DesertDancer, as I mentioned above, it seems that various academics aren't making enough distinction between various forms of religious music. If 'Dr Watts' referred to Isaac Watts (and it's entirely possible it does) then this could be of interest. I've translated the following from a Welsh book, "The History of Congregational Singing in Wales": "In the Forward, he (Watts) said, 'that there is a need for tunes more supple and free than the old Psalms and their slow, graceful movement ... In Germany hymns are found arranged to short, lively and sweet tunes - those that small holders at plough would hear, and children on the road would sing. ... (He) put tunes of this style in the book (his Lyra Davidica) in order to break the practice of singing one note for each syllable, and brought to Church music tunes with two, three and four notes for each syllable. Having thus brought them in, the style was emulated by Wales' composers, and continued until they were condemned by Ieuan Gwyllt, Emlyn Evans, and others." (Other Welsh hymnists)

As a side note, Ieuan Gwyllt actually did use a lot of folk tunes of the time (saving many of them from disappearing, so the Nonconformists were all bad!) but perhaps this was all part and parcel of that started by Luther, trying to make the words more understandable and not obscured by overly-embroidered tunes. Which ties us into a thread I took part in a few weeks back about Luther and the Roman Catholic church response.

Oh, and Welsh chapels also used precentors, although we call them Codwyr Canu (sing. = codwr canu = the one who raises up the singing). Many of them still maintain the position, although with pretty much global literacy the lining out no longer happens.

siân