The second lecture in the Glasgow & West of Scotland Branch

"Singing the Reformation"   Speaker: Professor Jane Dawson

A major problem at the time of the Reformation was how to communicate to a congregation in church and the Reformation brought about a communication revolution.

In the mediaeval church, music was at the heart of the service but the idea that music was destroyed by the
Reformation is wrong.  Music was retained in the Protestant church in three respects.

(a) Music had a central place within worship and was the congregation's main way of participation in the service.  Singing in the congregation was a new experience of common hearts with a sensual and emotional element in worship as in psalm 100.

(b) Different people sang.  Singing was no longer by the clergy in Latin but by the congregation together in Scots.

(c) There was a different purpose to music.  For John Knox the word of God in scripture and the psalms becomes something that is living song that people in Scotland can do straight from his bible and the metrical psalms.

How was part (c) achieved?  Knox had arrived from Germany already prepared for reformation with the Geneva Bible and the metrical psalms.  Singing was now used to educate a non-literate congregation in the religion of the word, eg by the age of 6 children were expected to know by heart the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments and the Creed in metrical versions and boys from schools helped congregations with singing and learning the basics of the religion of the word.

The power of music and singing in worship crossed the divide between what to do in church and outside, as in sacred songs at the royal court and in bringing comfort and healing in personal life.   There were also protest psalms and psalms which reinforced the sense of the Scots Kirk as a persecuted
minority facing enemies.  In this sense it is worth recalling the psalms were written at a difficult time - the reign of King David.

In conclusion Professor Dawson made three points -

(1) music lost much of its mediaeval glory but it gave mass communication and dynamism to the Scottish Reformation;

(2) the experience of singing and learning the psalms helped to forge a Protestant identity for a nation; and

(3) there is an inter-faith aspect in the psalms.

Professor Dawson accompanied her talk with music and handed out, "Singing the Reformation," - "celebrating Thomas Wode and his Partbooks 1562-92" Edinburgh 2011, Wode Psalter Project Team. (http/www.wode.div.ed.ac.uk)

Attendance: 39     Six questions were asked.