Support the psalms: www.patreon.com/psalms
Recorded @ Singing the Reformation 2016
www.churchservicesociety.org/singing-re…ation-2016
Text: William Kethe, Scottish Psalter (Charteris 1596; Smyth 1599)
Scots performing edition: Jamie Reid Baxter
Setting in Reports: Scottish Psalter 1635, ed. Mick Swithinbank
Tune: German Psalter, 1526 via Calvin's Psalter, 1539 & Scottish Psalter, 1564
Meter: LM Triple
1 Ye children which do serve the Lord,
praise ye his Name with one accord;
Yea, bless-ed be alway his Name,
Who from the rising of the sun,
Till it return where it begins,
is to be praisèd with great fame.
The Lord all people doth surmount
as for his glory we may count,
Above the heavens high to be.
With God the Lord who can compare,
Whose dwellings in the heavens are?
of such great pow'r and force is he.
2 He doth abase himself we know,
things to behold on earth below,
And also in the heav'n above:
The needy out of dust to draw,
Also the poor which help none saw;
his mercy only did him move:
And so did set him up on high,
with princes of great dignity,
That rule his people with great fame.
The barren he doth make to bear.
And with great joy her fruit to rear;
therefore praise ye his holy Name!
This represents a body of settings which are called Psalms in Reports. They frame the Kirk part in the context of a simple form of polyphonic writing which is designed to be used in conjunction with a skilled group of sang schule singers rendering the treble, alto and bass parts. They could stand as items only delivered by the sang schule as a type of anthem, or be sung with the congregation taking the kirk part. Although these settings are more elaborate than the basic settings in the Psalters, they retain the emphasis on clarity of word setting whilst adding another aesthetic dimension to Reformed worship. This arrangement of Psalm 113 is one of eight settings in reports found in the 1635 Psalter, edited by Edward Millar, master of music of the Scottish Chapel Royal. Although it is unattributed, the music has been identified as the work of Claude Goudimel and can be found in his Les 150 Psaumes, set to the text of Psalm 68 in the Huguenot Psalter.)
