Psalm Singing

I was asked to lead music at church one Sunday in late July. In the summer, we cut down to one service, and the choir takes the summer off. We meet in a tent during part of the season.

I decided I would like to try to give the congregation a taste of what church music was like when our church was established 250 years ago. The church is celebrating its quarter of a millennium anniversary this year, and having some 18th century music might fit in with the festivities nicely.

It turns out that church music was pretty boring back in the day. They sang exclusively from a psalter, some version of the Geneva psalter Calvin liked so much. I’m going to go with English translations instead of subjecting the congregation to songs in Dutch. As far as I know, nobody speaks Dutch in the whole church. I’m also thinking of working up a kind of medley and having the choir director write harmonies. We’ll start with the plain old psalms in melody and then add some interest by bringing them up to date with harmony and instrumental accompaniment. Or maybe the choir director will veto the whole idea.

Maybe we should just go with the plain a cappella psalm singing. It really is beautiful just the way it was written.