Метрические псалтыри: история и использование в протестантской традиции

Kind of Bible translation
earlier rhymed translations of Psalms

A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisations. The composition of metrical psalters was a large enterprise of the Protestant Reformation, especially in its Calvinist manifestation.

During the pre reformation days, it was not customary for lay members of a church's congregation to communally sing hymns. Singing was done by the priests and other clergy; communal singing of Gregorian chant was the function of professional choirs, or among communities of monks and nuns. The reformers, perhaps inspired by Erasmus's desire for all to know the scriptures, pursued singable versions of the Psalms and other Christian texts for the communal use of the Reformed churches.

A metrical psalter was also produced for the Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands by Petrus Datheen in 1566. This Psalter borrowed the hymn tunes from the Genevan Psalter and consisted of a literal translation of Marot and Beza's French translation. The Dutch psalter was revised on orders of the Dutch legislature in 1773, in a revision which also added non paraphrase hymns to the collection. This psalter also continues in use among the Reformed community of the Netherlands, and was recently revised in 1985. In 1968 a new metrical psalmbook appeared, which is incorporated in the Dutch hymnbook; Liedboek voor de kerken of 1973.

The Genevan Psalms were translated into German by Ambrosius Lobwasser (1515–1585) in 1573 "Psalter des königlichen Propheten Davids" and were sung a capella to Goudimel's harmonies for over two centuries. The Lobwasser psalms are still in use in the Amish congregations in North America, who took them with the Swiss Hymnbooks to the New World. The music edition of 1576 was reprinted in 2004, which was a result of the International Psalm Symposion in Emden. In 1798 the German pastor in Den Haag Matthias Jorissen gave out his: "Neue Bereimung der Psalmen" which replaced the old fashioned psalm book for nearly 200 years. The present Hymnbook (1996) of the Evangelical reformed Churches and the Old Reformed Churches of Germany contains the complete psalter with many psalms of Matthias Jorissen and other authors. It was an important decision of the synods to retain the psalms in the hymnbook with the Genevan tunes. The need and interest in the complete Jorissen Psalter led to different new editions in 1931, 1951 and 2006. The last one was given out for singing of the people and not for scientific use only. Today, psalms make up a quarter (102) of the Protestant hymn book from 1998 in German Switzerland. Another German psalter is the Becker Psalter.

First published in 1696, the New Version of the Psalms of David was the work of Nahum Tate (who was later named poet laureate) and Nicholas Brady. A second edition was published in 1698, and supplements were issued in 1700, 1702, 1704 (twice) and 1708. Their Augustan version shows somewhat more polish than the 17th century versions. The hymn Through all the changing scenes of life is the setting of Psalm 34 from the New Version, and As pants the hart for cooling streams is a setting of Psalm 42.

The Scottish Gaelic Psalter was produced by the Synod of Argyll. By 1658, the first fifty psalms had been translated into ballad metre due to the work of Dugald Campbell, John Stewart, and Alexander McLaine. A manuscript of the final 100 psalms was produced in 1691 with the entire Gaelic psalter, with revisions to the 'first fifty' being produced in 1694. The Gaelic Metrical Psalms are used to this day in the Scottish Highland Presbyterian Churches where the practice of lining out is used, in accordance with the Westminster Assembly of Divines Directory for Public Worship. The corpus of tunes has shrunk over the years with only about twenty four in general use.

Many churches continue to use metrical psalters today. For example, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) produced psalm books based on the Scots Metrical Psalter, with the intention of making the words more modern and the translation more accurate. These were produced in 1889 (a split leaf brown book), 1911 (unpopular due to musical complexity), 1920 (a green book) and 1929 (also green, an expanded version of the 1920 one), 1950 (a blue book), and 1973 (a maroon one) called The Book of Psalms for Singing. A further revision has been undertaken by the RPCNA, again for the purposes of making the words more modern, and also to replace some of the more difficult to sing tunes, such as Psalm 62B, with tunes that are easier to sing. The new edition, The Book of Psalms for Worship, was released in 2009. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, however, produced a split leaf version of the Scots Metrical Psalter, but with additional "Alternative versions" of the words included as the second half of the book. These were culled from a number of sources, including the RPCNA books mentioned above. Whenever a new version was necessary, they merely expanded their old book, without removing any of the old translations. One of these editions was produced in 1979. They were available in staff or sol fa. A revised Psalter in more modern idiom was published in 2004 under the title The Psalms for Singing. The Melbourne Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia produced The Complete Book of Psalms for Singing with Study Notes in 1991. Music in staff format is provided in a variety of meters, mostly to established tunes. The texts draw from the best of older versions but provide much new material. The Free Church of Scotland published Sing Psalms in 2003, being a completely new translation. It is available in words only, and in staff and sol fa split leaf formats. The Canadian Reformed Churches have published and sing from Book of Praise, the Anglo Genevan Psalter (1961, 1972, 1984, 2014), containing English versifications for all the Genevan tunes. In 2015 Premier Printing published New Genevan Psalter which consists of the 150 Psalms as found in the Book of Praise as well as the Ten Commandments and the Songs of Mary, Zechariah and Simeon.

A split leaf psalter (sometimes known as a "Dutch door" psalter) is a book of Psalms in metrical form, in which each page is cut in half at the middle, so that the top half of the pages can be turned separately from the bottom half. The top half usually contains the tunes, and the bottom half contains the words. The tune and words can be matched by matching the meter; each meter is a specification of line length and (implicitly) stressed syllables; if a tune is in Common Meter, any set of Common Meter words can go with it.