Ravenscroft's Psalter

In 1621 an English-language metrical psalter was published by Thomas Ravenscroft. It included, not only the 150 Psalms, but also various biblical and extrabiblical canticles, such as the Magnificat, the Nunc Dimittis, the Song of the Three Holy Children and the Te Deum.



Here is a website devoted to The Whole Booke of Psalmes: With The Humnes Evangelicall, and Songs Spiritual; Composed into 4 parts by sundry Authors, &c. The entire original volume has been scanned, page by page and posted on the site. Unfortunately, the titles on the initial page do not always correspond to the scanned pages to which they are linked. Moreover, the scanned pages are not always easy to read either. But this is a notable achievement all the same.

Ralph Vaughan Williams drew on Ravenscroft's Psalter when he composed his Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm Tune, of which I have a vinyl recording in my collection. Some years ago I wrote a Pentecost hymn set to the same tune.