The Whole Book of Psalms Collected into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and Others: a Critical Edition of the Texts and Tunes 2

The Whole Book of Psalms, first published in a complete form in 1562, introduced congregational singing to England and contained the best known English verse in the early modern period. Often referred to by later critics as “Sternhold and Hopkins,” it was the dominant hymnal in England until the mid-eighteenth century and printed until 1861. This critical edition, the first to include both texts and tunes, is based on the 148 English impressions remaining from the reign of Elizabeth I along with their Marian predecessors. The appendices include miniature critical editions of the psalm paraphrases as published during Edward’s reign, additional texts included in some editions, later musical revisions, and the short tunes that began to replace the printed ones by the late sixteenth century.

Although this is a scholarly edition with complete critical apparatus, it is also designed to make this crucial piece of early modern culture accessible to non-specialists. The texts are in modern spelling and the tunes in modern notation. The edition offers an extensive historical essay and notes on each text and tune, and is furnished with an audio supplement of representative musical settings.

BETH QUITSLUND is Professor of English at Ohio University, specializing in early modern poetry, Reformation culture, and uses of the vernacular Bible. She has written extensively on English metrical psalmody, including The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins, and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603. She is also the author of essays on Spenser, Milton, how to read the Book of Common Prayer, and the relationship between the King James Version and niche bibles with kittens in them.

NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY holds a Ph.D from Cambridge University, and is an emeritus professor of musicology at the University of Illinois. He has focussed chiefly on the 18th and 19th centuries, including opera and piano music, and on British music of all periods. In the area of church music he has explored little-known territory in both Anglican and Dissenting traditions. He is the author of The Music of the English Parish Church, the Hymn Tune Index (4 vols.), and Studies in Church Music.

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https://retsonline.org/psalms.audiosupplement.html