Whether these metrical psalms are still sung in Churches in Scotland I am unable to say. The Church of Scotland, as far as I am aware , seems to have gone over completely to modern tunes and modern hymns, and abandoned the traditional Psalms and hymns.

I am fairly sure that the more fundamentalist Churches i.e the Free Church of Scotland (aka the "Wee Frees") and the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland still use the traditional modes of praise.

I will post again with comments on the varying (short common and long) unless someone else has obliged in the meantime.

Murray

I don't know, but would this be similar to the Cantors/Kantors in the Jewish tradition?

~Masato

After the Reformation there were some groups that felt the only texts appropriate for use in church were Biblical. They did want to sing in church (although some didn't do that either). The need for appropriate texts to sing led to various versions of English Psalms being put into regular stanza form so that they could be sung easily.

Most of the Psalms were done into just a couple of meters. The meters are defined by how many syllables there are to a line & how many lines. Books with just the words would then include a meter indication so that the song leaders could choose appropriate hymn tunes.

You can find several of the traditional English Psaltars at Music for the Church of God

Many of the old metrical pslams can be found in current hymnals, they are just not designated that way anymore. Many general hymns are written in these 'psalm' meters simply because they are standard English poetic meters.

The main meters are:
CM - Common Meter - 8,6,8,6 (ie. 4 lines of 8 & 6 syllables alternating)
LM - Long Meter - 8's or 8,8,8,8 (4 lines of 8 syllables each)
SM - Short meter - 6,6,8,6 CMD, LMD, SM double the number of lines to 8

Because many people did not have psalm books or could not read systems of precenting or lining out developed. There are traditions that kept the lining out practice alive even after most everyone had the words simply because they liked it or were too conservative to change. These are also groups that don't use musical instruments in church so the joining in that Giok describes can also happen.

I'm assuming the Gaelic singing practices are pretty much the same as the English, just different languages.

My hymnbook has Old 18th, 22nd, 25th, 30th, 44th, 77th, 81st, 100th, 104th, 107th, 117th, 120th, 124th, 134th, 136th and 137th, but New 113th is the only new one! I haven't checked, but probably many of these tunes are now used for later hymnms, rather than just psalms.

WassaiL! V

My childhood recollection is that the "giving out the line" as it was known in the Scottish Highlands, was only done in Gaelic services. Each line of the psalm was chanted in a monotone by the precentor, followed by the congregation singing the line to the melody. My further recollection is that timing and rhythm in these Gaelic psalms were very much a matter of individual discretion, leading to what to some ears might seem cacophony. Other ears might find an ethereal beauty in the overall effect.

Psalms during English language services were normally sung by the precentor starting off the psalm in his choice of tune and key, and the congregation joining in after the first few notes. My father was a precentor in the Free Church for many years.

It may well be that some congregations , particularly in the Western Isles did in fact maintain the practice of giving out the line even for English services, but I have no recollection of this.

Certain psalms had certain tunes allocated to them irrevocably, and woe betide the precentor who tried his hand at innovation in this respect....

Murray

Nigel

Watts also managed to find references to England. Early in US history Watts was edited to remove those references. Unfortunately I don't have specific examples.

Nigel

When the choir is singing, we switch off between choir & congregation singing straight Anglican Chant; Antiphonally with a 'cantor' singing the pointed verses, the choir & congregation singing the antiphon; or the choir only singing from a contemporary setting. I forget the name of the series the last is from. Occasionally we'll do simplified Anglican Chant when the choir is not around.

Personally, I think the pointing sometimes just does not make sense. I'm not sure how much the congregation is really singing along on the Anglican Chant. The choir usually needs to go over a couple of verses several times to get it right so the members of the congregation may just get frustrated with it, although I've not heard any complaints.

This is, of course, a different approach than the metrical Psalms. I'm pretty sure the metrical psalms developed in the Reformed tradition (Puritan, Presbyterian) where this type of Psalm singing was probably just to liturgical.

I'm fairly certain the Lutherans' hymnal in the US provides pointing & a short phrase of music for all of the Psalms.

The pointing of Anglican Chant has changed in the past 40 years. Formerly the reciting note was prolonged until the last 3 or so syllables of the first half-verse and until the last 5 or so syllables of the second half verse. Nowadays the reciting note usually lasts up to an important accented syllable. Sometimes this results in the same pointing as the old method, sometimes not.

This might help the discussion of metrical psalms: Here is an example of first stanza and music of the Old Version of the (metrical) 119th psalm, from an edition of 1646.

Nigel

Nigel