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Chapter 6 - Singing the Psalms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2022

Simon Jackson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter offers the Book of Psalms as the archetype for Herbert’s devotional song. Seventeenth-century psalm culture presents a model for Herbert’s interdisciplinary devotional poetic. In the psalms, and the widespread practice of psalm translation, the voices of poets and musicians engage with each other in collaborative devotional song. The psalms, too, offer a model for the kind of ‘visual music’ explored in Chapter 3, considered here in terms of the musically and spatially aware sequence of psalms known as the ‘Songs of Degrees’ (Psalms 120–34), a feature developed in Mary Sidney’s translation of Psalm 134. The singing of psalms also played an integral role in both public and private acts of devotion. Above all, this chapter sees in psalmody a spiritual enquiry which contests a merely human understanding of time and space to gain perspective on the nature of the divine. In the constructed first-person singular of the psalmist’s ‘I’, Herbert finds his words combining with those of other poets, musicians, and Christians.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Singing the Psalms
  • Simon Jackson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106887.008
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  • Singing the Psalms
  • Simon Jackson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106887.008
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Singing the Psalms
  • Simon Jackson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106887.008
Available formats
×