New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-12-03
The Old Hundredth.

This unique psalm tune first appeared in
John Calvin's "Frehch Psalter," published
at Geneva in l543, as the proper tune' to
the E34th psalm. Guilleaume Franc was
musical editor of this work: He was . mas
ter in music, yet all that will be found in
ordinary musical history regarding him is
that he was an "obscure musician of Stras-
bourg In the sixteenth century" The
church owes him not q few of her finest
melodies. A melody in Luther's great
psalter, published from 1924 to 1860, seems
to have suggested the idea of this
inimitsble chorale. One OF Luther's
Of eight unequal lines, which was
act to q melody of the Moravian or Wal
densin early church contains the elements
of the Old Hundredth. But these were re-
sec and remodeled by Franc, who left Stras
bourg and became ''centeur," or percentor
to Theodore Beza, at Lausanne. He subse.
quently settled and died at Geneva, leaving
as his imperishable monument the music of
the "French Psalter." The music was
afterward adapted to the hundredth Psalm.
the first ''English Psalter" ever published,
edited BY John Calvin, and printed for the
use of the congregation of English speak
ing refugees at Geneva in 1856, of which at
that time John Knox was minister.
The musical editor of this psalter was
Claude Goudimel, of Rome, who suffered
martyrdom at Lyons at the time of the
massacre of st. Bartholomew because he
had set the English psalms to music. This
1861 by "John Day, over the pump in
Aldgate," and Andrew Hart, in Edinburg,
and laid the foundation of the psalmody Of
the Protestant church of the world. The
words of this psalter contained first thirty
seven psalms written by Sternhold and
Hopkins, the remainder being written by
ten OF the refugees at Geneva. William
Keith, from Aberdeen. wrote the hum
dredth psalm. This psslter, words and
music, was for some time universally used
by the Protestant churches of England and
Scotland.
When Oliver Cromwell got the West
minister general assembly of divines to pre-
pare q new version of the Psalms in COM
mon metre, for the use Of the churches, the
Parliament sanctioned it, the English
Church at once adopted it, but the Scottish
people rebelled on the ground that they
had already Q better psalter of their own.
Cromwell had come to a compromise with
the hardy Scots. THE only other compro-
mise he ever made in his life was with
Cameron of Lochiel, when he and his army
got bewildered in the wilds of Lochadar).
This compromise was that in Scotland a
number of their favorite psalms from the
old psalter might be published as 3
second edition. This was done, and the
music is tnue Calleu OlO-Ino Ol0 rlrst,
Old Forty fourth, Old Hundredth, Old
Hundred and Thirty-fourth, Old Hundred
and Thirty seventh, etc. These psalms are
still sung in Scottish churches, and the mu-
sic of them (which, with the exception of
the Old Hundredth, had long fallen into
disuse) has been recently revised. DR..
Manner, who characterized it as the finest
psalmody Of any age or any country, was
one Of the first who called attention to it,
and now it is fast becoming the most ap-
preciated and popular among the people.
MANY of the tunes will be found in the re-
yisei edition of the scottish PsalmOdy,"
all of them with the cold" words in Days
or Knox'G old psaltsrs.