BRISTOL (Playford)

BRISTOL (Playford)

Published in 2 hymnals


Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Tune Information

Title: BRISTOL (Playford)
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Incipit: 15431 32135 2345
Key: e minor
Source: John Playford, Whole Book of Psalms (1677)
Copyright: Public Domain

Texts

The Foolish in Their Hearts Exclaim

The foolish in their hearts exclaim,
"There is no God of might."
They are corrupt in every way;
not one of them does right.

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Notes

John Playford (b. Norwich, England, 1623; d. London, England, 1686) composed BRISTOL for his musical edition of The Whole Book of Psalms (1677). BRISTOL, named after the British city, was the only newly composed tune for that psalter. (Several other tunes use the same name.) BRISTOL was originally in three parts; the alto and tenor lines in the more typical four-part composition replaced the original middle part. The result is a rhythmically playful setting that moves into a triple meter on the last line. Emphasize the final stanza with a change in registration and a more stately tempo.

Playford was a bookseller, a clerk at the Temple Church, and choral vicar at St. Paul Cathedral. But he is primarily known for his music publishing. In order to publish in seventeenth-century England it was necessary to have the approval of the Stationers' Company, which Playford received. In 1603 King James I granted the Stationers' Company the privilege of being the sole printers of metrical psalters.

Because Playford was the primary publisher of the time, he published nearly all the psalters. Through his publishing he also encouraged better congregational singing of the psalms, especially in three-part harmony. Playford's best-known collection is his 1677 psalter, The Whole Book of Psalms; with the Usual Hymns and Spiritual Songs; together with all the Ancient and proper Tunes Sung in Churches, with some of Later Use. Composed in Three Parts, Cantus, Medius, and Bassus: In a More Plain and Useful Method than hath been formerly Published.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Timeline

Media

A New Version of the Psalms of David: Fitted to the Tunes Used in Churches #T10c
Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #53
Text: The Foolish in Their Hearts Exclaim
  • Full Score (PDF, XML)
  • Bulletin Score (PDF)
  • Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)

Instances

Instances (1 - 1 of 1)
Text InfoTune InfoScoreAudio

Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #53

Include 1 pre-1979 instance
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