ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates the claim that most in England learned only a handful of Common-Metre tunes that they paired with the Common-Metre psalm texts. It focuses on the use of choirs and trained musicians in worship practice. Historian Christopher Marsh has shown that metrical psalm singing, in particular, was an important part of life in sixteenth-century England. Some major innovations included the introduction of the Common Tunes in the 1570s and 1580s and the practice of lining out around 1630. Flexibility and innovations notwithstanding, English metrical psalmody remained consistently simple and accessible. Personal politics and preferences aside, however, this illustration shows the fluid and unsettled state of English liturgical practice in the early years of Elizabeth's reign. In addition to freely mixing and matching texts and tunes, many English parishes had no theological reservations about using musical instruments in worship to accompany metrical psalm singing.
