Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/780

764 of the scale in the bass. Two of these tunes, altered, appear in modern hymnals.

In 1632 an attempt was made to introduce the Geneva tunes complete into this country. Translations were made to suit them, and the work was brought out by Thomas Harper. It does not seem, however, to have reached a second edition. The enthusiasm of earlier days had no doubt enabled the reformers to master the exotic metres of the few imported tunes; but from the beginning the tendency had been to simplify, and, so to speak, to anglicize them; and since the Geneva tunes had remained unchanged, Harper's work must have presented difficulties which would appear quite insuperable to ordinary congregations.

We have now arrived at the period when the dislike which was beginning to be felt by educated persons for the abject version of Sternhold was to find practical expression. Wither had intended his admirable translation of the Ecclesiastical Hymns and Spiritual Songs to supersede the older one, and in 1636 George Sandys, a son of the Archbishop, published the complete psalter, with the following title:—

"A paraphrase upon the Psalms of David, by G. S. Set to new tunes for private devotion; and a thorough bass, for voice or instrument. By Henry Lawes, gentleman of His Majesty's Chapel Royal."

The tunes, 24 in number, are of great interest. Lawes was an ardent disciple of the new Italian school; and these two-part compositions, though following in their outline the accustomed psalm-tune form, are in their details as directly opposed to the older practice as anything ever written by Peri or Caccini. The two parts proceed sometimes for five or six notes together in thirds or tenths; the bass is frequently raised a semitone, and the imperfect fifth is constantly taken, both as a harmony and as an interval of melody. The extreme poverty of Lawes's music, as compared with what was afterwards produced by composers following the same principles, has prevented him from receiving the praise which was certainly his due. He was the first English composer who perceived the melodies to which the new system of tonality was to give rise; and in this volume will be found the germs of some of the most beautiful and affecting tunes of the 17th and 18th centuries: the first section of the famous St. Anne's tune, for instance, is note for note the same as the first section of his tune to the 9th psalm. Several of these tunes, complete, are to be found in our modern hymnals.

The translation of Sandys was intended, as the title shows, to supersede Sternhold's in private use; but several others, intended to be sung in the churches, soon followed. Besides the translation of Sir. W. Alexander (published in Charles the First's reign), of which King James had been content to pass for the author, there appeared, during the Commonwealth, the versions of Bishop King, Barton, and Rous. None, however, require more than a bare mention, since they were all adapted to the Church tunes to be found in the current editions of Sternhold, and have therefore only a literary interest. Nothing requiring notice here was produced until after the Restoration, when, in 1671, under circumstances very different from any which had decided the form of previous four-part psalters, John Playford brought out the first of his well-known publications:—

"Psalms and Hymns in solemn musick of foure parts on the Common Tunes to the Psalms in Metre: used in Parish Churches. Also six Hymns for one voyce to the Organ. By Iohn Playford. London, printed by W. Godbid for J. Playford at his shop in the Inner Temple. 1671."

This book contains only 47 tunes, of which 35 were taken from Sternhold (including 14 of the single common measure tunes with names, which had now become Church tunes), and 12 were new. But Playford, in printing even this comparatively small selection, was offering to the public a great many more than they had been of late accustomed to make use of. The tunes in Sternhold were still accessible to all; but not only had the general interest in music been steadily declining during the reigns of James and Charles, but the authorized version itself, from long use in the churches, had now become associated in the minds of the Puritans with the system of Episcopacy, and was consequently unfavourably regarded, the result being that the number of tunes to which the psalms were now commonly sung, when they were sung at all, had dwindled down to some half dozen. These tunes may be found in the appendix to Bishop King's translation, printed in 1651. According to the title-page, his psalms were 'to be sung after the old tunes used in y$e$ churches,' but the tunes actually printed are only the old 100th, 51st, 81st, 119th, Commandments, Windsor, and one other not a Church tune. 'There be other tunes,' adds the author, 'but being not very usuall are not here set down.' The miserable state of music in general at the Restoration is well known, but, as regards psalmody in particular, a passage in Playford's preface so well describes the situation and some of its causes, that it cannot be omitted here:—

"For many years, this part of divine service was skilfully and devoutly performed, with delight and comfort, by many honest and religious people: and is still continued in our churches, but not with that reverence and estimation as formerly: some not affecting the translation, others not liking the music: both, I must confess need reforming. Those many tunes formerly used to these Psalms, for excellency of form, solemn air, and suitableness to the matter of the Psalms, were not inferior to any tunes used in foreign churches; but at this day the best, and almost all the choice tunes are lost, and out of use in our churches; nor must we expect it otherwise, when in and about this great city, in above one hundred parishes there is but few parish clerks to be found that have either ear or understanding to set one of these tunes musically as it ought to be: it having been a custom during the late wars, and since, to choose men into such places, more for their poverty than skill or ability; whereby this part of God's service hath been so ridiculously performed in most places, that it is now brought into scorn and derision by many people."

The settings are all by Playford himself. They are in plain counterpoint, and the voices indicated are Alto, Countertenor, Tenor, and