588. God is our refuge and our strength
Psalm XLVI
Scottish Psalter, 1650
Psalm 46:1-5. The Mighty God.
Psalm 46 has been a source of strength in time of dire distress, sustaining the spirit of the persecuted and dying, in all ages.
One should compare this version from the Scottish Psalter with that of Isaac Watts ([No. 257]), and of Martin Luther in his classic hymn of the Reformation, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” ([No. 549]).
MUSIC. WINCHESTER OLD is from Este’s Psalter which was entitled “The Whole Booke of Psalmes with their wonted Tunes, as they are song in churches, composed into foure parts ... compiled by sondry authors,” London, Thomas Este, 1592, where it is set to Psalm 84.
Thomas Este, 1540?-1608?, was a London printer and music publisher. He printed an important edition of the psalter in 1592 in which the tunes were harmonized in four parts by ten eminent musicians of the time. In his dedicatory word Este wrote: “In this booke the Church Tunes are carefully corrected, and other short tunes added, which are sung in London and other places of this Realme.” The Church Tunes (known also as Proper Tunes), forty-six in all, were attached to their proper psalms and the remaining psalms were set to short, four line tunes, Common Tunes, not attached to any particular psalms. Este’s book is the earliest example in which the voice parts are printed on opposite pages—“Cantus and Tenor (i.e. the Melody) on the left-hand page, and the Altus and Bassus on the right”—instead of in separate books as was then the custom. New editions of Este’s Psalter, with slight changes, were published in 1594, 1604, and 1611. In the 19th century it had the honor of being reprinted by the Musical Antiquarian Society of England.