Can you read the music in the example below from The Psalmes of David in Prose and Meeter (1635)? This was the edition produced by Edward Millar in an effort to consolidate psalm-singing practice in churches across Scotland. While some of the symbols may be similar to what you might find in music books today, nearly 400 years of music history have changed our approach to notating music to the extent that one would struggle to find four singers who could read and sing it without some professional training.
This example highlights an issue facing metrical psalmody as it is practiced across Scotland (and around the world): What if someone stumbled across a copy of your church’s psalter in the year 2426? Would that person know how to use your book (particularly if it is a text-only or split-leaf format)? If it does not include any melodies, would the reader even know that your book was used for singing? Would they know what tunes were used to sing those texts? If it does include printed melodies, would the reader know how to read the notation in that book? Would they be able to tell that tune selections used in your congregation may differ from those used by others across your denomination? Will the reader know whether your congregation sang in 4 parts or only the melody? Or, perhaps your church preferred to sing the melody only for the first stanza before breaking into parts for the rest of the psalm.
A Biblical mandate
Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly calls his people to remember his works and to pass them on with care. This responsibility is not optional. It is a vital part of the life of faith. Before Israel had even left Egypt, God instructed parents to explain the meaning of the Passover to their children. When future generations asked about the ceremony, the parents were to tell how the Lord delivered His people from slavery (Exodus 12:26-27). The celebration itself was therefore more than a ritual. It was a living act of teaching, and this pattern continues in Jewish Passover observances to this very day.
The Lord reinforced this pattern through many other signs and commands. His people were to speak about His mighty deeds during ordinary daily activities, so that remembrance would become part of the fabric of life (for example, in Exodus 13:8-14 and Deuteronomy 11:19). When Joshua set up memorial stones in the Jordan, he did so to ensure that when children asked about their meaning, their parents would tell them how God stopped the river for His people (Joshua 4:6-7). These instructions reveal a consistent truth. God provides His people with remembrances that both look back to His works and look forward to the faith of generations yet to come. Even the four Gospel accounts reflect this same concern. They preserve the life and ministry of Christ in a form that can be shared, read, and remembered by the entire Church.
Scripture also teaches that preservation is not limited to historical events. It includes the worship of God itself. The Psalms frequently call God’s people to teach future generations how to praise Him. Psalm 145:4 tells us that one generation will praise the works of the Lord to another. Psalm 78:4 tells God’s people not to hide His works from their children, but to make His praise known to those who come after them. Psalm 22:30 extends this vision even further. It speaks of a seed that will serve the Lord and of a people yet unborn who will hear of His righteousness. Psalm 102:18-20 again takes up this theme, directing future generations to continue praising God. Worship is therefore one way in which the memory of God’s actions is kept firmly in our consciousness.
The Christian Church has carried out its responsibilities of both preservation and teaching in many ways. For instance, churches have long kept records of the goings-on. The earliest existing parish records date from 1303 in Givry, France. Lutheran churches built upon this foundation by establishing Kirchenbücher in 1518, which tracked births, marriages, deaths, and even financial resources for each church. In England, Cromwell ordered parishes to begin maintaining similar documentation starting in 1538. These practices eventually spread throughout the United Kingdom, leaving a documentary trail that serves not only as an administrative record but also as a witness to the spiritual life of local congregations across centuries.
The Church’s approach to remembrance has also shaped psalm-singing. During the Reformation, John Calvin placed great importance on teaching the psalms to the young. The children of his church were taught to sing psalms first, and adults joined only once they had learned them from their children. In post-Reformation Scotland, instruction in worship was also taken very seriously. People were expected to know the catechism and to memorize psalms before they were admitted to the Lord’s Supper. Teaching, learning, and singing were woven tightly together so that faith might be formed through disciplined worship.
Psalmody’s fragile state
Psalmody today is in a genuinely precarious state unless we act now to preserve and promote it. History shows how easily a singing tradition can fade when it is not tended with care. For example, the melodies of ancient Israel are entirely lost because they were never written down or intentionally safeguarded. We know the words they sang, but the music that once carried those words has vanished. A similar pattern appears in more recent history. Before the first edition of the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter, Scottish congregations used a collection of more than one hundred and fifty tunes for their psalm singing. Very soon afterwards, during the period that Millar Patrick calls the Great Eclipse, that number collapsed to only twelve. These twelve tunes dominated Scottish worship for nearly a century, to the extent that many beautiful and apt tunes have vanished from singing practice. This raises an important question for our own time. What is the experience of psalm singers today? How many new or previously unfamiliar psalm tunes has the average worshiper learned in the past ten years? Is it truly possible to maintain a living singing tradition without actively expanding it? How can we be certain that some tunes are not already slipping away as they are sung less and less? These questions remind us that psalmody survives only when God’s people make a deliberate effort to sustain and enrich it.
The pressures on metrical psalmody are not only internal but also external. Even when congregations desire to preserve their musical practices, they often depend on others for the tools that make this possible. In 2004 the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland learned that its publisher had decided to sell the equipment required to print split-leaf psalters, a format that had served generations of psalm singers across multiple denominations. A resource that once seemed secure had suddenly become difficult to obtain. This is a clear reminder that the physical supports for psalm singing cannot be taken for granted. The same is true of technological supports. Over the past several decades, many digital resources have emerged to preserve and promote the musical practices of the Christian Church, including apps and websites that provide access to individual metrical psalters. For example, the 1650 Psalter app, the Psalms for Singing app, and the Sing Psalms app each allow worshipers to view and sing from a single psalter on a mobile device. These are helpful tools, and many people have come to rely on them for personal devotion and congregational worship.
However, none of these digital resources addresses the deeper preservation concerns raised at the beginning of this article. They present the psalms as they exist today, but they do not protect the wider musical tradition or ensure that it will be carried forward. Even more concerning is the fragile nature of digital media itself. Software developers face constant challenges from operating system changes, device updates, and shifting platform requirements. What happens to the data, recordings, or tune collections stored in an app once the developer can no longer update it, or when a major platform revision renders the app unusable? The history of digital technology gives many cautionary examples. Entire programs that were once dominant have disappeared. WordPerfect ruled the world of word processing in the 1980s and early 1990s, yet it was overtaken by Microsoft Word within a few short years. In a more dramatic case, Adobe’s Flash Player, once used across the internet, became effectively unusable after Apple’s CEO publicly announced that he would not support Flash on Apple devices. These examples reveal how quickly digital tools can vanish, even when they seem deeply embedded in daily life.
In light of these pressures, both physical and technological, it is clear that the future of metrical psalmody cannot rest on habit or convenience. It requires deliberate planning, careful stewardship, and cooperation across the wider Church. If we hope to preserve a living tradition of psalm singing, then we must guard the resources that support it and invest in the work that will carry it forward for generations yet to come.
A digital answer?
Over the past several years, new digital tools have appeared that offer hopeful ways to support and preserve psalm singing. Yet these tools also highlight how vulnerable our traditions can be if we do not act intentionally to safeguard them. The Digital Splitleaf (https://splitleaf.org) was created to address some of these concerns by applying digital preservation methods to the metrical psalms, both in their texts and in their tunes.
The idea began in 2018, when I began to explore whether it might be possible to create an online version of a split-leaf psalter that would be easier to read than a printed one. The basic technologies already existed. It was, in theory, possible to combine text and music on the screen in the same way a hymnal places the words beneath the score. As I explored the psalm‑singing apps then available, I realised that none could place the text under the music, and none structured their musical and textual data in ways that met established preservation standards. These tools were helpful for personal use, but they did not protect the psalm‑singing tradition for the long term.
In December 2019 I began building what would eventually become the Digital Splitleaf. I started with the psalm settings from the 1564 Scottish Psalter, because I had already created modern performing editions of them while working as a research assistant on two Arts and Humanities Research Council projects.[1] When the COVID lockdowns began in 2020, I used that time to expand the system by adding the text of the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter, as well as many public-domain tunes. The earliest version of the Splitleaf was simple. It could match texts with tunes, but not much else. Even so, it proved that such a system could function.
Six years later, the platform has grown significantly. Users can still pair any text with any tune of a matching metre, but the system now offers many other features. It can play a recording of the tune, and it allows users to isolate a single voice part for practice. Users can also adjust the playback speed, zoom in or out on the score, and even raise or lower the pitch so that families or congregations can find a comfortable range. The Splitleaf can also print psalm settings or allow users to share them with others on social media. These improvements make the system easier to use, but more important than any feature is the data underlying it. Without accurate data, nothing can be preserved.
For this reason, the current phase of development, funded by the University of Glasgow, is focused on community involvement. The goal is to empower psalm singers across Scotland to help preserve the texts and tunes that are used today. This work is essential because once these materials are gathered in a stable format, attention can turn to expanding tools for display and analysis.
Digital publication also brings opportunities that printed media cannot easily offer. Churches in regions without ready access to published psalters could receive editions far more quickly and at a fraction of the cost. For congregations on the mission field, digital editions avoid the risks and logistical challenges of carrying printed religious materials. Composers, too, can share new psalm tunes with the wider Church without waiting for the next printed psalter to be produced. A digital platform can bring together psalm singers from around the world, allowing them to share their musical traditions and learn from one another.
These possibilities point toward a hopeful future. If we take the next steps together, we can build tools that not only preserve what we have received but also enable future generations to add to it, enrich it, and delight in it. This is the moment to act. Strengthening our psalm singing today will ensure that the praises of the Lord continue to sound clearly in generations yet to come.
Digital Splitleaf workshops and events
You are warmly invited to join us at any of our upcoming workshops and gatherings. These events are designed to help singers, precentors, ministers, and anyone interested in psalmody learn how to use the Digital Splitleaf and strengthen their own psalm‑singing practice. For an up-to-date list, click ‘Events’ on this page.
[1] “Singing the Reformation: The World of Reformation Britain as seen and heard in the Wode Psalter,” Project website (2011): https://www.wode.div.ed.ac.uk/ and “Sing the Renaissance & Reformation: Performing Editions,” The Church Service Society Website (2012), https://www.churchservicesociety.org/wode.
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