SCOTS AND PSALMS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 22, 25 July 1935, Page 4

SCOTS AND PSALMS

THE METRICAL VERSION

THREE CENTURIES OLD

ITS EOLE IN HISTORY

Three hundred years ago, in 1635, appeared the definitive edition, fully harmonised, of the Scottish Reformation Psalter, which was the predecessor of the 1650 version, still in use in the Church of Scotland, says "The Times."

Metrical Psalms are out of fashion in England. Sternhold and Hopkins, Tate and Brady are but names to the modern Anglican. The best of Watts has long since been absorbed in Free Church hymnaries. The "Bay Psalter" is unknown to the descendants of the New England Puritans. Even Scotsmen no longer refuse to sing "human hymns." Yet the Metrical Psalms are so interwoven with the history and life of Scotland as to retain the first place in Scottish worship.

Like their. Huguenot brethren, the Scottish / Reformers and Covenanters loved the Psalms. It was John Knox who arrested his country's tendency to Lutheran hymnody, exemplified in the Wedderburns' "Gude and Godlie Ballates." On his return to Scotland in 1559 he brought with him the AngloGenevan Psalter used by his congregation of English-speaking exiles; and the popularity of the Psalms was convincingly, if not musically, demonstrated when Queen Mary came to Holyrood. .Over 500 citizens serenaded her with Psalms, "as badly sung and as much out of tune as possible," according to the French chronicler. JORDAN, NOT HELICON. To the Genevan Psalms, translated from Marot. and Beza, the Scottish Church looked for a nucleus when in 1565 it published an official Psalter. But in drawing generously upon the version of Sternhold and Hopkins large modifications were necessary; for, as Fuller said of these forerunners, "their piety was better than their poetry and they had drunk more of Jordan than ■of Helicon." Moreover, the Scots were not too fond of anything made in England. Sternhold and Hopkins, nevertheless, had notable collaborators. There was William Whittingham. who married Calvin's sister and succeeded Ktiox as exile-pastor at Geneva: and William Kethe. who was not only a translator of the Geneva Bible, but. being "no unready rhymer," poured out such effusions as "a ballad on the whore of Babylon called 'Tye Thy Mare Tom Boy."' To Whittingham we owe that version of Psalm 124 which is still a favourite to Scotsmen: "Now Israel may say." Kethe, more surprisingly, built himself an enduring memorial in "All people that on earth do dwell." which has been sung almost unaltered and to the same tune for more than 350 years,

Amone the Scottish contributors to this 1565 Psalter was at least one whose life is a story of adventure. John Craig, a Dominican.'had been converted by reading Calvin's "Institutes" in his cloister at Bologna. Condemned to the stake at Rome, he was saved by the Pope's timely death and the breaking open of prisons by the people, In-weary wanderings he was befriended by bandits, and on one occasion by a dog which came up to him with a bag of money in its mouth. ;We hear of him next at Vienna, preacher and favourit° at the Court, of Maximilian 11. The Pope demanded the return of the escaped heretic, but the Emneror paye'him a safe-conduct to England. Hnarinf of the Reformation in Scotland, he offered his services. He had been abroad 24 years, and had almost forgotten his mother tongue. In 1563 ho became Knox's colleaeue, and in 1567 publicly protested when the banns were cried between Queen Mary and Bothwell. As he lived until 1600 and the age of 88, he seems a doughty exemplar of the Disraelian truth that adventures are to the adventurous. THE DUKE'S BEARD. Th<? Psn'w nf Ifias. ..'that which demands particular attention at this time, was edited by "E.M.." otherwise Edward Millar. It was a fully-harmon-ispd edition: Millar called in "the m-imest musicians that ever this kingdom had." There is evidence, however, that the Psalms were sung in harmony before 1635. When Dune, exiled for preaching against James VI (James T of the United Kinsrdom), returned to Edinburgh in .triumph in 1582, he was met by a concourse which gradually swelled to 20D0.

"At the Netherbow they took up the 125 Psalme; 'now Israel may say,' and sung in such a pleasant tune in four narts, known to most of the people, that coming up the street all bareheeded till they enter the Kirk, with such a great sound and majestic, that it moved both themselves and all.the beholders, looking out at the shots and overstajrs, with admiration and astonishment. The Duke (Lennox) himself beheld, and reave (reft) his beard for anger: he was more affrayed of this sight than anie thing that ever he had scene before in Scotland."

There are many illustrations of the extent to which the old Psalter, that of 1565 which was supnlanted by the edition of 1635. had endeared itself to to people. In 1572. the year of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew arid of Knox's death, earnest souls turned to Psalm 44 and recalled:-— Tho wondrous works Hint tliou hast done, In nltlnr time, 0 Lord. , , i For all this we forget not thee Xor yet thy Covenant brenko W'n turn nnt bark our hearts from thee Xnr yet thy paths forsake. When the news reached Edinburgh that the Snanish Armada had been dispersed, Robert Bruce, a descendant of I the patriot King, gave out Psalm lxxvi to be sunt; by the assembled citizens at the Mercat Cross:— Thou makest men from Heaven to hear Thy Judj,'mpnts just, the earth for feare Stilled, with silence then we see. ON THE SHORE. John Welsh and his fellow prisoners, having' been banished for conscience sake in 1606, gathered with their friends on the shore at Leith at 2 o'clock on a wintry morning, and "&fter prayer they sung the 23rd Psalm; and so to the great grief of the spectators set sail," In the same year Andrew Melville, brought before the Privy Council on a charge of high treason, was told by Bishop Bancroft to kneel (as was the custom) in giving his answers. He refused, so the Bishop commanded some officers "to put him to his knees," This done, Melville lifted up his eyes and hands to Heaven and prayed, "To Thee, O Lord, I make my moan" (Psalm 130). Then he stood up. Again and again this action was repeated until he was permitted to answer standing. Further instances are recorded during and after the Civil War. In 1646 Charles I was in the hands of the Scots at Newcastle. A Scots minister preached boldly before him and called for Psalm 52, "Why dost, thou tyrant, boast thyself, thy wicked works to praise." His Majesty thereupon stood up and called for Psalm 56, "Have mercy Lord on me I pray, for men would me devour." The people waived the minister's psalm and sang that of the King's choice. The invader Cromwell attended Glasgow Cathedral on

Sunday, October 13, 1650. Zachary Boyd preached and gave out Psalm 79:— O Lord the Gentiles do Invade Thine heritage to epolle. And strangely enough, notes the preacher, "divers sojours did^sing with us." . ' i CURIOUS SINGING. Any "curious- singing," anthems, or instrumental accompaniments were anathema in Scotland. The people were to be participants, not listeners. The 1635 Psalter contains 104 "proper" tunes for particular psalms and 31 "common" tunes. Among those still in use are French, York, New London, Dunfermline, and Winchester. Grave and devout, they differ greatly from their ornate successors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From the beginning the Kirk exhorted the folk "to exercise thameselves in the Psalmes." Though sixty editions were printed of the Old Psalter, very few copies are in existence, which indicates that the books were worn .out by unremitting usage. In family worship the old tunes were still sung in Burns's time:—

They chant their artless notes In simple guise, They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim ; I'erhnps Dundee's wlld-warbline measures rise; i

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name; Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward fiamo.

In church the praise was led by an "uptaker of the Psalms," who was sometimes teacher of the "Sang Schule," a medieval institution given new life. We read of "the maister of the Sang Schule and his bairns."

The 1635 Psalter was short-lived. Linguistic changes and the craving for uniformity made revision necessary. The present version (1650) was based on that submitted tp the Westminster Assembly by Rous, Puritan Provost of Eton. -It has solid merits. But, unfortunately, when the 1635 Psalter was "dischargit," no music was provided for the new version. The Scots reluctantly agreed to such English practices as "lining out," and the result was the inevitable decay of Psalmody. For well over a century not more than a dozen Psalm tunes were in common use in Scotland.

No Scotsman who loves his country and knows its history will apologise for the rugged vigour of the Metrical Psalms. From the Reformation to the War Scotsmen have turned to these Psalms in times of stress. Stirring tunes and ancient associations have made them truly national. "The anguish of the singer made the sweetness of the strain."