REVELATION (Bourgeois)

Composer: Louis Bourgeois

Louis Bourgeois (b. Paris, France, c. 1510; d. Paris, 1561). In both his early and later years Bourgeois wrote French songs to entertain the rich, but in the history of church music he is known especially for his contribution to the Genevan Psalter. Apparently moving to Geneva in 1541, the same year John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, Bourgeois served as cantor and master of the choristers at both St. Pierre and St. Gervais, which is to say he was music director there under the pastoral leadership of Calvin. Bourgeois used the choristers to teach the new psalm tunes to the congregation. The extent of Bourgeois's involvement in the Genevan Psalter is a matter of scholar­ly debate. Calvin had published several partial psalter… Go to person page >

GENEVAN 19 was first published in the 1542 Genevan Psalter and altered to its present shape in the 1549 edition. Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) wrote the harmonization in 1985. Composed in the Mixolydian mode, this tune consists of four long lines, each containing three short phrases. The repetition of the first line and the dependable rhythmic patterns make this tune quite accessible for congregational singing.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988