The Whole Book of Psalms, 2 vols. – Supplementary Materials

The Whole Book of Psalms:
A Critical Edition of the Texts and Tunes

Edited by Beth Quitslund and Nicholas Temperley

Audio Supplement
by Nicholas Temperley

This recording was funded by the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and is offered to the public without charge. It is designed to illustrate The Whole Book of Psalms and the historical context of that work. It consists of recorded 16th-century psalms and related pieces, which are referred to, below and in the edition, by means of the syllable µ, pronounced “mew” (µ1 means music track 1, and so on).

The recording was made in the summer of 2012, in two locales: the Temperley residence in Urbana, Illinois, for domestic pieces (those with viols and/or lute), and Immanuel Lutheran Church at Flatville, Illinois, for those designed to be performed in church. Except as noted, the music was edited from original sources by Nicholas Temperley. He also wrote the programme notes, which are chiefly concerned with the music. In the performance no attempt was made to imitate 16th-century pronunciation or voice production, since there is insufficient evidence to justify specific decisions in these areas. The congregational pieces were deliberately unrehearsed, to expose some of the difficulties the original singers might have faced. The musical director was Chester L. Alwes, emeritus professor of choral conducting at the University of Illinois and director of The Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana. The recording technician was Andy Baylor, from Recital Recording Services in Champaign, Illinois.

  • Laurie Matheson, Catherine Elliott, soprano
  • Elizabeth Buckley, contralto
  • Jay Carter, Chris Holman, counter-tenor
  • Andrew Knox, Heath Morber, tenor
  • Matthew Leese, John Wagstaff, Chester L. Alwes, bass
  • Chorus of The Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana
  • Amy Flores, Benjamin Hayek, Greta Miller, Maureen Murchie, viols
  • Jeff Noonan, lute
  • Nicholas Temperley, organ
  • Chester L. Alwes, conductor

Shortcut links for each excerpt on this page (Click to SKIP TO):

µ1 The “Osborn Psalm”: Sternhold’s Psalm 4: 1–4

  • Text source: Certayne Psalmes . . . drawe[n] into Englishe Metre by Thomas Sternhold. London: E. Whitchurch, [1548?] (STC 2419) (1548)
  • Music: Yale University, James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Music MS. 13, f. 9, “O God yt art my ryghtuusness” [c.1550?]

This may well be the earliest surviving musical setting of any of Sternhold’s psalms, found in a lute book with a heading that clearly refers to his paraphrase of Psalm 4. The lute tablature, of unknown authorship, is an accompaniment for a setting of that text, and is in a style influenced by the contemporary pavan, suited to dancing as well as singing. The voice part is editorial. See p. 516.

1. O God that art my righteousness,
Lord, hear me when I call:
Thou hast set me at liberty
when I was bound and thrall.

2. O mortal men, how long will ye
the glory of God despise?
Why wander ye in vanity,
and follow after lies,

3. Knowing that good and godly men
the Lord doth take and choose,
And when to him I make my plaint,
he doth not me refuse?

4. Sin not, but stand in awe therefore,
 examine well thine heart,
And in thy chamber quietly
 thou shalt thyself convert.

µ2 Christopher Tye, setting of Acts 2: 1–2

  • Text and music: Christopher Tye, The Actes of the Apostles, translated into Englyshe metre . . . wyth notes to eche chapter, to synge and also to play upon the lute. London: Nycolas Hyll, for Wyllyam Seres, 1553 (STC 2984, HTI TyeCAA b)

Like Sternhold’s psalms, this work was dedicated to the young King Edward VI, and was also written in “Sternhold’s metre.” It consists of the first 14 chapters of Acts, paraphrased and set to music for four voices. Tye (c.1505–73) was a leading composer, doctor of music, and (according to the dedication) a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. Each chapter has the same tune for all its verses, sung by the cantus [treble] voice, with mildly contrapuntal parts for the three lower voices. This and the Osborn Psalm exemplify the style of domestic music-making, both secular and sacred, that was customary at the time. See pp. 518–19.

  1. When that the fifty day was come,
    Whitsunday full of grace:
    They came together, all and some,
    Into a certain place,
    And suddenly a sound outbrast,
    From heaven as it had been,
    The coming of a mighty blast,
    Filling the house with din.
  1. Cloven tongues did to them appear
    Like as they had been fire:
    And sat upon them, everywhere
    To fulfil their desire.
    The Holy Ghost did them advance
    To tongues right wise and sage,
    Even as the sprite gave utterance,
    So changed their language.

fifty] fiftieth
outbrast] burst out
sprite] spirit

µ3 Robert Crowley, Psalm 1 in faburden

  • Text and music: The Psalter of David newely translated into Englysh metre…whereunto is added a note of four partes. Holborn [London]: Robert Crowley, 20 September 1549. (STC 2725, HTI CrowRPD).

Crowley (c.1517–88) was an activist protestant clergyman. This book is the first known metrical paraphrase of the entire book of psalms in English; he used “Sternhold’s metre” throughout, in a fairly loose form suitable for chanting. By way of a musical example he provided a four-voice setting of Psalm 1, verse 1, using the traditional 7th Gregorian psalm tone for the tenor, harmonized in faburden style by the other three voices, as it might have been performed by a church choir. We have extended it for the whole psalm. Not every sentence coincides with a line of verse; as a result, the pause at the end of the reciting note sometimes falls on an inappropriate word. In the present edition adjustments have been made in verses 5 and 8. See pp. 522–3.

  1. That man is happy and blessèd that hath not gone astray:
    In the counsel of wicked men, nor stood in sinners’ way.
  2. The man is blest, I say, that hath not sat in company:
    With scornful men that think wisdom to rest in them only,
  3. But hath in the law of the Lord set his only delight:
    And will in the same exercise himself both day and night.
  4. He shall be like a tree planted fast by the riverside:
    That doth bring forth and give her fruit in her due time and tide.
  1. And as the leaf thereof doth not fall, but flourish and stand:
    So shall all things prosper right well that he doth take in hand.
  2. The wicked shall be nothing like, but as leaves that are dry:
    And as the chaff, and things of nought that with the wind do fly.
  3. Therefore the wicked shall not rise and stand in the judgment:
    Neither sinners among the just, that seek God’s testament.
  4. For the Lord knoweth the just man’s way, and hath it allowed:
    But the way of the wicked men shall be quite destroyed.

µ4 Sternhold’s Psalm 128 set as an anthem by Philip van Wilder, “Blessed art thou that fearest God”

  • Text source: Sternhold, Certayne Psalmes (1548)
  • Music: British Library, Add. MSS. 30480–84 (the Hammond partbooks), fols. 44r–44v, edited by Jane A. Bernstein in Van Wilder, Collected Works, Masters and Monuments of the Renaissance (Leeman Perkins, general editor), vol. 5, part 1. New York: The Broude Trust, [c. 1991]. Reproduced by permission of The Broude Trust.

Van Wilder was a Flemish expatriate and a fellow-courtier of Thomas Sternhold. This, his only known anthem, is a setting of Sternhold’s paraphrase of the “Wedding Psalm” and, in John Milsom’s opinion, may have been commissioned for a royal wedding. Parts of the anthem can be thought to suggest the repeated pealing of wedding bells. It survives in nine manuscript sources, of which this is the earliest, dating (in Bernstein’s opinion) from the mid-1560s. But since Van Wilder died on 24 January 1554 it must be of essentially Edwardian origin. See p. 524.

Blessed art thou that fearest God and walkest in his way,
For of thy labour thou shalt eat; happy art thou, I say.
Like fruitful vines on thy house side, so doth thy wife spring out;
Thy children stand like olive buds thy table round about.

Thus art thou blest that fearest God, and he shall let thee see
The promisèd Jerusalem and his felicity.
Thou shalt thy children’s children see, to thy great joy’s increase,
Full quietly in Israel to pass their time in peace.

µ5 Sternhold’s Psalm 1: 1–4, set by John Sheppard

  • Text source: Sternhold and Hopkins, Al such Psalmes of David as Thomas Sternhold didde in his life time draw into English Metre (1549a)
  • Music: voice part, British Library Add. MS. 15166, fol. 1r–2r; organ part, British Library Add. MS. 30513 (the Mulliner Book), fol. 80v.

Sheppard was a leading composer of the period; he is thought to have died in 1559. He was master of the choristers at Magdalen College, Oxford, under Henry VIII, and a gentleman of the Chapel Royal between 1547 and 1553. He composed choir music for both Latin and English rites. MS. 15166 contains strophic treble parts for all of Sternhold and Hopkins’s psalms in their published Edwardian state, explicitly ascribed to Sheppard, and is thus the only surviving tunebook for that body of texts (reproduced in Appendix 2) containing pre-Marian settings. It is one of a set of partbooks, probably four, apparently designed for secular rather than church use. In almost every case the second half of each verse is repeated (ABB form), which had become a commonplace structure in secular songs. Only in the case of Psalm 1 is there any surviving source of the lower parts: an organ setting in the (early Elizabethan) Mulliner Book, where it is also attributed to Sheppard. We unite them here for the first time. See pp. 518–20, 525–6.

  1. The man is blest that hath not gone by wicked rede astray:
    Ne sat in chair of pestilence, nor walked in sinners’ way,
  2. But in the law of God the Lord doth set his whole delight:
    And in that law doth exercise himself both day and night.
  1. And as the tree that planted is, fast by the riverside,
    Even so shall he bring forth his fruit in his due time and tide.
  2. His leaf shall never fall away, but flourish still, and stand:
    Each thing shall prosper wondrous well that he doth take in hand.

µ6 Whittingham’s Psalm 137: 1–6, as in 1567 (3 stanzas)

  • Tune and text: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre. Geneva: John Crespin, 1556 (STC 16561, HTI &P AG1) (1556)

One of the most successful English-composed tunes printed in the Geneva service book of 1556. The suggestion of triple time in phrases 5 and 7 may have been an attempt to suit the tune to iambic meter. Calvin’s authority banished organs, and the psalms were sung unaccompanied in the exile settlements. The use of the tenor clef confirms male domination of the unison singing. But we know that women and children also took part, since this was noted by observers when the psalms were introduced in London in 1559. See p. 761. See also µ21 for another setting of this text and tune.

  1. Whenas we sat in Babylon,
    the rivers round about,
    And in remembrance of Sion
    the tears for grief burst out,
    We hanged our harps and instruments
    the willow trees upon,
    For in that place men for their use
    had planted many one.
  1. Then they to whom we prisoners were
    said to us tauntingly,
    “Now let us hear your Hebrew songs,
    and pleasant melody.”
    “Alas,” said we, “who can once frame
    his sorrowful heart to sing
    The praises of our loving God
    thus under a strange king?
  1. But yet if I Jerusalem
    out of my heart let slide,
    Then let my fingers quite forget
    the warbling harp to guide:
    And let my tongue within my mouth
    be tied for ever fast,
    If that I joy before I see
    thy full deliverance past.

µ7 Sternhold’s Psalm 7: 1–6 (revised Whittingham, 1556)

(2 stanzas)

  • Tune and text: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)

This is one of the Anglo-Genevan tunes that was presumably found unsatisfactory, for it was dropped in the second edition of the service book and never reached the WBP. It is in the Phrygian mode, remote from the rapidly developing English sense of tonality, and for that reason ends on a pitch that is unexpected to modern ears. (Note that in this unrehearsed performance, the congregation is uncertain of its intonation at the beginning of the psalm.) See p. 650.

  1. O Lord my God, I put my trust
    and confidence in thee:
    Save me from them that me pursue,
    and eke deliver me;
    Lest like a lion he me tear
    and rent in pieces small
    While there is none to succour me,
    and rid me out of thrall.
  1. O Lord my God, if I have done
    the thing that is not right;
    Or else if I be found in fault,
    or guilty in thy sight;
    Or to my friend rewarded evil,
    or set him in distress,
    Which me pursued most cruelly,
    and hated me causeless.

eke] also
rid] release

µ8 Kethe’s Psalm 111:1–4, as in 1567

  • Tune and French text: Pseaume 19:1 (Clément Marot), from the French Genevan psalter of 1551
  • English text source: [Psalms of David in English Metre. Geneva, 1560.] (STC 16561a.5, HTI ✻P AG4) (1560b)

One of the French tunes adapted to a new paraphrase by the exile William Kethe (d. 1593) for the Anglo-Genevan psalter of 1560. This one comes from the French psalter of 1542, as revised in 1551. Here one verse is sung to the first stanza of the original French text, Clément Marot’s Psalm 19, and one to Kethe’s first stanza. It is notable that in the English version every line but one begins with an unstressed syllable, which is unfortunately aligned with a strong metrical beat in the tune. It thus illustrates one of the consequences of the difference between French and English prosody. See p. 735.

Marot, Ps. 19: 1–2
Les cieux en chacun lieu,
la puissance de Dieu
racontent aux humains
ce grand entour épars,
nonce de toutes parts,
l’ouvrage de ses mains:


jour après jour coulant,
du Seigneur va parlant,
par longue expérience:
la nuit suivant la nuit
nous prêche et nous instruit
de sa grand’ sapience.

Kethe, Ps. 111: 1–4
With heart I do accord
to praise and laud the Lord
in presence of the just,
For great his works are found;
to search them such are bound
as do him love and trust.


His works are glorious;
also his righteousness,
it doth endure for ever:
His wondrous works he would
we still remember should.
his mercy faileth never.

would] desires that
still] always

µ9 Kethe’s Psalm 100, as in 1567

  • Tune and French text: Pseaume 134: 1 (Clément Marot), from the French Genevan psalter of 1551
  • English text source: [Psalms of David in English Metre. Geneva, 1560.] (1560b)

Another of Kethe’s paraphrases set to existing French tunes. In this case there are fewer false accents. This text and tune became the most popular of all the psalms. See pp. 723–5.

Marot, Ps. 134:1

Or sus, serviteurs du Seigneur,
vous qui de nuit en son honneur
dedans le maison le servez,
louez-le, et son nom élevez.

Kethe, Ps. 100

  1. All people that on earth do dwell,
    Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.
    Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell;
    Come ye before him and rejoice.
  2. The Lord ye know is God indeed;
    Without our aid he did us make:
    We are his folk, he doth us feed,
    And for his sheep he doth us take.
  1. Oh enter then his gates with praise,
    Approach with joy his courts unto;
    Praise, laud, and bless his name always,
    For it is seemly so to do.
  2. For why the Lord our God is good,
    His mercy is for ever sure:
    His truth at all times firmly stood
    And shall from age to age endure.

µ10 Sternhold’s Psalm 44: 1–2 (revised Whittingham, 1556)

  • Tune and text: Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre. [London], 1560. (STC 2427, HTI ✻P E1) (1560a)

This is an example of extensive rhythmic changes made in the first surviving English edition of the psalm book. The tune originated in 1556, but was here revised by an unknown hand. The fourth note of each line was greatly lengthened, perhaps in an effort to fit the tune into a slow triple rhythm, enhancing the iambic metre. The changes, which may have originated in the Wesel colony, did not survive in Day’s later editions. See pp. 158, 540.

Our ears have heard our fathers tell,
and reverently record
The wondrous works that thou hast done
in older time, O Lord:

How thou didst cast the Gentiles out
and stroyedst them with strong hand,
Planting our fathers in their place,
and gavest to them their land.

stroyedst] destroyed

µ11 Whittingham’s Psalm 23

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Tune: PSALM 21 in Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre, London: John Day, 1560/61 (STC 2429, HTI ✻P E2) (1561d)

Whittingham’s paraphrase, printed in Geneva with its own tune, was in later editions referred to the tune of PSALM 21. Organs were available in some churches in early Elizabethan times, and we have used one here: the accompaniment is based on William Parsons’s four-part harmonization of that melody in Day 1563. See pp. 97, 666.

  1. The Lord is only my support
    and he that doth me feed:
    How can I then lack anything
    whereof I stand in need?
    He doth me fold in cotes most safe,
    the tender grass fast by;
    And after drives me to the streams
    which run most pleasantly.
  1. And when I feel myself near lost,
    then doth he me home take,
    Conducting me in his right paths
    even for his own name’s sake.
    And though I were even at death’s door,
    yet would I fear none ill:
    For with thy rod and shepherd’s crook
    I am comforted still.
  1. Thou hast my table richly decked
        in despite of my foe:
    Thou hast my head with balm refreshed;
        my cup doth overflow.
    And finally, while breath doth last
        thy grace shall me defend,
    And in the house of God will I
        my life for ever spend.

is only] alone is
cotes] sheds or stalls
still] always

µ12 “The Complaint of a Sinner,” an anonymous original hymn, verses 1, 3

  • Tune and text: Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre (STC 2429, HTI ✻P E2) (1561d)

This hymn and its tune are very different in character from the other WBP psalms and hymns. It strongly suggests an origin as an accompanied song by a professional composer, intended for domestic use, with the last line of verse repeated. In particular the ending on the sharpened third degree calls for a bass on the tonic. An editorial bass has been provided for this performance as the foundation for an improvised lute accompaniment. See pp. 472, 777.

  1. Where righteousness doth say,
    “Lord, for my sinful part,
    In wrath thou shouldst me pay
    Vengeance for my desert,”

I cannot it deny,
But needs I must confess
How that continually
Thy laws I do transgress.

  1. Thy scripture plain tellth me
    The righteous man offendeth
    Seven times a day to thee,
    Whereon thy wrath dependeth:

So that the righteous man
Doth walk in no such path,
But he fallth now and then,
In danger of thy wrath.

dependeth] follows as consequence

µ13 “The Lamentation,” an anonymous original hymn, as set by Thomas Tallis

  • Text source: Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre, 1560/61 (1561d)
  • Tune: Mornyng and Evenyng Prayer and Communion, set forthe in foure partes, to be song in churches, both for men and children, London: John Daye, 1565 (STC 6419, HTI ♯CN b)

This hymn was first printed in 1560 for Day’s Certayne Notes, a work not published until 1565, when the hymn appeared in the present four-voice setting with attribution to Thomas Tallis (c.1505–85), a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and the most esteemed English composer of the day. He probably called it “A Prayer”. The three verses have slight but intentional musical differences, and are followed by a closing Amen. Meanwhile the tune, without attribution and without the lower parts, was printed in WBP editions from 1562 onwards. Its sense of direction towards an emotional climax sets it apart from other tunes in the WBP. See pp. 475, 778-9.

  1. O Lord, in thee is all my trust;
    Give ear unto my woeful cry.
    Refuse me not that am unjust,
    But, bowing down thy heavenly eye,
    Behold how I do still lament
    My sins wherein I thee offend:
    O Lord, for them shall I be shent,
    Sith thee to please I do intend?
  1. No, no, not so, thy will is bent
    To deal with sinners in thine ire;
    But when in heart they shall repent,
    Thou grantst with speed their just desire.
    To thee therefore still shall I cry,
    To wash away my sinful crime:
    Thy blood, O Lord, is not yet dry,
    But that it may help me in time.
  1. Haste now, O Lord, haste now I say,
    To pour on me the gifts of grace:
    That when this life must flit away,
    In heav’n with thee I may have place,
    Where thou dost reign eternally,
    With God which once did down thee send:
    Where angels sing continually,
    To thee be praise, world wihout end.
    Amen.

still] continually
shent] ruined
sith] since

µ14 Sternhold’s Psalm 44: 1–6 (revised Whittingham, 1556), as set by William Parsons

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Music: The Whole Psalmes in Foure Partes, London: John Day, 1563 (STC 2431, HTI ♯WPFP) (Day 1563)

This is the tune of µ10 in its revised form. Its popularity is indicated by the fact that it appears in no less than five domestic four-voice settings in Day’s 1563 Companion; we have chosen one by William Parsons, who was probably the vicar-choral of that name at Wells cathedral. It has the tune in the tenor voice, and an accompaniment for four viols, here joined by voices in stanzas 2 and 3. See pp. 158, 540, 682–3.

  1. Our ears have heard our fathers tell
        and reverently record
    The wondrous works that thou hast done
        in older time, O Lord.
    How thou didst cast the Gentiles out
        and stroyedst them with strong hand,
    Planting our fathers in their place,
        and gavest to them their land.
  1. They conquered not by sword nor strength
        the land of thy behest,
    But by thy hand, thy arm and grace,
        because thou lovedst them best.
    Thou art my king, O God, that holp
        Jacob in sundry wise:
    Led with thy power, we threw down such
        as did against us rise.
  1. I trusted not in bow ne sword,
        they could not save me sound:
    Thou kepst us from our enemies’ rage,
        thou didst our foes confound:
    And still we boast of thee our God,
        and praise thy holy name:
    Yet now thou goest not with our host,
        but leavest us to shame.

stroyedst] destroyed
holp] helped
wise] ways
ne] nor

µ15 Hopkins’s Psalm 59: 1–2

  • Tune and text: The Whole Booke of Psalmes, London: John Day, 1562 (STC 2430, HTI ✻P E4) (1562a)

This English tune has a number of long notes replacing the standard minim tactus, as well as a dotted rhythm in the last phrase. The resulting rhythmic variety could best be felt when the tune was sung at a fairly brisk pace, as it probably was in the 1560s. The organ accompaniment is editorial. See p. 202, 695.

Send aid and save me from my foes,
    O Lord, I pray to thee:
Defend and keep me from all those
    that rise and strive with me.

O Lord, preserve me from those men
    whose doings are not good,
And set me sure and safe from them
    that thirsteth after blood.

µ16 Hopkins’s Psalm 59: 1–2

  • Tune as revised in The Whole Booke of Psalmes, London: John Wolfe, 1586 (STC 4271, HTI ✻P E10 b) (1586a)

Text and tune are the same as µ15, but the rhythms have been largely standardized, except for a syncopation on “Lord” in phrase 2. By 1586 the pace of singing had slowed down a lot. In this recording lining-out has been used for demonstration purposes, though it was not generally practiced until the 17th century. See p. 942.

Send aid and save me from my foes,
    O Lord, I pray to thee:
Defend and keep me from all those
    that rise and strive with me.

O Lord, preserve me from those men
    whose doings are not good,
And set me sure and safe from them
    that thirsteth after blood.

µ17 Whittingham’s Psalm 23, set as a consort song by William Byrd, “The Lord is only my support”

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Music: British Library Add. MSS. 18936–9, as edited by Philip Brett in Consort Songs for Voice and Viols newly edited from manuscript sources, The Collected Works of William Byrd, vol. 15, London: Stainer & Bell, 1970. Reproduced by permission of Stainer & Bell.

This setting of the 23rd Psalm (compare µ11), in a manuscript undated but likely to have been written in the 1580s, is by William Byrd (1543–1623), who succeeded Tallis as England’s foremost composer. It is typical of his many songs for voices and viol consort, which pay careful attention to verbal rhythms and make much use of counterpoint. Byrd was a Roman Catholic, and it has not been fully explained why he chose to set texts with strong Puritan associations. Consort songs were typically sung domestically by solo voices. The cantus part, missing from the original source, has been supplied by the late Philip Brett. Following his suggestion we have brought in the full vocal quartet for the repetition of the last phrase at the end of each stanza. See p. 666.

  1. The Lord is only my support
        and he that doth me feed:
    How can I then lack anything
        whereof I stand in need?
    He doth me fold in cotes most safe,
        the tender grass fast by;
    And after drives me to the streams
        which run most pleasantly.
  1. Thou hast my table richly decked
        in despite of my foe;
    Thou hast my head with balm refreshed;
        my cup doth overflow.
    And finally, while breath doth last
        thy grace shall me defend,
    And in the house of God will I
        my life for ever spend.
  1. And when I feel myself near lost,
        then doth he me home take,
    Conducting me in the right paths
        even for his own name’s sake.
    And though I were even at death’s door,
        yet would I fear none ill:
    For with thy rod and shepherd’s crook
        I am comforted still.

is only] alone is
cotes] sheds or stalls
still] always

µ18 Kethe’s Psalm 113, set as a consort song by John Cosyn, “Ye children which do serve the Lord” (2 stanzas)

  • Text source: [Psalms of David in English Metre. Geneva, 1560.] (1560b)
  • Tune: Ps. 36 in Psalmen, Gebett und Kirchenübung, Straßburg: Wolff Köpphel, 1526
  • Setting: John Cosyn, Musike of Six, and Five Partes. Made upon the common tunes used in singing of the psalmes. London: John Wolfe, 1585. (STC 5828, HTI CosyJMSFP) (Cosyn 1586). Edited by Mark Reagan as part of a thesis for Washington State University, May 2010; reproduced by his permission.

This was another of Kethe’s psalms adapted to a tune in the French psalter (compare µ8, µ9); in this case the tune was of German Reformed origin, the work of Matthäus Greitter, and remains one of the most famous tunes of the Reformation. The setting is from Cosyn’s Companion of 1586. The tune is in the altus part; the cantus, missing from both surviving sets of the partbooks, is editorially supplied. See pp. 359, 737–8.

  1. Ye children which do serve the Lord,
    praise ye his name with one accord,
        yea, blessed be always his name,
    Who, from the rising of the sun
    till it return where it begun,
        is to be praisèd with great fame.
    The Lord all people doth surmount,
    as for his glory we may count
        above the heavens high to be.
    With God the Lord who may compare?
    Whose dwellings in the heavens are,
        of such great power and force is he.
  1. He doth abase himself, we know,
    things to behold, both here below
        and also in the heaven above.
    The needy out of dust to draw
    and eke the poor, which help none saw,
        his only mercy did him move;
    And so him set in high degree
    with princes of great dignity
        that rule his people with great fame.
    The barren he doth make to bear
    and with great joy her fruit to rear;
        therefore praise ye his holy name.

surmount] stand above
eke] also

µ19 Cox’s Lord’s Prayer

  • German text and tune: Geistliche Lieder, Leipzig: Balten Schuman, 1539
  • English text source: Psalmes of David in Metre, Wesel, [1556?] (STC 2426.8) (1556w)
  • English version of tune: Psalmes of David in Englishe Metre, London: John Day, 1560/61 (STC 2429, HTI ✻P E2) (1561d)

Another German tune, traditionally ascribed to Luther. This one was adopted by the “Prayer Book party” among the Marian exiles, led by Richard Cox, former tutor to Edward VI, who was responsible for this metrical paraphrase. From the Wesel book it was taken into the WBP. See p. 463, 774.

Vater unser in Himmelreich,
der du uns alle heissest gleich
Brüder sein, und dich rufen an
und willt das Beten von uns han:
gieb dass nicht bei allein der Mund,
hilf dass es geh von Herzens Grund.

Our Father which in heaven art
And makest us all one brotherhood
To call upon thee with one heart,
Our heavenly Father and our God,
Grant we pray not with lips alone
But with the heart’s deep sigh and groan.

µ20 Whittingham’s Psalm 127: 1

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Tune: see µ19
  • Setting: John Cosyn, Musike of Six, and Five Partes, 1585 (Cosyn 1586). Edited by Mark Reagan as part of a thesis for Washington State University, May 2010; reproduced by his permission.

Another setting from John Cosyn’s Companion of 1586, this time for six voices in block harmony. Cosyn (d. 1609), who was a strict Calvinist, used only psalm texts, and matched the Vater unser tune (allocated to the quintus, or second tenor, part) to Whittingham’s Psalm 127. The cantus part, missing from both surviving copies of the partbooks, is editorial. See p. 751.

Except the Lord the house do make
And thereunto do set his hand,
What men do build, it cannot stand;
Likwise in vain men undertake
Cities and holds to watch and ward,
Except the Lord be their safeguard.

holds] fortresses
ward] sets guard over

µ21 Whittingham’s Psalm 137: 1–4

  • Text and tune: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Setting: (Thomas East,) The Whole Booke of Psalmes: with their wonted tunes, as they are song in churches, composed into four partes. London: Thomas Est, the assigne of William Byrd, 1592 (STC 2482, HTI EastTWBP a) (East 1592)

East’s Companion has four-part settings of every WBP text, with the tunes carried by the tenor. This tune is that of 1556 (µ6), but in the revised rhythm of 1586. George Kirby (d. 1634) was a composer of madrigals and a domestic musician in the service of Sir Robert Jermyn of Rushbrooke Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. He contributed eleven settings to East’s collection. See p. 970.

  1. Whenas we sat in Babylon,
        the rivers round about,
    And in remembrance of Sion
        the tears for grief burst out,
    We hanged our harps and instruments
        the willow trees upon:
    For in that place men for their use
        had planted many one.
  1. Then they to whom we prisoners were
        said to us tauntingly,
    “Now let us hear your Hebrew songs,
        and pleasant melody.”
    “Alas,” said we, “Who can once frame
        his sorrowful heart to sing
    The praises of our loving God,
        thus under a strange king?”

brast] burst

µ22 Popular harmony: how one tune leads to another

  • Texts: Psalm 141: 1–2 (Norton), Psalm 88: 1–2 (Hopkins), Psalm 92:1 (Hopkins)
  • Tunes: OXFORD, GLASSENBURIE, KENTISH, as found in East 1592
  • Setting: Editorial, as printed in Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1979), item 14

This is not a reconstruction of any likely musical performance, but a demonstration of how tunes could be harmonically derived from other tunes. It is based on three of the short “common tunes” that became popular in the later Elizabethan period and displaced many of the proper tunes found in WBP. OXFORD originated in the Scottish Psalm Book of 1564 as the tune for Psalm 108. GLASSENBURIE appears to have arisen as a descant to OXFORD, which it fits almost perfectly; KENTISH, in turn, can serve as a bass to GLASSENBURIE, but does not fit well with OXFORD. All three tunes are found in East (1592), with unrelated harmonies. See pp. 1000, 1001, 1005.

Ps. 141:1–2

O Lord, upon thee I do call,
    Lord, haste thee unto me;
And hearken, Lord, unto my voice
    when I do cry to thee.

Tune: OXFORD

As incense let my prayers be
    directed in thine eyes,
And the uplifting of thy hands
    as evening sacrifice.

Tunes: OXFORD, GLASSENBURIE

Ps. 88: 1–2

Lord God, of hope the health and stay
    thou art alone to me;
I call and cry throughout the day
    and all the night to thee.

Tune: GLASSENBURIE

O let my prayers soon ascend
    unto thy sight on high:
Incline thine ear, O Lord; intend
    and hearken to my cry.

Tunes: GLASSENBURIE, KENTISH

Ps. 92:1

It is a thing both good and meet
    to praise the highest Lord:
And to thy name, O Lord most high,
    to sing in one accord.

Tune: KENTISH

stay] support
intend] pay attention
meet] fitting

µ23 Norton’s Psalm 149

  • Text source: The Whole Booke of Psalmes, 1562 (1562a)
  • Tune: LOW DUTCH, selected for this text in East’s Companion, 1592 (STC 2482, HTI EastTWBP a) (East 1592)

This is another short common tune, first printed in 1588 and used for 36 texts in East’s Companion. The form of the tune used here is taken from East. A certain monotony is inevitable when a short tune of small compass is used for many stanzas; but this had also been true of the Sarum psalm tones. See p. 1003.

  1. Sing ye unto the Lord our God
        a new rejoicing song,
    And let the praise of him be heard
        his holy saints among.
  2. Let Israel rejoice in him
        that made him of nothing,
    And let the seed of Sion eke
        be joyful in their king.
  3. Let them sound praise with voice of flute
        unto his holy name,
    And with the timbrel and the harp
        sing praises of the same.
  1. For why the Lord his pleasure all
        hath in his people set,
    And by deliverance he shall raise
        the meek to glory great.
  2. With glory and with honour now
        let all the saints rejoice,
    And now aloud, upon their beds,
        advance their singing voice.
  3. And in their mouths let be the acts
        of God, the mighty Lord,
    And in their hands eke let them bear
        a double-edgèd sword.
  1. To plague the heathen, and correct
        the people with their hands;
    To bind their stately kings in chains,
        their lords in iron bands;
  2. To execute on them the doom
        that written is before:
    This honour all his saints shall have.
        Praise ye the Lord, therefore.

eke] also
For why] For
advance] lift up
correct] punish
doom] judgement, sentence

µ24 Sternhold’s Psalm 9: 1–4 (revised by Whittingham)

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Tune and setting: CAMBRIDGE, selected for this text in East’s Companion, 1592

With OXFORD (µ22) and LOW DUTCH (µ23), this was one of the most popular “common” tunes, as East reported in 1594. Unlike them it was clearly in triple time. It is first found in Daman’s Companion of 1579; East used it for 34 texts, including this one. Edmund Hooper (c.1552–1621), who was master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey, is responsible for this domestic setting, with the tune in the tenor voice. See p. 996.

  1. With heart and mouth unto the Lord
        will I sing laud and praise,
    And speak of all thy wondrous works,
        and them declare always.
  2. I will be glad, and much rejoice
        in thee, O Lord most high:
    And make my songs extol thy name
        above the starry sky.
  1. For that my foes are driven back
        and turnèd unto flight,
    They fall down flat, and are destroyed
        by thy great force and might.
  2. Thou hast revengèd all my wrong,
        my griefs and all my grudge:
    Thou dost with justice hear my cause,
        most like a righteous judge.

µ25 Hopkins’s Psalm 84: 1–4

  • Text source: The Whole Booke of Psalmes, 1562 (1562a)
  • Tune: WINCHESTER, selected for this text in East’s Companion, 1592

For unknown reasons, East set only one text to this tune (in extreme contrast to OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE and LOW DUTCH), and even this psalm was given a different tune in his second edition (1594). It may have sounded dangerously secular with its dotted rhythms and clear modulation to the dominant key. WINCHESTER was revived by Ravenscroft (1621) and became one of the most popular of the common tunes, especially after it was matched with “While shepherds watched their flocks by night” in Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861). Here it is set by Kirby (cf. note on µ19 above) with the tune, as usual, in the tenor voice. See p. 1007.

  1. How pleasant is thy dwelling place,
        O Lord of hosts, to me!
    The tabernacles of thy grace,
        how pleasant, Lord, they be.
  2. My soul doth long full sore to go
        into thy courts abroad;
    My heart doth lust, my flesh also,
        in thee, the living Lord.
  1. The sparrows find a room to rest,
        and save themselves from wrong:
    And eke the swallow hath a nest
        in which to keep her young.
  2. These birds full nigh thine altar may
        have place to sit and sing:
    O Lord of hosts, thou art, I say,
        my God and eke my king.

lust] long,desire
eke] also

µ26 Whittingham’s Psalm 130: 1–2, set as an anthem by John Mundy, “Lord, to thee I make my moan”

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Music: John Mundy, Songs and Psalmes composed into 3. 4. and 5. parts, London: Thomas Est, 1594 (STC 18284)

By the 1590s it had become acceptable in some circles to choose metrical psalms for the texts of anthems. John Mundy (c.1555–1630) was organist of St. George’s chapel, Windsor, and composed a number of such anthems, no doubt for use there. This one is in the madrigalian spirit, coming from Italy, with many contrapuntal entries and a great variety of rhythm in the setting of the words. There is some word painting: the syncopated entries at “I call, I sigh, I plain and groan” suggest anguish, and the repetitions of “Lord, hear me now”, getting closer and closer, convey a sense of growing urgency. The psalm is in the unusual metre 7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6. Mundy added I in line 3 and changed ay be to be ever in line 7 to provide more convenient eight-syllable lines, as in common metre (cf. µ29). See p. 754.

Lord, to thee I make my moan
    when dangers me oppress.
I call, I sigh, I plain and groan,
    trusting to find release.

Hear now, O Lord, my request,
    for it is full due time:
And let thine ears be ever pressed
    unto this prayer mine.

plain] lament

µ27 The Nunc Dimittis, set by Richard Allison

  • Text source: Psalmes of David in Metre, Wesel, [1556?] (STC 2426.8) (1556w)
  • Tune: PSALM 19 in One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Setting: Richard Allison, The Psalmes of David in Metre, the plaine song beeing the common tunne, to be sung and plaide upon the lute, orpharyon, citterne or base violl. London: William Barley, the assigne of Thomas Morley, 1599 (STC 2497, HTI AlliRPD) (Allison 1599)

This fine English tune was probably used for the anonymous Nunc Dimittis paraphrase (probably by William Samuel) by the “Prayer book” party among the exiles in Frankfort and Wesel. It was matched with it in all editions of the WBP. It is in the Mixolydian mode, which accounts for its ending, perceived by modern ears as in the dominant key in this harmonized setting. Richard Allison (c.1560–c.1610) appears to have been a freelance musician, who wrote much music for plucked instruments. His Companion includes settings of all the WBP tunes. Unlike East and others, he always placed the tune in the cantus (treble) voice. See p. 638.

  1. O Lord, because my heart’s desire
        hath wishèd long to see
    My only Lord and saviour,
        thy Son, before I die,
    The joy and health of all mankind,
        desirèd long before,
    Which now is come into the world
        of mercy bringing store,
  1. Thou sufferest thy servant now
        in peace for to depart,
    According to thy holy word,
        which lighteneth my heart,
    Because mine eyes, which thou hast made
        to give my body light,
    Have now beheld thy saving health,
        which is the Lord of might;
  1. Whom thou mercifully hast set,
        of thine abundant grace,
    In open sight and visible,
        before all peoples’ face,
    The Gentiles to illuminate,
        and Satan overquell,
    And eke to be the glory of
        thy people Israel.

eke] also

µ28 Hopkins’s Psalm 81: 1–4 (2 stanzas), set by Richard Allison

  • Text and tune: The Whole Booke of Psalmes, 1562 (STC 2430, HTI &P E4)
  • Setting: Richard Allison, The Psalmes of David in Metre, 1599 (Allison 1599)

Perhaps the most joyous text-tune combination in the WBP, and one of only three that are clearly in triple time; it suggests an origin in secular song or dance. If that is correct, Allison’s domestic setting is particularly appropriate played with viols and lute. See pp. 711–12, 949.

  1. Be light and glad, in God rejoice,
        which is our strength and stay:
    Be joyful and lift up your voice
        to Jacob’s God, I say.
    Prepare your instruments most meet,
        some joyful psalm to sing;
    Strike up with heart and lute so sweet
        on every pleasant string.
  1. Blow as it were in the new moon,
        with trumpets of the best:
    As it is usèd to be done
        at any solemn feast.
    For this is unto Israel
        a statute and a trade:
    A law that must be kept full well,
        which Jacob’s God hath made.

trade] manner of life

µ29 Whittingham’s Psalm 130: 1–2, set as an anthem by Thomas Weelkes, “Lord, to thee I make my moan”

  • Text source: One and Fiftie Psalmes of David (1556)
  • Music: Royal College of Music MSS. 1045–51 [c.1600–10?], as edited by David Brown, Walter Collins and Peter le Huray in Weelkes, Collected Anthems, Musica Britannica vol. 23. Reproduced by permission of Stainer & Bell and the Royal Musical Association.

This five-part anthem by Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623) was most probably written for Chichester cathedral, where Weelkes was organist from 1602 to 1617. There is no way to date the work precisely. The same text had been set as an anthem by Mundy (µ26), and also by Byrd as a consort song. Weelkes was one of the most distinguished composers of church music of the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and this superb setting, revived in the twentieth century, is now part of the standard repertory for many choirs, thus preserving one of the early WBP texts. See p. 754.

Lord, to thee I make my moan
    when dangers me oppress.
I call, I sigh, plain and groan,
    trusting to find release.

Hear now, O Lord, my request,
    for it is full due time:
And let thine ears ay be pressed
    unto this prayer mine.

plain] lament
ay] ever

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