The Lord is my strength, and my The lorde is my defence and strengthe / 15 (WBP song: and is become my salvation. my ioy, my mirth and song: / He is has no The voice of joy & mirth is in the become for me in dede, / a sauiour most verse dwellings of the righteous, for the strong. / The right hand of the lord our numbers) right hand of the Lord hath gotten God, / doth bring to pas great thinges: / the victory. He causeth voyce of ioy and health, / in rightous mennes dwellynges.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 27 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs: in And as for me, I framed my songs, / thy the house of my pilgrimage. statutes to exalt: / When I among the straungers dweld, / and thoughtes gau me assalt. 119:164 Seven times a day do I praise thee: Seuen times a day I prayse the Lord / because of thy righteous singing with hart and voyce: / Thy judgements. rightuous actes and wonderfull, / so cause me to reioyse. 119:171– My lips shall speak of thy praise: Then all my lippes thy prayses speake, / 72 when thou hast taught me thy after most ample sort: / When thou thy statutes. / Yea, my tongue shall sing statutes hast me taught, / wherin standeth of thy word: for all thy all comfort: / My tong shall sing and commandments are righteous. preache thy word / and on this wise say shall: / Gods famous actes and noble lawes, / are iust and perfect all. 129:1–2 Many a time have they fought Of Israell thys may now be the song, / (129:1 in against me from my youth up: may euen from my youth my foes haue oft me WBP) Israel now say. / Yea, many a time noied / A thousand euils since, I was have they vexed me from my youth tendre & yonge / Thy haue wrought, yet up: but they have not prevailed was I not destroyed. against me. 132:9 Let thy priests be clothed with Let all thy prestes be clothed Lorde, / (WBP has righteousness: and let thy saints sing with truthe and righteousnes: / Let all thy no verse with joyfulness. sayntes and holy men, / sing all with numbers) ioyfulnes. 132:17 I will deck her priests with health: Yea I will decke, and cloth her pristes, / (WBP has and her saints shall rejoice and sing. with my saluation: / And all her sainctes no verse shall sing for ioye, / of my protection. numbers) 135:1–3 O praise the Lord, laud ye the Name O Praise the lord praise him praise him, / of the Lord: praise it, O ye servants praise him with one accord, / o praise of the Lord; Ye that stand in the him stil al ye that be / the seruaunts of the house of the Lord: in the courts of lord, / o praise him ye that stand & be, / the house of our God. O praise the in the house of the Lord, / ye of his court Lord, for the Lord is gracious: O and of his house / praise hym with one sing praises unto his Name, for it is accord. / Prayse ye the Lord for he is lovely. good, / syng prayses to his name: / It is a comly, and good thing, / alwayes to doo the same.

28 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 137:1–5 By the waters of Babylon we sat WHen as we sat in Babylon, / the riuers down and wept: when we rounde about: / and in the remembraunce remembered thee, O Sion. As for of Sion / the teares for grief bust out. / our harps, we hanged them up: upon We hangd our harps & instruments, / the the trees that are therein. For they willow trees vpon, / for in that place men that led us away captive required of for their vse, / had planted many one. / us then a song, and melody in our Then they to whom we prisoners were, / heaviness: Sing us one of the songs sayde to vs tauntingly: / Now let vs heare of Sion. How shall we sing the your Ebrue songes, / and pleasant Lord’s song: in a strange land? If I melody. / Alas (sayd we) who can once forget thee, O Jerusalem: let my frame, / his sorowfull hart to syng: / The right hand forget her cunning. prayses of our louing God, / thus vnder a straunge kyng? But yet if I Ierusalem, / out of my hart let slyde: / Then let my fingers quyte forget, / the warblyng harp to guyde. 138:1 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Thee will I prayse with my whole hart, / (WBP has with my whole heart: even before my Lorde my God alwayes: / Euen in the no verse the gods will I sing praise unto thee. presence of the Gods, / I will aduaunce numbers) thy prayse. 138:5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of They of the wayes of God the Lord, / in (WBP has the Lord: that great is the glory of singing shall entreate: / Because the glory no verse the Lord. of the Lorde, / it is exceding great. numbers) 144:9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O A new song I will sing O God, / and (WBP has God: and sing praises unto thee singing will I be, / On viole and on no verse upon a ten-stringed lute. instrument, / ten stringed vnto thee. numbers) 145:7 The memorial of thine abundant And they into the mention shall, / breake (WBP has kindness shall be shewed: and men of thy goodnes great: / And I aloud thy no verse shall sing of thy righteousness. righteousnes, / in singing shall repete. numbers) 146:1 Praise the Lord, O my soul; while I My soule prayse thou the Lord alwayes, / (146:1–2 live will I praise the Lord: yea, as My God I will confes: / Whyle death and in WBP) long as I have any being, I will sing lyfe prolong my dayes, / my tonge no praises unto my God. tyme shall cease. 147:1 O praise the Lord, for it is a good PRaise ye the Lord, for it is good / vnto (WBP has thing to sing praises unto our God: our God to synge, / For it is pleasante and no verse yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to prayse, / it is a comely thyng, numbers) to be thankful.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 29 147:7 O sing unto the Lord with Sing vnto God the Lord with prayse, / (WBP has thanksgiving: sing praises upon the vnto the Lord reioyse: / And to our God no verse harp unto our God; vpon the harp, / aduaunce your singing numbers) voyce. 149:1 O sing unto the Lord a new song: let SIng ye vnto the Lorde our God, / a new (WBP has the congregation of saints praise reioysing song: / And let the prayse of no verse him. him be heard, / his holy sainctes among. numbers) 149:3 Let them praise his Name in the Let them sound prayse with voyce of flut (WBP has dance: let them sing praises unto / vnto his holy name: / And with the no verse him with tabret and harp. timbrell and the harpe, / sing prayses of numbers) the same. 149:5 Let the saints be joyful with glory: With glory and with honor now, / let al (WBP has let them rejoice in their beds. the sainctes reioyse: / And now aloude no verse vpon their beds, / aduaunce their singing numbers) voyce. 150:3–5 Praise him in the sound of the His prayses with the princely noyse, / of (WBP has trumpet: praise him upon the lute sounding tropet blowe. / Praise him vpon no verse and harp. Praise him in the cymbals the viole and, / vpon the harp also. / numbers) and dances: praise him upon the Praise him with timbrell and with flute, / strings and pipe. Praise him upon orgaines and virginalles: / With sounding the well-tuned cymbals: praise him cimbals praise ye him: / praise him with upon the loud cymbals. loud cimballs.

1 Ernest Clapton, Our Prayer Book Psalter: Containing Coverdale’s Version from His 1535 Bible and the Prayer Book Version by Coverdale from the Great Bible 1539–41 Printed Side by Side (London: Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1934). The Coverdale Psalter was prescribed for liturgical use beginning with the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.

30 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) NOTES

1 Thomas Cranmer, “To King Henry VIII,” in Windows into Christian Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: The Works of Thomas Cranmer: Miscellaneous Writings Baker Academic, 2003), 203–229. and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, ed. John Edmund Cox 7 Peter le Huray, Music and the Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1846), in England, 1549–1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge 412. University Press, 1978 [1967]); Edmund H. 2 Noted in Robin Leaver, The Liturgy and Fellowes, English Cathedral Music, rev. ed. by J. Music: A Study of the Use of the Hymn in Two Liturgical A. Westrup (London: Methuen, 1969 [1941]); Traditions (Bramcote: Grove Books, 1976), 3–13. Nicholas Temperley, The Music of the English Parish 3 For extensive analysis of the “Shorte Church, Vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Introduction into the Science of Musicke” preface that Press, 1979). functioned as an introductory music theory treatise, see 8 John Stevens, Music and Poetry in the my “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Protestant Ideology, Early Tudor Court (Lincoln: University of Nebraska and Musical Literacy in Elizabethan England” (Ph.D. Press, 1961), Chapter 5. For analysis of theological diss., Duke University, 2018), Chapter 4. arguments against polyphony, see Rob C. Wegman, 4 Beth Quitslund, The Reformation in Rhyme The Crisis of Music in Early Modern Europe, 1470– (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 242; Ian Green, Print 1530 (London: Routledge, 2005), Chapter 4. and Protestantism in Early Modern England (Oxford: 9 Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in Oxford University Press, 2000), 509. England, Vol. 1: From Cranmer to Hooker, 1534–1603 5 Arten, “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Protestant Ideology, and Musical Literacy in Company, 1970); Robin A. Leaver, ‘Goostly Psalmes Elizabethan England,” Chapter 1. and Spirituall Songes’: English and Dutch Metrical 6 Sources on Luther’s theology of music Psalms from Coverdale to Utenhove, 1535–1566 include Theodore Hoelty-Nickel, “Luther and (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991); Jonathan Willis, Music,” in Luther and Culture, ed. George W. Forell, Church Music and Protestantism in Post-Reformation Harold J. Grimm, and Theodore Hoelty-Nickel England: Discourses, Sites and Identities (Farnham, (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Press, 1960), Surrey: Ashgate, 2010), Chapter 2. 145–211; B. L. Horne, “A Civitas of Sound: On 10 For this research on the 1562 WBP (STC Luther and Music,” Theology 88 (1985): 21–28; 2430), I worked with the British Library’s book-copy Robin A. Leaver, “Luther on Music,” Lutheran (shelfmark C.25.g.3), viewed in person and via Early Quarterly 20, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 125–45; English Books Online, with additional consultation Ulrich S. Leupold, “Luther’s Conception of Music of Harvard University’s book-copy (shelfmark HOU in Worship,” Lutheran Church Quarterly 13 (1940): GEN STC 2430). While the WBP was the product of 66–69; J. Andreas Loewe, “Why Do Lutherans a long process of expansion, compilation, and editing Sing? Lutherans, Music, and the in the as the psalm collection evolved in several significant First Century of the Reformation,” Church History stages from its origin as courtly poetry in Thomas 82/1 (March 2013): 69–89; Paul Nettl, Luther Sternhold’s Certayne psalmes (1548 or 1549), this and Music, trans. Frida Best and Ralph Wood current research is concerned not with the complex (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1948; repr. New York: process of compiling the WBP but with the final, Russel & Russel, 1967); and Carl F. Schalk, Luther unified form of theWBP as it was presented to readers. on Music: Paradigms of Praise (St. Louis: Concordia 11 John Wesley, The Letters of the Rev. John Publishing House, 1988). For a starting place on Wesley, A.M., ed. John Telford, Vol. 3 (London: Calvin’s theology of music, see Charles Garside, Jr., Epworth Press, 1931), 227. “The Origins of Calvin’s Theology of Music: 1536– 12 Quitslund, The Reformation in Rhyme, 1543,” Transactions of the American Philosophical 21–22; Rivkah Zim, English Metrical Psalms: Poetry Society 69/4 (1979): 5–36; W. David O. Taylor, as Praise and Prayer, 1535–1601 (Cambridge: “John Calvin and Musical Instruments: A Critical Cambridge University Press, 1987), 119–20. Investigation,” Calvin Theological Journal 48/2 13 Hamlin suggests that this is a return to (November 2013): 248–69; Jeffrey VanderWilt, Sternhold’s original goals for his published courtly “John Calvin’s Theology of Liturgical Song,” poetry (devout recreation for the godly), rather than Christian Scholar’s Review 25/1 (1995): 63–82; and (or perhaps in addition to) the ’ John D. Witvliet, “The Spirituality of the Psalter in intent for all the laity to become involved in church Calvin’s Geneva,” in Worship Seeking Understanding: services: Psalm Culture and Early Modern English

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 31 Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Seventh: The songe of the thre Children, The 2004), 27. humble sute of the Sinner, The x Commaundements 14 Michael Saenger, The Commodification (of the opening hymns), and Psalms 14, 35, 69, 95, of Textual Engagements in the English Renaissance and 147. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 38–54, and particularly Ninth: Veni creator, The Lordes prayer (of the 47–49. opening hymns), Psalms 1, 41, 59, 68, 77, 78, 81, 15 For “parish Anglicans,” Christopher Haigh, 104, 119, 121, 124, 130, 137, 145, 148, and The English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society xii Articles of the christian faythe. under the Tudors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993); Tenth: Te deum, Nunc dimittis, Psalms 88 and for “prayer book Protestants,” Judith Maltby, Prayer 112, and The Lords Prayer (of the closing hymns). Book and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England 20 Only thirteen of these 65 melodies start on (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); for a different pitch than the tonic. Fifth above: Psalms “the hotter sort,” Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan 6, 30, 51, 112, 125, 126, 130, The Lords Prayer Puritan Movement (Berkeley: University of California (of the closing hymns), and The xii Articles of the Press, 1967); for “church papists,” Alexandra christian faythe. Fifth below: The Lordes prayer (of Walsham, Church Papists: Catholicism, Conformity and the opening hymns), Psalm 21. Whole step above: Confessional Polemic in Early Modern England (Suffolk: Magnificat. Third below: Psalm 41. Boydell Press, 1993). 21 Psalm 47 and The complaint of a Sinner end 16 Heidi Brayman Hackel, Reading Material on the sharp third. in Early Modern England: Print, Gender, and Literacy 22 Tunes containing B-flat: Psalms 51, 112, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 119, 126, 147; The Lord’s Prayer (closing canticles). 71–73. Tunes containing E-flat: Psalm 130. 17 Poor general literacy rates in sixteenth- Tunes containing F-sharp: Psalms 141, 145, century England did not necessarily limit the WBP’s 147; The complaint of a Sinner. audience. Reading aloud was still a common practice Tunes containing C-sharp: The Lamentation. throughout the sixteenth century. In Elizabethan 23 Christopher Marsh, Music and Society in Early England, members of the lower class were almost Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University certainly reading aloud, and even the gentry, who Press, 2010), 412–15; Temperley, The Music of the commonly had the ability to read silently, often chose English Parish Church, 34, 58. to read aloud as a form of sociable entertainment. For 24 In reference to the Anglo- further discussion of communal reading of the WBP, (1556), from which many of the WBP’s tunes see Arten, “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Protestant were drawn, Timothy Duguid argues that seeming Ideology, and Musical Literacy in Elizabethan problems in metrical accentuation in the psalm England,” 132–37. On the development of silent texts can be explained by their musical settings. reading, see Paul Saenger, “Silent Reading: Its Impact Misplaced textual accents are mediated by the chosen on Late Medieval Script and Society,” Viator 13 melodies. According to Duguid, the text setting in the (1982): 367–414; and idem, Space between Words: Anglo-Genevan Psalter is calculated for clarity and The Origin of Silent Reading (Stanford: Stanford understanding on the part of the listener. He finds University Press, 1997); and on sociable reading these tunes’ rhythmic text setting more effective than aloud, see Roger Chartier, “Leisure and Sociability: I do: Metrical Psalmody in Print and Practice: English Reading Aloud in Early Modern Europe,” in Urban ‘Singing Psalms’ and Scottish ‘Psalm Buiks’, c. 1547– Life in the Renaissance, ed. Susan Zimmerman and 1640 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 29–33. Ronald F. E. Weissman (Newark: University of 25 Psalm 144[:9], Psalm 149[:1]. I have Delaware Press, 1989), 103–20. added verse numbers in editorial brackets throughout 18 Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Whole Psalter to clarify discussion of particular passages for which translated into English Metre (John Day, 1567) was verse numbers are not printed in the WBP. printed but not published, in the sense that it was 26 Psalm 129:1. never sold publicly but printed for private use within 27 See Arten, “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Parker’s circle. The Parker Psalter does represent Protestant Ideology, and Musical Literacy in official church sponsorship of metrical psalmody, but Elizabethan England,” 28–35 for discussion of the its message was not presented to a broad audience, WBP’s claim to Protestant authority over and against and it certainly lacked the reach of the WBP. Roman Catholicism, drawing upon Kenneth Parker’s 19 Sixth: The Crede of Athanasius (Quicunque work on metanarratives of history: Kenneth L. Parker, vult) and Psalm 136. “The Rise of Historical Consciousness among the

32 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) Christian Churches: An Introduction,” in The Rise of Domestic Devotion in Early Modern Britain, ed. Jessica Historical Consciousness among the Christian Churches, Martin and Alec Ryrie (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), ed. Kenneth L. Parker and Erick H. Moser (Lanham, 237–58. MD: University Press of America, 2013), 1–16; 35 Joseph Herl, for example, has written of idem, “Re-Visioning the Past and Re-Sourcing the pre-Reformation congregational singing in Germany; Future: The Unresolved Historiographical Struggle though evidence is scant and the extent of the in Roman Catholic Scholarship and Authoritative congregational singing remains unknown, it is clear Teaching,” in The Church on Its Past, ed. Peter D. that lay hymnody did exist prior to Luther; Worship Clarke and Charlotte Methuen (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Boydell Press for the Ecclesiastical History Society, Three Centuries of Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University 2013), 389–416. In the creation of his taxonomy Press, 2004), 28. (successionist, supercessionist, developmental, and 36 The classic text is Eamon Duffy, The Stripping apperceptive metanarratives), Parker drew upon of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400–c. Anthony Kemp, The Estrangement of the Past: A Study 1580, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, in the Origins of Modern Historical Consciousness (New 2005). York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); to 37 Gerald Strauss, Luther’s House of Learning: further explore the supercessionist shift in historical Indoctrination of the Young in the German Reformation consciousness that occurred at the time of the (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Reformation, see Kemp, Chapter 3. Press, 1978), 116–31. 28 Johannes Tinctoris, Dictionary of Musical 38 Alexandra Walsham, “Holy Families: The Terms, trans. Carl Parrish (London: The Free Press of Spiritualization of the Early Modern Household Glencoe, 1963), 36–37, 76–77. Revisited,” in Religion and the Household, ed. John 29 John Merbecke, A Booke of Notes and Common Doran, Charlotte Methuen, and Alexandra Walsham places (London: Thomas East, 1581), [1017–18] (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2014), 122– (misnumbered in the original as 1015–16). 60; Kenneth Charlton, “‘Not publike onely but 30 One of ’s strongest arguments also private and domesticall’: Mothers and Familial in favor of music considered hymns a means of Education in Pre-industrial England,” History of disseminating theology; many of Luther’s own Education 17 (1988): 1–20; idem, “Mothers as compositions were catechetical hymns. Educative Agents in Pre-industrial England,” History 31 The Geneva Psalter too contained of Education 23 (1994): 129–56. liturgical canticles—including, in some editions, the 39 Walsham, “Holy Families,” 128–29 (though nonscriptural Creed—despite John Calvin’s stated she seems to conflate the WBP and Day’s 1563 Whole desire to employ only scriptural texts for liturgical Psalmes in Foure Partes); Quitslund, The Reformation in song, with preference for the psalms. Rhyme, 249–50; Jonathan Willis, “‘By These Means 32 See Arten, “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, the Sacred Discourses Sink More Deeply into the Protestant Ideology, and Musical Literacy in Minds of Men’: Music and Education in Elizabethan Elizabethan England,” 35–37 for discussion of the England,” History 94 (July 2009): 303–04. WBP’s claim to monarchical authorization. 40 There is often a logic behind theWBP ’s 33 Sig. +.ii.r. removals of musical references. For example, in 34 Duguid, Metrical Psalmody in Print and Psalm 69:13–14 (69:12 in Coverdale), where the Practice, Chapter 7; Hamlin, Psalm Culture and Early Coverdale Psalter described the music of the critics of Modern English Literature, 29–41; Marsh, Music and God’s people (“They that sit in the gate speak against Society, Chapter 8; Nicholas Temperley, “‘All skillful me: and the drunkards make songs upon me.”), the praises sing’: How Congregations Sang the Psalms WBP transforms these drunken songs into mere in Early Modern England,” Renaissance Studies 29/4 speech: “Both hie and lowe, and all the throng, / that (2015): 531–53; idem, “‘If any of you be mery sit within the gate: / They haue me euer in theyr tong, let hym synge psalmes’: The Culture of Psalms in / of me they talke and prate.” In the WBP’s narrative Church and Home,” in “Noyses, sounds, and sweet world, music—or indeed, any worship at all—is only aires”: Music in Early Modern England, ed. Jessie possibly for God’s people or for the converted, as Ann Owens (Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare in Psalm 22:27, which describes conversion: “The Library, 2006), 90–99. Beth Quitslund examines Heathen folke shall worship hym.” Those who act in the recreational and devotional function of psalm opposition to God can speak but not sing. This is true singing in general (not just the WBP’s psalms): even for the Israelites when they turn against God, as “Singing the Psalms for Fun and Profit,” in Private and described in Psalm 78.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 33 41 This increased musical self-referentiality Part 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824), 475, 500; can also be found in ’s Psalter of David Willis, Church Music and Protestantism, 100–101, (1549), which contained metrical (versified) versions 114–16, 140–45; idem, “Protestant Worship and of all 150 psalms and seems to have been intended the Discourse of Music in Reformation England,” in for liturgical use. Like the WBP, its psalms were also Worship and the Parish Church in Early Modern Britain, intended as songs. The Crowley Psalter contained ed. Natalie Mears and Alec Ryrie (Farnham: Ashgate, “a note of four partes”: a single musical setting (a 2013), 131–32. harmonization in four parts of the seventh psalm tone, 48 Joachim Braun, Music in Ancient Israel/ found in the tenor voice) to be used for all psalm texts. Palestine: Archeological, Written, and Comparative Both the WBP and the Crowley Psalter amplified the Sources, trans. Douglas W. Stott (Grand Rapids, Psalms’ self-description as texts intended to be sung. MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2002), 37–42; Jeremy For further discussion of the relationship between and Montagu, Musical Instruments of the Bible (Lanham, musical references found in the WBP, the Coverdale MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 83. Psalter, and the Crowley Psalter, see Arten, “The Whole 49 Linda Phyllis Austern, “‘Sing Againe Syren’: Booke of Psalmes, Protestant Ideology, and Musical The Female Musician and Sexual Enchantment Literacy in Elizabethan England,” 55–66, 77–82. in Elizabethan Life and Literature,” Renaissance 42 “Sweetness,” of course, is not a uniquely Quarterly 42/ 3 (Autumn 1989): 429–30; Suzanne Protestant virtue. For example, the epistle dedicatory Lord, Music from the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural of ’s 1605 Gradualia (a thoroughly History (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), Catholic set of polyphonic mass propers) speaks of the 120–21; David C. Price, Patrons and Musicians of “sweetness” of sacred words. the English Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge 43 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian University Press, 1981), 42, 45; Walter L. Woodfill, Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles Musicians in English Society from Elizabeth to Charles I (Philadelphia: Westminster Press and London: S.C.M. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), 224. Press, 1960; repr., Louisville: Westminster 50 The first complete edition of the Geneva Press), 894. Bible printed in England (STC 2117): The Bible 44 Herl, Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism, and holy scriptures conteined in the Olde and Nevve 108–10; Horne, “A Civitas of Sound,” 25–26; Robin Testament (London: Christopher Barker, 1576), fol. A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and 250v. Implications (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans 51 Montagu, Musical Instruments of the Bible, Publishing, 2007), 91–92. 82–83. 45 The most focused and extensive discussion 52 Nicholas Temperley, “Organ Settings of of Calvin’s views on instruments can be found in English Psalm Tunes,” Musical Times 122, No. 1656 Taylor, “John Calvin and Musical Instruments.” (Feb. 1981): 123–24. Christopher Marsh’s guess Broader discussion of Calvinist belief and practice that organs “probably filled this function” remains regarding the organ can be found in Randall D. but a compelling hypothesis until further evidence is Engle, “A Devil’s Siren or an Angel’s Throat? The Pipe discovered: Music and Society, 422. Organ Controversy among the Calvinists,” in John 53 Willis, “Protestant Worship and the Calvin, Myth and Reality: Images and Impact of Geneva’s Discourse of Music,” 133–34, and passim. Willis Reformer, ed. Amy Nelson Burnett (Eugene, OR: cites especially the “Homily on the Place and Time of Cascade Books, 2011), 107–25. Prayer” from the second Book of Homilies (1562), 46 For discussion of Zwingli’s rejection of which inveighs against “[p]iping, singing, chanting, music in worship, see Charles Garside, Jr., Zwingli and playing upon the organs” as elements of popish and the Arts (New Haven: Yale University Press, religion “which displeased God so sore, and filthily 1966), 43–75. defiled his holy house and his place of prayer”: ibid., 47 Duguid, Metrical Psalmody in Print and 133. Practice, 190–92; William P. Haugaard, Elizabeth 54 See Kirsten Gibson, “Author, Musician, and the English Reformation: The Struggle for a Stable Composer: Creator? Figuring Musical Creativity Settlement of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge in Print at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century,” in University Press, 1968), 166–82; Marsh, Music Concepts of Creativity in Seventeenth-Century England, and Society, 394–405; Quitslund, The Reformation ed. Rebecca Herissone and Alan Howard (Woodbridge, in Rhyme, 260–62; John Strype, Annals of the Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2013), 63–86. Reformation and Establishment of Religion, Vol. 1,

34 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019)