GENEVAN 128

Harmonizer: Claude Goudimel

Claude Goudimel (c. 1514 to 1520 – between 28 August and 31 August 1572) was a French composer, music editor and publisher, and music theorist of the Renaissance. Claude Goudimel was born in Besançon. Few details of his life are known until he is documented in Paris in 1549, where he was studying at the University of Paris; in that year he also published a book of chansons. In the early 1550s he worked with printer Nicolas Du Chemin, and may have still been studying at the University of Paris until 1555; by 1555 he was also Du Chemin's partner in the publishing business. Goudimel moved to Metz in 1557, converting to Protestantism, and is known to have been associated with the Huguenot cause there; however he left Metz due to the in… Go to person page >

GENEVAN 128 was first published in the 1543 edition of the Genevan Psalter. Claude Goudimel (PHH 6) harmonized the tune in 1564; originally the melody was in the tenor. In the Dorian mode, this tune consists of four long lines in two pairs, consisting of slightly different rhythmic patterns. A striking melody with larger intervals at the beginnings of lines 1 and 2, GENEVAN 128 is worth the effort it may require to learn.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook