Shibboleth, or, Observations of severall errors in the last translations of the English & French Bibles together with many other received opinions in the Protestant churches, which being weighed in the ballance are found too light / written by John Despagne ... ; and translated into English by Robert Codrington ...

Of the discord which is in modern Mu∣sick, and more particularly of that in our Psalms.

THere are those who have desired that all our Psalms had but one Tune, that so they may be more easy to the common people, Others do approve of the multitude and diver∣sity of Ayrs, as the most delightfull, and most proper to move the Spirit. And certainly, the difference which is in the Psalms, as to the measures of the Hebrew verse, doth sufficient∣ly demonstrate that there were diver∣sities of Tunes. But because they are unknown to us, it remaineth that we give to every Psalm, yea to every verse that tune which shall be most convenient, and the most convenient is that which doth best represent the matter of which we sing. The voice which doth express a sad and mourn∣full subject, ought not to be of one tune, and the voice which doth express

a great joy ought to be of another. The voice also of him which spea∣keth as an affrighted man doth differ much from the voice of him who is safe from danger, And generally the sound ought not to be correspondent to the matter, 1 Cor, 14, 7, 8. But al∣though the Musick of our Psalms, (more particularly that of the French) be very excellent, and the ayrs be there conformable to the sub∣jects in many respects, nevertheless it is not so universally over all, nor is there that perfection which may be desired, and it is observable, there are divers Psalms, the subjects whereof are of a contrary nature, yet never∣theless they have the same tune. The hundred and forty second which re∣presents the affrights and the crys of a man brought into the greatest dan∣ger, hath the same ayr as the hun∣dredth which expresseth nothing but joy and the giving of thanks. The se∣venty fourth is full of grief and la∣mentation. The hundred and sixteenth

is as full of joy and thankfulness, yet notwithstanding one is sung in the same tune as the other. Nay in the ve∣ry same Psalm there is a verse which corrects the matter of the precedent. In the one the soul speaketh as beaten down with sadness and maketh great complaints in the other (as if another person did speak) the same is repre∣hended for the words it did speak, and for its want of courage. Moreover there is oftentimes an alternative reite∣ration of these two Contraries which clap in betwixt one another, the Flesh and the Spirit, as particularly in the 42, the 73. and the 77. Psalms. These verses which represent contrary mo∣tions, although in one Psalm ought to differ in the tune, instead whereof in every Psalm we have but one tune common to all the verses.

To this no other thing can be an∣swered, but that it will be very diffi∣cult, and almost impossible to have a Musick so exact and so universally corresponding with such diversity of

matters, and which (moreover) can be easy for the people to learn. This is true, so that I speak not to make any change in the tune, which is used in our Churches. In the Churches of France, we have undertook to give a tune to many Songs in the Bible, which have been as Psalms, and for that end put into Musick. But the common people being not accustomed to them, and disorder from thence arising we have been constrained to desist. That which hath ledde me to this discourse, is to speak of those who would reduce all the Psalms to one, and the same tune, when it would be more conve∣nient to multiply, and to diversify the tune more then we do. And although it be impossible to put in practise a Mu∣sick so perfect as that which hath been spoken, yet it is not superfluous to have made mention of it, to the end that we may know how imperfect and how defective we are in that regard.