Daniel Shute

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Dan is a retired theological librarian. He has a Ph.D. in historical theology from McGill University and he edited Peter Martyr Vermigli's (and Rashi's and Ibn Ezra's) commentaries on Lamentations. Dan is no longer working on Vermigli or Lamentations but is preparing a Psalter. He is currently working on the problem of the verb system in the poetry of the Hebrew Bible. Right now he is reading the work of Notarius and Rogar and Isaksson.

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Papers by Daniel Shute

And All Israel Shall Be Saved: Peter Martyr and John Calvin on the Jews according to Romans, Chapters 9, 10 and 11

BRILL eBooks, 2004

Commentary on the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah

The Sixteenth century journal, Apr 1, 2004

On Flexus, ‘oleh wə-yored, and the Murky World of Psalmody

Arc: The Journal of the School of Religious Studies

The Presbyterian College F rederik Wisse's ChristelijJce Gereformeerde Kerken community sang metr... more The Presbyterian College F rederik Wisse's ChristelijJce Gereformeerde Kerken community sang metrical Psalms. In fact few texts were so frequently memorized and so fervently held sacred as metrical Psalms. Little wonder then that Wisse looked with such a jaundiced eye on feeble attempts within Canadian Presbyterianism to introduce in its public worship the chanting of the Psalms.1 On a number of occasions Wisse has been heard to remark, "I hate chanting." How ironic, then, that one of the essays composed to honour his distinguished teaching career should have as its aim a contribution to the debates surrounding the advent and contemporary use of Psalm chanting. This essay will introduce the reader to Psalm chanting and its alternatives, offer some suggestions as to its origin, and be bold to encourage its use beyond high Anglican worship services. To start aright, let us define our terms. Metrical Psalms are rhymes based more or less closely on the Psalms and set to music. Chanting of Psalms, by contrast, is the more or less melodic intoning of the actual text of the Psalter, whether in Hebrew or in translation. Psalm chanting is the heart of Basal Gregorian chant or Anglican plainsong and is often called psalmody, although psalmody, properly speaking, includes any melodic rendition of Psalms, including metrical Psalms. Psalm chanting is, according to a Jewish musicologist, "a simple twowave melodic curve corresponding to the parallel-clause structure of the majority of the psalm verses (two hemistichs)."2 That is, Psalm chanting is designed to intone the parallelism of Semitic poetry. For example, in the familiar words of the Twenty-Third Psalm according to the Authorized Version, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures" is intoned in such a way as to correspond with "He leadeth me beside the still waters." The simplest form of Psalm chanting is Basal Gregorian chant, as reconstructed by musicologists from tenth-century Latin manuscripts.3 The first line of a Psalm opens with the initium, which is a two

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Peter Martyr and the Rabbinic Bible in the interpretation of Lamentations