An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 1 | CALVINIST MUSIC IN COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA 27

date: 1562

performers: Gregg Smith Singers

genre: Protestant psalm tune

meter: duple

form: strophic

timing section text comments

0:00 phrase 1 Make ye a joyful

sounding noise

Conjunct descent, then a leap up a fourth.

0:05 phrase 2 Unto Jehovah, all the

earth;

Conjunct descent on a new starting pitch, then again a leap

up a fourth.

0:11 phrase 3 Serve ye Jehovah with

gladness:

Rising and falling conjunct motion, then a fall of a third.

0:16 phrase 4 Before his presence

come with mirth.

Disjunct motion creates a climax, followed by a conjunct

descent to the original starting pitch.

note Only the fi rst of Ainsworth’s many stanzas is heard here; the same music would be repeated for all

the others.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• solid, straightforward rhythm


• simple but memorable melodic shape

Listen & Refl ect

1. Where do the lowest and highest pitches occur in OLD HUNDRED?


2. What interval do they form (that is, how far apart are they in terms of scale tones)?

The simplicity of Old Hundred is not typical of the tunes in Ainsworth’s

psalter. Indeed, the diffi culty of the book’s melodies suggests that the original

Pilgrims were accomplished singers. In fact, when the congregation in Salem,

Massachusetts, voted in 1667 to give up Ainsworth, they cited the diffi culty of the

tunes. So did the Plymouth congregation itself in 1685, a consequence, according

to claims by New England clergy of that day, of the settlers’ isolation from their

parent culture and the decline in singing ability that resulted.

Early New Englanders were even more troubled, however, by the psalters’

nonliteral translations of the texts. Intent on following God’s word faithfully, a

group of clergymen from the Massachusetts Bay Colony collaborated on a new

psalter that would more closely mirror the scriptural originals. The resulting

collection, usually referred to as the Bay Psalm Book, was published in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, in 1640. It was the fi rst full-length book printed in the English-

speaking colonies, and in its many revisions and reprints it supplied New En-

gland’s congregations with texts for psalm singing well into the next century.

CD 1.2 Listening Guide 1.2

Old Hundred

ATTRIBUTED TO LOUIS BOURGEOIS

the Bay Psalm Book

172028_01_018-043_r2_mr.indd 27 23/01/13 9:50 AM