ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the musical context of William Cole's life and then analyzes his View of Modern Psalmody. The nonconformist composer and Minister David Everard Ford quoted Cole's Modern Psalmody in his Observations on Psalmody by a Composer originally published anonymously. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, English provincial church music, commonly known as psalmody, altered considerably. The psalmody eventually took a 'retrograde turn' and a 'thorough reformation' was needed, but 'established customs and a dread of innovation' prevented an 'effectual remedy'. Cole decided to write about the situation in an endeavour to restore the psalmody to a 'state of respectability'. The most long-standing problem in psalmody was probably lining out, which destroyed the effect of both the music and the text. The general style of tunes was important and 'strict attention' was to be paid to the 'simplicity and solemnity' which were 'inseparable from good psalmody'.
