HISTORY OF SCOTTISH PSALMODY.
James Dodson
It is important to notice that a Psalm-book was prepared, also within a few years after the Reformation. Several of the psalms then used have been retained in our Psalm-books and are still sung. An incident proves the proficiency of singing at an early period. When John Durie returned from banishment in 1582, a procession was formed in the High Street of Edinburgh, by between two or three thousand people, who sung in harmony the version of the psalm still in use—“Now Israel may say, and that truly,” &c. (Calderwood’s History, vol. ii. p. 646).
A short history of praise in connection with the Presbyterian Church during this early period may tend to set the question in a clear light. In the Book of Common Order, drawn up by John Knox at Geneva, 1565, and following closely the order of worship observed in the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, and Holland, the congregation are directed at certain parts of the service to
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sing a Psalm. After the confession of sins and petitions made unto God in the time of our extreme trouble, “the people sing a Psalm all together in a plain tune.” The expression, plain tune, was used then, and afterwards, to distinguish congregational singing from the cathedral service, which had been discarded by the Reformers, and which was accompanied with organs. The Puritans say in their Confession (Neale’s “History of Puritanism,” p. 290, 1571), “Concerning the singing of Psalms, we allow of the people’s joining with one voice in a plain tune, but not of tossing the Psalms from one side to the other, with intermingling of organs.” We read in Heylyn (“Ecclesiastical History,” p. 291), “According to which order (49th of Elizabeth’s Injunctions), as plain song was retained in most parish churches, so in the Queen’s own chapels, and in the quire of all cathedrals and some colleges, the hymns were sung after a more melodious manner, commonly with organs” (1559). These passages, from two opposite sources, show that the expression, plain tune, had a definite technical meaning, well understood at the time, and distinctly implying the absence of instrumental music, including especially organs, in the praise of God.
No special reference, however, appears to be made to the subject in any of the controversies or Acts of the time—a silence perfectly explicable from the unanimity of public opinion with regard to it in Scotland, the uniformity of practice, and the comparatively subordinate place given to praise
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in its relation to preaching and prayer. To take one example out of many, in the Act of Assembly, November 2, 1569 (“Book of Universal Kirk”), we only hear of “preaching and public prayers.” Again, in the Act of Parliament, 22d May 1584, mention is made of the “libertie of preaching the true Word of God, and administration of the Sacraments in purity and sincerity,” the proper method of praise being included within “the purity and sincerity” of the other ordinances. In chap. xv. of First Book of Discipline (1560), “For reparation of the kirks,” no provision is made for a lectern or precentor’s desk, far less for an organ. “Every kirk must have dores, close windows of glasse, thack or sclait able to withhold raine, a bell to convocate the people together, a pulpet, a basen for baptising, and tables for ministration of the Lord’s Supper.”
Such a view of that part of the worship was in perfect conformity with the principles of the Reformed Churches generally. “The Reformed Church,” says Hase in his “Church History” (Hase, “Kirchen Geschichte,” 9th edition, 1867, Leipsic), “returned as far as possible to the simplicity of the Apostolic edifice. The worship of the Lutheran Church developed itself according to the Reformation principle that the preaching of the Gospel is the central point.”
Luther, on the 122d Psalm, says—
“For such are thankful indeed which do embrace the graces and gifts of God, and rejoice in the giver. But such as feel not this joy, albeit they set forth their psalms with
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piping and singing and organs, and mincing music, never so much, yet are they unthankful, because they do not understand these benefits. These things I do therefore recite that all men may beware of that detestable impiety and head-spring of all mischief in the Church of God, the contempt or loathing of the Word, for that is an horrible apostacy and falling away from God.”
“The Reformed Church” (he gives as his authority Bullinger, B. I. p. 131) “did away with everything sensuous and artistic; and, after the organs were pulled down, it obtained from France the Psalms in appropriately written metre.” Kahnis, another modern authority (Kahnis’ “Deutscher Protestantismus,” p. 133), a Lutheran, and writing throughout in favour of Lutheranism, says that with the rise of popular sacred music “the organs went into the background.” His statement agrees with, and is perhaps partly derived from, Calderwood, who, in the Altare Damascenum, relates that even where organs were retained, they were only played after divine service was over (Calderwood’s “Altare Damascenum,” p. 294). The Scottish Church, standing in an immediate line of descent from the Genevan, inherited the pure doctrine and simple worship of that Church to which it was so nearly related—Calvin having frequently, and especially in his Homily on 1 Sam. xviii. 1–9, condemned organs in worship as “a ridiculous and unsuitable imitation” of the Jews. Accordingly in 1574 (Aberdeen Kirk-Session Records—Introduction to Book of Common Order, p. 241) the session of Aberdeen ordered the organs to be removed out of the Church. As the northern counties were then
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distinguished by their obstinate retention of old forms of faith and worship, we may safely believe that long before that date organs had been rooted out of the rest of Scotland.
It must not be inferred, however, that because the psalmody held a place in public worship beneath the more important duties of prayer and preaching of the Word, it was neglected. On the contrary, the singing of the Psalms of David was the delight of the people. In 1561, on the night after Queen Mary’s arrival, the multitude sang Psalms in the streets. Translations of the Psalms in metre, with tunes appended after the French fashion, and prayers for private use, were ordained by the Assembly to be printed, used under sanction of Acts of Parliament, and, as may be judged from the behaviour of the people on the return of John Durie to Edinburgh in 1582, as already mentioned, were thoroughly appreciated and studied (1564, Calderwood, vol. ii. p. 289; M‘Crie’s “Life of Melville,” note 4; 1582, Calderwood’s “History,” vol. iii. p. 647). The warm love of the people for the Psalms, and their intelligent practice in the art of singing, have a very important bearing on their subsequent conduct in connection with the reintroduction of organs, since it proves that their opposition did not proceed from feelings temporarily excited, but from clear and definite opinion and principle. The neglect of Psalmody during the dreary course of last century, and even now, must be held to be a leading cause of present difficulty and defection.