The Genevan Psalter

Links

Here are the best sites I've found which have anything to do with the Genevan Psalter. Of course, most of these would be found by any reliable search engine. But sometimes search engines can be messy, so here is a neat list, in order of relevance, with a few of my own opinions.

The Genevan Psalter is the work of David Koyzis, an avid fan of the Genevan Psalter for many years. Here are his own translations and harmonies, for this Psalter and others. Also check out his extensive list of links, which include some beautiful recordings from YouTube.

The Book of Praise website is the work of The Standing Committee for the Publication of the Book of Praise of the Canadian Reformed Churches (actual title). The 1984 Book of Praise is available for download. Included is a history of the use of this Psalter by the Canadian Reformed Church.

Genevan Tunes, from the website of Dennis Tietsma, includes several insightful papers on the architecture of the Genevan tunes, and some useful arrangments.

Reformed Church Music is the work of Frank Ezinga. Here are recordings and articles about many Psalters, including a great deal about the Genevan. It's a great resource. Overlook the grammar and spelling; explore every cranny.

Reformed Christian Resources, the website of Spindleworks, contains several excellent articles on the Genevan Psalter, including one by by Pierre Pidoux, editor of the Complete works of Claude Goudimel.

Jan Slagt of Amersfoort, Holland, has composed short preludes, choral settings and fantasias of all the Genevan tunes (and more), available at jslagt.nl as free PDFs. (Translated into English by Google.)

Wikipedia's article is, as usual, compact and accurate, if a bit stuffy.

Use of the Genevan Psalter from Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church in St Louis, MO is the work of music leader Bill Hoover. The church uses this Psalter in their congregational singing.

The Psalms Project includes settings of various Genevan Psalms in various languages, in the modern Praise and Worship style. There is a YouTube vid of samples. Very unusual. Quite astonishing how well these tunes translate to the CCM idiom. The website is itself in Dutch, but here is an English version by Google Translate. An English language CD is also available.

As part of his offering of Free Choir Music Editions, Christoph Dalitz has composed 12 Genevan Psalter Bicinia, i.e. two-part (Alto & Tenor) settings. I hope to import these to my Music and Lyrics page, along with recordings of the same (with English lyrics! Sorry, I don't know German.)

The French National Library has made available a facsimile of the French Genevan Psalter of 1562: the original French lyrics, with melodies in original notation. (Thanks, Christoph!)

Philippe Lacombe is just beginning a new website to put online the French texts of the Genevan Psalter with many additional resources. Stay in touch with that. Meanwhile, he has already placed many of these texts on another website.

Here is a scanned copy of a book containing the complete Genevan melodies, with German lyrics.

Some of Goudimel's settings are available from the Werner Icking Music Archive.

Hervormddinteloord is the work of Hans Prince, chief musician of the Protestant (Reformed) Church of Dinteloord, the Netherlands. I'm not sure all of what it contains, because it's all in Dutch. (Sorry, I don't know Dutch either!) But it's comprehensible enough to get what we're looking for: more recordings of the Genevan Psalms!

Inheritance Publications is the work of Roelof and Theresa Janssen. They have many books and recordings available here, including many of the Genevan Psalter. I especially recommend anything you can find from The Children of Asaph: the most beautiful Genevan singing you'll likely ever hear.

I gave an interview regarding the Genevan Psalter on BlogTalkRadio.

The Ensemble Goudimel has a recording of a few Genevan tunes in several settings, in French. (This site includes other recordings of Genevan Psalms which I haven't heard. Search under 'Goudimel'.)

Jan Karman is arranging the first line of each Genevan tune into fugues for (mostly) organ performance. Free recordings of those completed, and sheet music available for purchase, are on his website.

As I have time I will be posting more links. Please check back again soon!