GENEVAN 65

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 65 appears twice in the Genevan Psalter. It was originally composed to accompany Psalm 72 in the 1551 edition of that psalter and was later matched with Theodore de Beze's versification of Psalm 65 in the 1554 edition. Composed in Aeolian (minor), this tune consists of four long phrases in bar form (AABC) unified by similar melodic and rhythmic patterns. Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) wrote the harmonization in 1985. Because 65 is a joyful psalm, it calls for jubilant singing, brisk accompaniment, and a moderate tempo.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988