Thread: Found a great Psalmody resource!

I found on Sermon Audio an mp3 that is 79 mins of a small group singing suggested tunes to the 1st 50 Psalms. This is excellent for learning tunes. I can't wait for my pocket psalters to get here.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninf...ID=11801194222

Mrs. Dohms is a member of the PB. SWRB sells their psalm-singing audio tape as described below:

DOHMS FAMILY
50 Suggested Tunes for Use With the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650 (1998)

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant (1 Chr. 16:8-17, emphases added).
This tape was produced by Elder Lyndon Dohms and his family to help those using or making the transition to the Psalter of the Covenanted Reformation (i.e. the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650). This Psalter passed through the intense scrutiny of -- and was authorized for public use by -- both the Westminster Assembly and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (at the height of her purity) in the mid seventeenth century. Concerning the care and preparation that went into this unsurpassed Metrical Psalter, the January 15 (1993) issue of The Original Covenanter and Contenting Witness magazine cites an earlier article which notes,

Rouse bestowed upon it his greatest pains. This was not enough. For six Years it endured the scrutiny of, and was revised by, two of the most learned Assemblies that ever sat in the British Isles; at a time, too, when these men were zealous for truth and suspicious of error. Every word was weighed, and every expression made exact, before admitted into any statement of Biblical truth. They wrote not so that they might be understood, but so that they could not be misunderstood. This exactness and conscientiousness they carried with them in their translation of the Psalms. In versifying them, they labored not to clothe the mind of the Spirit in poetic finery, but to cause the muse to bow to the exact expression of the Holy Ghost.... For more than two centuries (almost three and a half centuries now--RB) they have stood the test, and every attempt to render them more elegant has resulted in a departure from the exact expression of the Spirit (as in the case of the present RPCNA Psalter, The Book of PSalms for Singing--RB). Let us hold fast to this good old version until another proves itself worthy of its place.
Moreover, this Psalter was produced to further national and international covenanted Reformation -- and to fulfill the intent of the Solemn League and Covenant for biblically regulated worship and biblical uniformity. It was crafted with faithfulness to the Word of God utmost in the mind of its translators and fashioned in the manner most fitting for ease of use among the general population -- making it a most conducive engine for discipling the nations. To accomplish this last goal the Scottish Metrical Psalter provides a version of every Psalm in common metre (except Psalm 136 -- and even this Psalm, with a little ingenuity, can be made to fit the various common metre tunes). With all this in mind it is easy to recognize how (and why) this "tune tape" has been created to help the contemporary Covenanter and Psalm singer make good use of this godly and judicious offering -- a landmark Psalter -- which we have received from the hands of our faithful forefathers.

On this cassette the Dohms provide us with fifty separate tunes (sung acappella), most of which are common metre -- but samples of other tunes used in this Psalter also appear (and are noted by name on the tape before each tune is sung). All the common metre tunes can be interchanged and used with all of the Psalms in the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650 (sometimes listed as The Psalms of David in Metre in this catalogue). However, because this cassette is primarily intended to familiarize the listener with a diverse selection of tunes, only Psalms one and 23 are sung in their entirety. The remaining 48 Psalms (Psalms 2-22 and 24-50) make use of two to four verses from each Psalm. This allows the listener to sample a wider range of tunes on one cassette -- and keeps the price of this tape down (as one is not forced to buy numerous tapes to cover the fifty tunes offered here). This is also very useful when it is remembered, as noted above, that all the common metre tunes can be interchanged throughout this Psalter, as all the Psalms (excepting 136) in the Scottish Metrical Psalter are provided in a common metre version. For those who are interested, Psalms 6, 25, 45, 50, 67, 70, 100, 102, 124, 136, 143, 145, 148 are also translated for use with an alternate tune in the Scottish Metrical Psalter (and at least one tune for each of these alternate versions is provided on this tape).

As an added bonus, at the end of this tape, Psalm one is also "lined out" (as mandated in the Westminster Assembly's Directory for Public Worship), with a short explanation provided by elder Dohms for the use of this ancient practice. The "lining out" is included to assist those seeking to utilize the venerable practice of the church as it was upheld during Old Testament times, the days of Christ and the Apostles, and during both Reformations.

In short, this cassette is provided as a valuable tool for those who love to sing God's holy Word, as a useful aid for song leaders (and singers) in preparing for public, family and secret worship, and for the listening pleasure and edification of all those who love to hide God's Word in their heart!

(Cassette) $4.99 (US funds)

Thanks! Resources such as these are very useful for those who would like to sing psalms at home but are not the best at reading music.

Originally Posted by VirginiaHuguenot

Mrs. Dohms is a member of the PB. SWRB sells their psalm-singing audio tape as described below:

Is that Ginny Dohms who I have seen on the board? If so thank you so much Ginny and your family for doing that and putting it up on Sermon Audio. I left a comment on SA also. I was so excited when I found it.

Here is another good resource:



http://www.cgmusic.com/workshop/psametre_frame.htm

Wow, is that tape still around? I had almost forgot about it. It has been years since our family recorded that. We would tape a few Psalms each evening after family worship. We have 3 children, so it was just my husband, myself, and the kids singing on there. Our original intent in recording it was for some of our church's members who knew very few tunes to use with the Scottish Metrical Psalter, other than the Amazing Grace tune. That can get old real fast. :-) We decided to only record the first 50 Psalms to different tunes with the idea that each of them could be re-used twice to cover the complete 150 Psalms. We never had the idea of distributing this tape outside of our immediate church, since none of us are professional singers, and the quality is not that great since we just used our small home stereo. But when we gave it to Still Waters Revival Books to reproduce it for the church, they wanted to distribute it by putting it in their catalogue, as well as up on Sermon Audio.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind words. I am so glad that it is a help to some of you.

I recently found out about "50 Suggested Tunes for Use With the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650", and my family and I are enjoying the recording. We're new to EP, and don't yet know enought CM tunes, so we're really enjoying it. Our van's stereo can't play MP3 CDs, so I used RealPlayer to burn it to an audio CD, and it just fit (I think with something like 52 seconds to spare.) Thanks to the Dohms family, SWRB, and SermonAudio for making this freely available.

I've done a search on the board and may have missed it, but I have a question about resources for Psalm-singing.

I have seen all the midi files and think they are great for listening to, but is there are resource that has the music printed for congregational singing? Forgive my lack of knowledge, but do modern Psalters come formatted like hymnals with the music and words together?

The Book of Psalms for Singing comes in a Hymnal-like way with scores along with the words. I dislike it because of the breakup of the psalms to much... But I do like alot of tunes from it....

The Trinity Psalter comes in Words only, but also a larger score/words edition but awkward to hold...... I dislike some of the tunes of it but love how it keeps the Psalms together for singing whole psalms... I use the Trinity Psalter words only so I can replace some tunes from the Book of Psalms for singing.

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

I've done a search on the board and may have missed it, but I have a question about resources for Psalm-singing.

I have seen all the midi files and think they are great for listening to, but is there are resource that has the music printed for congregational singing? Forgive my lack of knowledge, but do modern Psalters come formatted like hymnals with the music and words together?

Originally Posted by Ginny Dohms

Wow, is that tape still around? I had almost forgot about it. It has been years since our family recorded that. We would tape a few Psalms each evening after family worship. We have 3 children, so it was just my husband, myself, and the kids singing on there. Our original intent in recording it was for some of our church's members who knew very few tunes to use with the Scottish Metrical Psalter, other than the Amazing Grace tune. That can get old real fast. :-) We decided to only record the first 50 Psalms to different tunes with the idea that each of them could be re-used twice to cover the complete 150 Psalms. We never had the idea of distributing this tape outside of our immediate church, since none of us are professional singers, and the quality is not that great since we just used our small home stereo. But when we gave it to Still Waters Revival Books to reproduce it for the church, they wanted to distribute it by putting it in their catalogue, as well as up on Sermon Audio.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind words. I am so glad that it is a help to some of you.

I downloaded the sermon audio of you and your family singing yesterday. I listened to some of it this morning while prapring breakfast. It is a blessing and I thank you for it dear sister.

Also the Book of Psalms for singing comes in a nice hard back hymnal looking binding......

The Trinity Psalter comes in a red paperback binding but also comes in a really nice leather black hardback edition...

Originally Posted by thunaer

The Book of Psalms for Singing comes in a Hymnal-like way with scores along with the words. I dislike it because of the breakup of the psalms to much... But I do like alot of tunes from it....

The Trinity Psalter comes in Words only, but also a larger score/words edition but awkward to hold...... I dislike some of the tunes of it but love how it keeps the Psalms together for singing whole psalms... I use the Trinity Psalter words only so I can replace some tunes from the Book of Psalms for singing.

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

I've done a search on the board and may have missed it, but I have a question about resources for Psalm-singing.

I have seen all the midi files and think they are great for listening to, but is there are resource that has the music printed for congregational singing? Forgive my lack of knowledge, but do modern Psalters come formatted like hymnals with the music and words together?

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

I've done a search on the board and may have missed it, but I have a question about resources for Psalm-singing.

I have seen all the midi files and think they are great for listening to, but is there are resource that has the music printed for congregational singing? Forgive my lack of knowledge, but do modern Psalters come formatted like hymnals with the music and words together?

For the 1650 Psalter there are The Comprehensive Psalter and The Scottish Psalmody. The former is more like The Book of Psalms for Singing because it's one tune per passage. The latter is a split-leaf, meaning that the music is at the top of the page, the words are at the bottom of the page, and the top pages turn separately from the bottom page. The Psalms in Metre is an Irish split-leaf; not sure if it's ever gone back into print.

The split-leaf books are more costly to produce; but the format facilitates the association of a given passage with more than one piece of music. In The Scottish Psalmody if you want to sing Psalm 54 to the tune Huddersfield you turn the bottom page to 64 where you find the words to Psalm 54 and the top pages to 76 to find the music for Huddersfield. To sing Psalm 54 to Lancaster you would turn the top pages to number 80 instead.

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

I've done a search on the board and may have missed it, but I have a question about resources for Psalm-singing.

I have seen all the midi files and think they are great for listening to, but is there are resource that has the music printed for congregational singing? Forgive my lack of knowledge, but do modern Psalters come formatted like hymnals with the music and words together?

Hey bud - don't even go there...not even for a minute. We're NOT going EP! Not unless we can be bagpipe only as far as instruments. EP with the pipes. That would be cool.

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

Hey bud - don't even go there...not even for a minute. We're NOT going EP! Not unless we can be bagpipe only as far as instruments. EP with the pipes. That would be cool.

Honestly, I am not necessarily considering EP. But, interestingly enough, a few years ago, before I had really done any research into Reformed theology or church history, as I was reading the Psalms, I began thinking about composing tunes for singing them.

I think it would be a good idea to add the Psalms to our current hymns that we already sing. If there are already good resources out there, I see no reason to re-invent the wheel, or the quarter note, for that matter!

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

Hey bud - don't even go there...not even for a minute. We're NOT going EP! Not unless we can be bagpipe only as far as instruments. EP with the pipes. That would be cool.

Honestly, I am not necessarily considering EP. But, interestingly enough, a few years ago, before I had really done any research into Reformed theology or church history, as I was reading the Psalms, I began thinking about composing tunes for singing them.

I think it would be a good idea to add the Psalms to our current hymns that we already sing. If there are already good resources out there, I see no reason to re-invent the wheel, or the quarter note, for that matter!

Table this discussion for our next elders meeting?

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

Hey bud - don't even go there...not even for a minute. We're NOT going EP! Not unless we can be bagpipe only as far as instruments. EP with the pipes. That would be cool.

Honestly, I am not necessarily considering EP. But, interestingly enough, a few years ago, before I had really done any research into Reformed theology or church history, as I was reading the Psalms, I began thinking about composing tunes for singing them.

I think it would be a good idea to add the Psalms to our current hymns that we already sing. If there are already good resources out there, I see no reason to re-invent the wheel, or the quarter note, for that matter!

Table this discussion for our next elders meeting?

Would that be at the 9th tee?

Historically, Psalters have been without scores... Scores became more of a novelty in the 19th and 20th centuries..... I guess because of so many musical illiterates out there today.... In the past families were much more musically educated and music played a big role in everyday family life.

So if a congregation needs the scores to sing then the best psalter would be "The Book of Psalms for singing" You will have anywhere from 3 to 6 stanza per Psalm Tune with the words inbetween the Psalm words and the Words broken to each tune note.. Just like a Hymnal would. In this Psalm book the Psalms are broken up with anumber of times to different tunes... For Example you will have Psalm 119a through Psalm 119x, or 40a through 40e, etc....

Michael

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

Honestly, I am not necessarily considering EP. But, interestingly enough, a few years ago, before I had really done any research into Reformed theology or church history, as I was reading the Psalms, I began thinking about composing tunes for singing them.

I think it would be a good idea to add the Psalms to our current hymns that we already sing. If there are already good resources out there, I see no reason to re-invent the wheel, or the quarter note, for that matter!

Table this discussion for our next elders meeting?

Would that be at the 9th tee?

Originally Posted by thunaer

Historically, Psalters have been without scores... Scores became more of a novelty in the 19th and 20th centuries..... I guess because of so many musical illiterates out there today.... In the past families were much more musically educated and music played a big role in everyday family life.

Actually, the only reason for a score is for someone who is musically literate. A musically illiterate person sings by ear and will just memorize tunes as they hear them. A musically literate person (such as myself) likes to read the notes and maybe sing parts (like bass or tenor) as available. It also helps accompanists if you have them.

BTW, thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

We're NOT going EP!

How about PP (Partial Psalmnody)?

Nothing like a good elders "Cat" fight...

Wish I was a fly on the wall for that elders meeting.....

Originally Posted by Calvibaptist

Originally Posted by BaptistInCrisis

We're NOT going EP!

How about PP (Partial Psalmnody)?