ABSTRACT
The singing of psalms was one of the incontestably distinguishing marks of Calvinist culture in Europe and America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. On January 16, 1537, Calvin laid before the council certain Articles for the organization of the church and its worship in Geneva. Initially his reserve about the value of admitting music to worship was such that on the basis of what he published in 1536 the possibility of a Calvinist liturgy employing music to any considerable degree seemed at best remote. In the space of a mere 146 words Calvin presented the council with a statement which constituted nothing less than the foundation for his theology of music. Music, in contrast to the Articles, is barely mentioned in the Ordinances, in all likelihood because Calvin had resolved to take up the subject separately. Calvin, to the contrary, absolutely rejects a deployment of existing musical resources.
