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The Psalmist’s Harp is a new fasola compilation, containing the entirety of the 150 Psalms set to both historical and contemporary shape-note tunes. The project is multifaceted; primarily and most practically, the collection is intended for those who wish to have a complete psalter at hand that provides a source of accessible a cappella psalmody. To this end, the collection – when completed – will be available for purchase in a traditional printed format, or for download as a PDF free of charge (for personal use), for those who may wish to print a copy themselves or to sing from an electrionic device.
The compilation is also a celebration of historic American music and the rich tradition of Western protestant psalmody. Contributions from well-known Singing School composers such as Timothy Swan (65) and William Billings (139) are represented in the work alongside later folk-idiom melodies by influential composer-compilers John Wyeth, William Walker, and Ananias Davisson, among many others. A handful of tunes in comparable idioms from related traditions, such as as well as later 19th century sources like the New Harp of Columbia are included, as are more than thirty newly-composed/newly-adapted tunes from the pens of living composers.
Following the precedent of the old masters and their compilations, the book is a pastiche. In the diversity of the collections from which the sources were drawn, the collection testifies to the richness of the historical diversity underpinning this unique American hymnody. Alongside the highly prolific figures mentioned above, lesser-known figures and collections provide a significant amount of the compilation’s musical material as well: the tunes found in the book have been drawn from almost two dozen distinct historical sources; some tunes of early American folk or shape-note provenance that have fallen out of use have been “[re-]fasola-fied”; some music from mainstream hymnody and compatible historical idioms outside the shape-note tradition have been drawn in and adapted for use.
The focus on historical notability extends to the sources of the compilation’s texts, as well. Commemorating the nearly four-hundred year old traditions of Anglo-American hymnody, the texts of the Bay Psalm Book (the first book published in British North America) appear throughout the book, including in the entry for Ps. 116, which is paired to WINDSOR – the tune to which the text is paired in the Bay Psalm Book itself. Tunes found in historic protestant psalters have been adapted or re-paired to match up with their originally intended texts; some examples include GENEVAN 42ND, NINTEY-FIFTH, and OLD HUNDRED. While deeply respecting and paying homage to the collections of psalm paraphrases and the hymn writers that have formed the backbone of protestant worship for centuries – to include Sternhold & Hopkins’ Whole Booke of Psalmes, Brady & Tate’s New Version of the Psalms of David, version of The Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church, and the venerable and several versions of The Scottish Psalter, alongside individuals like Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts – the book also features texts from unexpected historical contributors, including John Milton and John Quincy Adams, the second president of the United States.
This compilation is intended as a contribution to the longstanding and vibrant tradition of shape note psalmody, and conforms to historical conventions in many ways, but is unique in presenting – for apparently the first time in history – the entire psalter, in order, all set in the style and notation of the fasola tradition. As a contemporary entry into an old tradition, this collection is intended a living document. If singers have feedback or questions about the work, have identified errata be corrected, or would like to submit music to be considered for inclusion in future editions of the tunebook, they are heartily encouraged to make use of the contact section of this blog.
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