"Goostly psalmes and spirituall songes": English and Dutch Metrical Psalms from Coverdale to Utenhove, 1535-1566.

In his editor's foreword to this book Nicholas Temperley remarks on the "astonishing novelty" of congregational singing in the sixteenth century. This novelty is the subject of Robin A. Leaver's scholarly and readable book as he focuses on the psalms and hymns of the English and Dutch reformed churches and the many cross-currents that existed between them.

As one might expect, the author takes as his point of departure the Reformation in Germany, where congregational singing of metrical psalms encapsulated many of the guiding principles of the reform movement. In his first chapter Leaver explores the different emphases placed on hymn- and psalm-singing, from the first Wittenberg hymnal, Walter's Geystliches gesangk Buchleyn of 1524, to other centers in northern Europe, notably Nuremberg, Strassburg, Rostock, Zurich and Geneva. These practices were witnessed by English and Dutch travellers, and for the non-specialist in church history at least, one of the revelations of this book is the close linkage, and indeed family ties in some cases, that existed among the reformers in the various countries.

After reviewing the beginnings of English hymnody in monastic Latin hymns and Horae and carols of the laity, Leaver shows how the influence of Lutheran hymnody can be seen in Coverdale's Goostly psalmes (c. 1535), in the process of which he has interesting things to say about the dating of this publication and its connections with Coverdale's translation of the Bible. Lutheran influence is also evident north of the border in the Wedderburns' Godlie psalmes and spirituall sangis (c. 1546), and we are reminded that both Coverdale and John Wedderburn had had ample opportunity to experience German practice at first hand.

Turning to the Low Countries, the author again discusses the background of Latin hymns before tracing the development of vernacular psalmody in the work of the Antwerp printer Simon Cock, who was responsible for the first complete metrical psalter, the Souterliedekens, which in turn influenced the work of Jan Utenhove, whose early metrical psalms were issued in London during the reign of Edward VI. In both English and Dutch contexts Leaver addresses the question of "liturgical necessity," that is, the role of hymns as part of the liturgy (as they were at Wittenberg) as distinct from merely being an aid to private devotions.

The metrical psalms of Thomas Sternhold are first considered in the context of the courtly practice of psalm translation as represented by Wyatt and Surrey. Marot was the main influence and this is seen as part of a general fascination with French culture which was a feature of the court of Henry VIII. Sternhold is characterized as the English counterpart of Marot. In speaking of Sternhold's use of Common Meter, often called "ballad meter," the author upholds the view advanced by others, that - far from adopting an already-popular meter from balladry - it was Sternhold's metrical psalms that made the meter popular.

The instability of the religious scene in the mid-sixteenth century meant that the life of a reformer was apt to be a peripatetic one. Leaver gives full treatment to the Dutch immigrants (including many printers) who came to England in the 1540s to escape persecution, and who established churches in Canterbury, Glastonbury and London. Later on, with the accession of Mary, the same foreigners, and many natives, had to flee England and find safety on the continent, at Emden, Strassburg, Wesel, Frankfurt and Geneva. Mary's successor Elizabeth steered a middle course in religious matters, and with the royal injunctions of 1559 vernacular hymns and metrical psalmody became officially recognized as part of the liturgy. The culmination of this formative phase in the history of English and Dutch metrical psalms came in the 1560s with the publication of two collections: Day's Whole booke of psalmes (1562), which completed the work of Sternhold, Hopkins and others; and Utenhove's De psalmen Dauidis, in Nederlandischer sangsryme (1566), also published in London by Day. In view of the complex web of relationships that link English and Dutch psalmody, it is amusing that Leaver even speculates that John Day himself, who came from Suffolk, may have been of "Dutch, Walloon, or even French, ancestry."

Leaver traces the textual relationships among the many metrical versions of the psalms from Luther onwards, and follows the migrations of melodies from country to country. The story is neatly encapsulated in the frontispiece, which shows the German melody Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr as employed by Coverdale and by Utenhove. The whole study is illustrated by musical examples and illustrations, and there are ample appendices.