Lewis, C. S. Reflections
on the Psalms. New York: Harcourt
Brace
& World, 1958.
Lobwasser,
Ambrosius. Die
Psalmen Davids.
Genff: Widerholdt, 1679.
MacMeeken, John West. History
of the Scottish metrical Psalms. Glasgow: McCulloch &
Co., 1872.
Malý
Kancionál. Kutná Hora: Karel
Šolc,
1900.
Maxwell, William
D. The Liturgical Portions of the Genevan
Service
Book used by John Knox While a Minister of the English Congregation of
Marian Exiles at Geneva, 1556-1559. London: The Faith Press,
1965.
First published by Oliver and Boyd, 1931. See especially pp. 61-64.
Old, Hughes
Oliphant. Worship:
Reformed According to Scripture.
Atlanta: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.
Overduin,
J.E. The 20th
Century Revival of Genevan Psalmody in Reformed Worship in North America.
Free Reformed Press.
Patrick, Millar. Four
Centuries of Scottish
Psalmody. London: Oxford, 1905.
Pidoux, Pierre,
ed., Le
psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle:
Mélodies
et documents. 2
vols. Basel: Bärenreiter, 1962.
________. History
of the Genevan Psalter.
Postma, Ted J. Psalmody
Through the Ages: A Survey of the
History of Psalmody. Brantford, Ontario: Free Reformed
Publications, 2005.
Pratt, Waldo
Selden. The
Music of the Pilgrims: A Description of
the Psalm-book brought to Plymouth in 1620. New
York: Russell
&
Russell, 1921.
The
Psalter: Psalms and Canticles for Singing.
Louisville:
Westminster/John
Knox, 1993.
Quitslund, Beth. The
Reformation in Rhyme:
Sternhold, Hopkins and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547-1603.
Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2008.
Ravenscroft,
Thomas. The Whole Booke of Psalmes: With The Hymnes
Evangelicall, and Songs Spiritual. (1621)
Reardon, Patrick
Henry. Christ in
the Psalms. Ben Lomond, California: Conciliar Press, 2000.
Seerveld, Calvin. Voicing
God's Psalms.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. CD included.
Shuler,
Duck. History of
the
Genevan Psalter.
Whole
Booke of Psalmes
Faithfully Translated into English Metre (i.e.,
Bay Psalm Book). 1640. Old South Church, Boston.
Witvliet, John D. Worship
Seeking Understanding: windows
into
christian practice. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003. See
especially
chapter 9, "The Spirituality of the Psalter in Calvin's Geneva,"
pp. 203-229.
Annotated Discography
Recordings of the Genevan Psalms, roughly in the order in which I became aware of them:
Hungarian
Psalms
(Magyar Zsoltárok), To Poems by
Albert Szenci Molnár, The Debrecen College Cantus, conducted
by
Sándor
Berkesi. Hungaroton, 1978; SLPX 11973. This is a wonderful
vinyl recording I acquired in the mid-1980s. The psalms are
sung in Hungarian to Molnár’s versifications.
Musical
arrangements
are by Claude Goudimel and several more recent Hungarian composers, the
most notable of whom is Zoltán Kodály. The
renderings
have something of a sturdy, central European beauty to them. My
personal favourite is Psalm 23, although Psalm 150, the grand
conclusion to the Psalter, is wonderful as well. More music of the
Cantus can be found
at its website.
Kodály,
Psaumes de Genève, Janácek,
Elégie,
Messe inachevée, Otce Náš, sung by the
Ensemble
vocal
Euterpe,
Lausanne, under the direction of Christophe Gesseney. Lausanne:
Disques
VDE-GALLO, 1993; CD-784. This recording contains seven
arrangements
of the Psalms by Kodály, in addition to three
pieces by the Czech composer Leoš Janácek. The
psalms are
sung in
French, according to the versifications of Clément Marot and
Théodore de Bèze. Some of the same musical
arrangements
are also
found in the Hungarian Psalms album, listed above. Available here.
Psaumes
de la Réforme, sung by the Ensemble Claude
Goudimel,
conducted by Christine Morel. Munich, Germany: HNH International
Ltd., 1994. This recording may be as close to sixteenth-century
Geneva
as one is likely to get. Versifications are by Marot
and musical arrangements are by Claude Goudimel, Paschal de
l’Estouart
and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. The overused adjective sublime
comes
to mind here. One error should perhaps be noted: what is
correctly
described as Psalm CXLIII in the programme notes becomes "Psalm 163" on
the back of these notes, i.e., the side visible to the
listener.
(Reading
roman numerals correctly is a dying art, it seems.) Available from ClassicsOnline.
Music of
the Genevan Psalter, sung in English by several
choirs,
including the Sweelinck Singers, The Campus Choir (Calvin College), the
Capella, and Festival of Psalms Audience. Grand Rapids:
Calvin
College,
The H. Henry Meeter Center, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship,
1999.
The musical arrangements are by various composers from the sixteenth to
twentieth centuries. Versifications are from the 1987 Psalter
Hymnal
and the Book of Praise of the Canadian Reformed
Churches. Curiously,
Psalm 100 is sung to the tune of Psalm 134, which was associated with
Psalm
100 only in the seventeenth century with the Scottish
Psalter. Personally
I find the tune for Genevan Psalm 100, with its phrygian (no, not
Frisian!)
modal flavour, much more compelling than the overly-familiar tune for
Psalm
134. Available at the Calvin
College Bookstore.
Psaumes
et Chansons de la Réforme, sung in French by
the
Ensemble Clément Janequin, with counter-tenor solos by
Dominique
Visse. Germany: Harmonia Mundi S.A., 2000. From the jacket:
“On listening to this Huguenot literary and spiritual
treasury, one can
only dream of what the Reformation musical tradition could have become
had it not been nipped in the bud by the tragic events of the Religious
Wars...” This recording includes a number of non-psalm pieces
as
well. Once again, as with the above-mentioned recording by the
Ensemble
Claude Goudimel, this one has a genuine Renaissance flavour. Available
from amazon.com.
Genevan
Psalms CD in Japanese, sung by the Bach Collegium
Japan, directed by
Masaaki Suzuki-sensei. Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources,
1996. Do Japanese Christians really sing the Genevan Psalms? This
recording
is proof that at least some do so, and very well indeed. The great
virtue of this album is the
varying arrangements of the Genevan tunes using different voices and
instruments. My personal favourite is Psalm 47, which in the hands of
this group
becomes wonderfully lively and energetic — complete with
lute,
recorder, brass and hand-clapping!
Another is Psalm 100, which, in contrast to the Music of the
Genevan Psalter CD above, is
sung to its original tune.
My least favourite is
Psalm 42, in which the organ unfortunately overpowers the voices. Yet
all in all, this is a recording to
treasure and listen to repeatedly. Available from the Calvin
Institute of Christian Worship.
Sacred Bridges: Christian, Jewish
and Muslim Psalm Settings,
performed by Sarband and the King's Singers. World Village Music, 2005.
The Genevan Psalms in Turkish? What an astonishing thought! But they do
exist. Here's the story: The versifier was one Wojciech
Bobowski
(1610-1675), a musically-gifted Polish-born Reformed Christian who was
kidnapped at 18 by Tatars and sold as a slave to the Ottoman Sultan. He
became translator, treasurer and court composer for the Sultan,
converting (at least nominally) to
Islam and changing his name to Ali Ufki.
Among his many impressive achievements, he translated the Bible into
Turkish and versified the first 14 Psalms in that language, enabling
them to be sung to their proper Genevan melodies. This small collection
was published in 1665. This recording contains Genevan Psalms 9, 6, 7,
2
and 5, most of which are sung in both French and Turkish. The
juxtaposition of these two
very different styles makes for fascinating listening. With Sarband's
treatment the Genevan tunes genuinely sound like Turkish music. The one
flaw in this ecumenical project, aspiring as
it does to build bridges amongst the three monotheistic religions, is
that Muslims do not sing the Psalms. Highly
recommended. Available from amazon.com.
The Psalms
of Ali Ufki,
described as "An interfaith concert of sacred music exploring the
shared traditions of Judaism, Turkish Sufism, Greek Orthodoxy and
Protestant Christianity." This performance by a collection of musicians
was recorded under the auspices of Dünya,
an organization undertaking to "foster awareness, educate, deepen the
dialogue and celebrate the similarities between the Jewish, Christian
and Muslim faiths." Recorded 2005 at Harvard University. The one
Genevan tune on this disc is Psalm 13, performed in Protestant,
Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Turkish Sufi versions. The
tracks to listen to are 1, and 17 through 21. Number 19, the "Greek
Orthodox Version," takes its text directly from the Septuagint, where
it is numbered Psalm 12, managing, by means of melismatic manipulation,
to fit this nonmetrical text to the Genevan tune, where it sounds
strikingly like Byzantine chant. This is a remarkable achievement, yet
it is testimony to the enduring strength and versatility of the Genevan
tunes. Definitely worth hearing and savouring. Available here.
Psalmen Zingen in Kampen,
performed by organist Willem Hendrik Zwart accompanying congregational
singing of 14 Genevan Psalms in the Bovenkerk in Kampen,
Netherlands. Kampen: JQZ Muziekprodukties Kampen, 1990. The treatments
on this recording are typical of the Dutch tradition of unison
psalm-singing, with arrangements generally masking the modal flavour of
the tunes, though their original rhythms remain
intact. The
singing is earnest, if somewhat plodding. The recording appears to be out of print.
Psalms Psalmen
Psaumes,
performed by the Cappella Amsterdam under the direction of Jan Boeke.
Rotterdam: Lindenberg Boeken & Muziek. This is a high-quality,
beautiful recording of the psalms, many of which are of Genevan origin,
with music and arrangements by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Claude le
Jeune,
Dietrich Buxtehude, Hans Leo Hassler, Heinrich Schütz and many
others. Songs are sung in Dutch,
German, French and Latin. Among other things, it features Luther's Ein' feste Burg
sung
in its original rhythm as arranged by Johann Walter. Also listen for
the flute solo playing variations on Genevan Psalm 140 on track 9. See
the
Cappella Amsterdam's website
for more information on this marvellous collection.
Sweelinck: Psaumes
français & Canciones Sacrae, also
performed by the Cappella Amsterdam but under Daniel Reuss' direction.
This recording is comparable in quality to the one described
immediately above and includes Psalms 33, 91, 130, 77, 42 and 146.
Available from ClassicsOnline.
If anyone knows
of other recordings I have missed, please let me
know
or, better yet, send me a copy! I'll add it to the list here.
