Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Metrical Psalters
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Demas
Ship's Deserter
# 24
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Posted
Howdy people,
This came up in a conversation I was having so I thought I would ask here...
Do any of you have experience with exclusive or non-exclusive (inclusive?) use of metrical psalters? Did you use them a-cappella or with accompaniment?
I'm familiar with the version of Psalm 23 which comes from the old Scottish Psalter, (I think?) and various miscellaneous others like the Old Hundredth but I presume that nowadays there are modern language metrical psalters. Or am I wrong?
When you did use them, did you use excerpts, or did the whole congregation on occasion cheerfully sing about dashing babies against hard things? (Ps 137)
-------------------- They did not appear very religious; that is, they were not melancholy; and I therefore suspected they had not much piety - Life of Rev John Murray
Posts: 1894 | From: Thessalonica | Registered: May 2004
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
People in England tend to assume metrical psalms are a Scottish thing, but from the Reformation until the mid-nineteenth century, they were the normal way people sang psalms. Try the following websites.
Soundcloud page of Connor Quigley
The West Gallery Music Association - some more exciting ways of singing them.
PsalmsandPsimilar which has downloadable versions of psalms with tunes, advice and a link to Soundcloud samples of the tunes. It can also be accessed from the Bristol Diocesan website.
Music for the Church of God . This has a large collection of traditional metrical psalters with tune suggestions. I think the tune links may no longer work as the original creator of the site died and it was archived.
There is always hymnary.org which has plenty of useful resources hidden inside it.
There was also a book called Psalm Praise, a bit like Youth Praise, produced 40+ years ago, but it didn't really catch on.
People who use metrical versions tend to sing a few verses, or a selection. They tend not to sing about dashing babies against stones. As far back as 1929 the Scottish stable door Psalter marked some psalms as recommended. That carries the implication that the others are either less recommended or not recommended.
-------------------- Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
The recently departed Canon Gwynn ap Gwilym published a splendid Welsh metrical psalter, with new translations from the Hebrew(this is where being both a Hebraist and a chaired Bard came in handy), a few years ago . Unfortunately I don't think it has ever been used as widely as it might have been.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Well, I am URC so psalms in a variety of forms featured, they are just part of the hymnody these days.
Of course, Psalm 24 (Scots Psalter) and Psalm 122 (Watts version) are part of the tradition.
You can find inclusive language metrical psalms at Psalter for Christian Worship and I also have Psalms for All Seasons.
Jengie
-------------------- "To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Jengie jon: You can find inclusive language metrical psalms at Psalter for Christian Worship and I also have Psalms for All Seasons.
I was going to recommend both of those as well.
Also, it's not a psalter, but the new hymnal of the PC(USA), Glory to God, has a number of inclusive language metrical psalms. (I can't vouch for how easily any of them could reproduced for one-time use.)
-------------------- The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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dyfrig
Blue Scarfed Menace
# 15
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Albertus: The recently departed Canon Gwynn ap Gwilym published a splendid Welsh metrical psalter, with new translations from the Hebrew(this is where being both a Hebraist and a chaired Bard came in handy), a few years ago . Unfortunately I don't think it has ever been used as widely as it might have been.
Both his and Edmwnd Prys' 1620s collections are available via the YouVersion app.
-------------------- "He was wrong in the long run, but then, who isn't?" - Tony Judt
Posts: 6917 | From: pob dydd Iau, am hanner dydd | Registered: Apr 2001
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Metapelagius
Shipmate
# 9453
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Posted
From the Free CoS here.
We have inter alia used the version of Ps 23 in this - it fits the traditional tune Tarwathie very effectively.
-------------------- Rec a archaw e nim naccer. y rof a duv. dagnouet. Am bo forth. y porth riet. Crist ny buv e trist yth orsset.
Posts: 1032 | From: Hereabouts | Registered: May 2005
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Oblatus
Shipmate
# 6278
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Metapelagius: From the Free CoS here.
We have inter alia used the version of Ps 23 in this - it fits the traditional tune Tarwathie very effectively.
At some point I decided I had to have a copy of this (the red hardcover with the split pages) and I have to say it's quite well done; the modern metrical setting is less tortured and Yoda-like than the old ones. I also have an earlier draft copy of it with sol-fa notation and spiral binding. Neato.
Posts: 3823 | Registered: May 2004
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Demas
Ship's Deserter
# 24
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Posted
Sorry for the drive by posting and thanks for the links.
I especially liked the Free CoS versions.
Are these arrangements you have personal experience with? Do you sing them generally with organ or a cappella?
The older stuff available through YouVersion have some very strange attempts at rhyme from my accent's perspective!
-------------------- They did not appear very religious; that is, they were not melancholy; and I therefore suspected they had not much piety - Life of Rev John Murray
Posts: 1894 | From: Thessalonica | Registered: May 2004
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