I used to have to sing metrical psalms in many of the church choirs I was in back in the 1950s/60s when the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible were still in regular use. There was usually just one note to several words and there were vertical lines indicating where the note changed. We also had "call and response". The priest would chant (for instance) "O Lord open thou our lips" and the choir and congregation would respond "and our mouths shall show forth thy praise".
Did you sing Psalms in metre or as printed in the Prayer Book Psalter? Most of the small parishes I've attended either felt singing Anglican chant too daunting a task, or didn't but really should have. The trick to Anglican chant is that the normal cadence of speech determines the duration of the notes. Too often, I'd encounter choirs that would sing a string of words meant to be sung on one note, but chanted very quickly instead of drawing out the note to fit the text. I hope I said that clearly.
@@PrenticeBoy1688 We sang them as printed in the Psalter because the congregation didn't usually sing the psalms in most churches I sang in - although they did join in with the "Gloria", "Te Deum" and other such but because those were constant features the congregation had learned the chants to them. It's been more than 40 years since I sang chanted psalms! This guide from a church in Leicester (in the English midlands) explains it better than I can nowadays www.adlibitum.co.uk/sjg/resources/Psalm_Pointing_Guide.pdf
@@Sunflowers159 I love Anglican chant and I've never, ever attended an Anglican church where the congregation sang the Psalms. I live in Ohio and belong to an extremely traditionalist wing of Anglicanism, the Continuing Movement. We use the Book of Common Prayer and It's probably nigh on a decade since we last sang the canticles and responses congregationally. We were never very good at it, but I loved it nonetheless. It might amuse you to know that we sing Blake's Jerusalem on occasion here in Ohio.
3:33 You make comment that congregations sang very slowly. Several scholars have indicated that the tactus (beat) of the Genevan Psalter would have been close to heartbeat MM=66 or even MM=72. The congregations sang without accompaniment and John Calvin first taught the Psalms to the youth which would help teaching the congregation. The slow singing of Genevan Psalms is a habit by some churches with European background that immigrated in the 19th and early 20th century (Romantic era), which was not a good period to sing Renaissance tunes as they were intended. These churches have never 'recovered' and there are still churches today that sing these tunes slowly. But that is not common practice or an accurate practice. And certainly not historic.
Glad to see this exploration of the Psalms in worship!
Michael Kearney
Covenant Fellowship Reformed Presbyterian Church
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hello from a Northeast Ohio Continuing Anglican! (Of Anglo-Irish ancestry).
I used to have to sing metrical psalms in many of the church choirs I was in back in the 1950s/60s when the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible were still in regular use. There was usually just one note to several words and there were vertical lines indicating where the note changed. We also had "call and response". The priest would chant (for instance) "O Lord open thou our lips" and the choir and congregation would respond "and our mouths shall show forth thy praise".
Did you sing Psalms in metre or as printed in the Prayer Book Psalter? Most of the small parishes I've attended either felt singing Anglican chant too daunting a task, or didn't but really should have. The trick to Anglican chant is that the normal cadence of speech determines the duration of the notes. Too often, I'd encounter choirs that would sing a string of words meant to be sung on one note, but chanted very quickly instead of drawing out the note to fit the text. I hope I said that clearly.
@@PrenticeBoy1688 We sang them as printed in the Psalter because the congregation didn't usually sing the psalms in most churches I sang in - although they did join in with the "Gloria", "Te Deum" and other such but because those were constant features the congregation had learned the chants to them. It's been more than 40 years since I sang chanted psalms! This guide from a church in Leicester (in the English midlands) explains it better than I can nowadays www.adlibitum.co.uk/sjg/resources/Psalm_Pointing_Guide.pdf
@@Sunflowers159 I love Anglican chant and I've never, ever attended an Anglican church where the congregation sang the Psalms. I live in Ohio and belong to an extremely traditionalist wing of Anglicanism, the Continuing Movement. We use the Book of Common Prayer and It's probably nigh on a decade since we last sang the canticles and responses congregationally. We were never very good at it, but I loved it nonetheless. It might amuse you to know that we sing Blake's Jerusalem on occasion here in Ohio.
3:33 You make comment that congregations sang very slowly. Several scholars have indicated that the tactus (beat) of the Genevan Psalter would have been close to heartbeat MM=66 or even MM=72. The congregations sang without accompaniment and John Calvin first taught the Psalms to the youth which would help teaching the congregation.
The slow singing of Genevan Psalms is a habit by some churches with European background that immigrated in the 19th and early 20th century (Romantic era), which was not a good period to sing Renaissance tunes as they were intended. These churches have never 'recovered' and there are still churches today that sing these tunes slowly. But that is not common practice or an accurate practice. And certainly not historic.