Alla Breve

The Raphael Choir’s anthem next week is entitled Father, We Thank Thee, Who Hast Planted, which uses some music from the 1500s as its basis.  The music comes from a Frenchman named Louis Bourgeois, who lived from ca. 1510 to ca. 1561.    In 1551, he played a pivotal role in editing and republishing an important collection of music called the Genevan Psalter.  Prior to the Protestant Reformation (1521), the psalms were sung by only by a select group of singers during church services, not the entire congregation.  This was something that didn’t please Protestant leader John Calvin, so he set out to create a collection containing all of the Psalms from the Bible set to music and using common language so that the congregation could also sing them.  The first edition was published in 1539, and although it wasn’t called it originally, it eventually became known as the Genevan Psalter.  The Psalter underwent several editions, including the one in 1551 by Bourgeois, which still only contained 83 psalms.  Finally, in 1562, a Psalter was published which had musical settings for all 150 psalms.  Later editions of this important book were carried to America by the Pilgrims and used in their worship services.  The tune for the Choir’s anthem is based on a hymn tune called Rendez A Dieu, which is French for “Give back to God.”