The Scottish Psalter of 1564 was the first

psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...

or psalm book to be published in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It was published by the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

under the influence of

John Knox John Knox ( – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordgate, a street in Haddington, East Lot ...

as part of the

Book of Common Order The ''Book of Common Order'', originally titled ''The Forme of Prayers'', is a liturgical book by John Knox written for use in the Calvinism, Reformed denomination. The text was composed in Geneva in 1556 and was adopted by the Church of Scotla ...

which was a more general directory for public worship. The precise details concerning the publication of the Scottish Psalter are not known as the early records of the Church of Scotland are lost. However, it appears that its publication was determined at the Church's General Assembly in December 1562.

Background and composition

In 1556 the first Anglo-Genevan Psalter (English versifications of Calvin's

Genevan Psalter The ''Genevan Psalter'', also known as the ''Huguenot Psalter'', is a 1539 metrical psalter in French created under the supervision of John Calvin for liturgical use by the Reformed churches of the city of Geneva in the sixteenth century. Backg ...

) was published for the use of

's congregation and contained 51 psalms, most of which originated in England from the poets

Thomas Sternhold Thomas Sternhold (1500–1549) was an English courtier and the principal author of the first English metrical version of the Psalms, originally attached to the Prayer-Book as augmented by John Hopkins. Life Anthony Wood says that Sternhold ...

and John Hopkins. It formed the basis of the first Scottish Psalter of 1564, which reproduced the Anglo-Genevan Psalter with most of its tunes, completing it on the same principles to contain all 150 psalms. Neither of these included hymns. The text of this Psalter expresses the spirit of the original without undue pains to render the text literally. While only the melodies of the tunes were printed, part singing was certainly known, as there is a record of a four-part rendition of Psalm 124 being sung to welcome

John Durie John Durie (1537–1600) was one of the first Presbyterianism, Presbyterian ministers in Edinburgh after the Reformation in Scotland. He was born at Mauchline in Ayrshire in 1537, and educated at Ayr. He became one of the Benedictines, Benedic ...

back to Edinburgh from exile in 1582. There were 30 metres in all: ninety-eight psalms were set to common metre, 10 to long metre, 6 to short metre and 4 to long metre (6 lines), and there were 26 metres for the other 32 psalms. Some editions of this Psalter printed in 1575 or later included up to 10 other pieces, but these were probably only intended for devotional purposes. Duguid has shown that the Scottish General Assembly closely guarded psalm publishing and had previously disciplined printers for editing the psalms (as had also been done in Calvin's Geneva).

Development

The 1564 edition went through many changes that culminated with the 1635 version. Edited by Edward Millar, the 1635 Scottish Psalter included the very best of the psalm settings for the Sternhold and Hopkins psalms. This included four-part homophonic settings of many of the psalms (those texts that did not have a proper melody were assigned a melody from another psalm), several more complicated or polyphonic psalm settings (also known as Psalms in Reports), and settings of many of the so-called Common Tunes that had come to be used in the seventeenth century.Duguid, ''Metrical Psalmody,'' pp. 159-163.

References

{{reflist Psalters 1564 books Scottish music history

Background and composition

Development

See also

References