The Book of Psalms

Author: 
Herbert Wiseman Esq, MA, Director of Music, Edinburgh Corporation Education Committee; Organist at St Andrew’s (Drumsheugh) Church, Edinburgh

Herbert Wiseman,  noting that, despite a “fine corpus of great tunes” in Scotland, only “snippets” of the metrical psalms are found fit for use, calls for renewed consideration of prose versions as these give proper priority to words.  He suggests some form of choral speaking as an initial step for congregations, and the use of Gregorian tones as the next.  Anglican chants are treated with reservation and with the insistence that “the tune must be fitted to the words and not the words to the tune”.

Reference: 
Volume 12 1941-42 (War-time Issue), p9