589. After Thy loving-kindness, Lord
Psalm LI
Scottish Psalter, 1650
Psalm 51:1-3, 10, 17. A Prayer for Pardon.
The psalmist prays for pardon and cleansing, confessing the greatness of his sins, and offering the sacrifice of a broken heart. Psalm 51 is the fourth of the seven psalms known from ancient times as the Penitential Psalms. The others are 6, 32, 38, 102, 130, and 143.
MUSIC. DUNDEE, also known as “Windsor,” is first found in Damon’s Psalter, which was entitled, The Booke of the Musicke of M. William Damon, late one of her maiestes Musitions: conteining all the tunes of David’s Psalmes, as they are ordinarily sung in the Church; most excellently by him composed into 4 parts, 1591. The tune, DUNDEE, is there set to Psalm 116.
Damon’s Psalter was one of the many private editions through which the Old Version of Sternhold and Hopkins went, besides numerous official editions. William Damon, c.1540-c.91, was organist of the Chapel Royal under Queen Elizabeth but is best known for the collection of psalms which he published in four parts. The work is in eight books, the first four of which have the melody in the tenor, and the second four in the soprano. Copies of Damon’s Psalter are rare. A few are to be found in the British Museum.