1650 Scottish Psalter
This book contains an enormous amount of musical material presented in the most compact form. It is useful for a wide variety of exercises and is integral to the process of learning to be a musician in the shortest time possible.
The Scottish Psalter was created by the Church of Scotland in 1650 to allow the singing of the Biblical psalms in four-part harmony. The four-part settings with chord changes on each beat are ideal for the study and practice of music in the common practice style of the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Although four-part chorale-style music is considered quaint and antiquated, its utility should not be underestimated. It is the staple of music theory classes in universities around the world.
I have produced a musical practice edition of the Psalter to aid in the learning of general musicianship. The uses of this book are many. For ear training, the tunes may be practiced as sight-singing exercises. Similarly, they can be used for sight-reading at an instrument. The harmonies can be analyzed for an understanding of music theory. The melodies and harmonies can be used as building blocks in composition and improvisation exercises. The texts may also be analyzed to study elements of song-writing.
This edition begins with instructions as to its use in the study of music. The next part of the book consists of the texts of the Psalms, set to rhyme and meter by the Church of Scotland. The last section consists of the four-part settings of the music itself. By separating the words from the music, each may be studied separately for efficient learning of each of the elements of music.
Obviously, the Scottish Psalter provides an added bonus for members of the Christian tradition, as they are an enjoyable as well as compact way to incorporate history, instruction, liturgy, and scripture all in one serving. But for everyone else, they are a concise exposition of traditional Western musical practice.
I hope you enjoy applying musical exercise to the Psalter as much as I have. I guarantee that the time spent studying these pieces will pay back dividends. There is no more effective way to learn harmony than the study of four-part settings such as these. The .pdf file is only $20.00 U.S.
Alternatively, for only $25.00 U.S., the .pdf file can be purchased with a bundle of .midi files. The bundle is archived in .zip format.
