GENEVAN 27

Composer: Louis Bourgeois

Louis Bourgeois (b. Paris, France, c. 1510; d. Paris, 1561). In both his early and later years Bourgeois wrote French songs to entertain the rich, but in the history of church music he is known especially for his contribution to the Genevan Psalter. Apparently moving to Geneva in 1541, the same year John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, Bourgeois served as cantor and master of the choristers at both St. Pierre and St. Gervais, which is to say he was music director there under the pastoral leadership of Calvin. Bourgeois used the choristers to teach the new psalm tunes to the congregation. The extent of Bourgeois's involvement in the Genevan Psalter is a matter of scholar­ly debate. Calvin had published several partial psalter… Go to person page >

First published in the 1551 Genevan Psalter, GENEVAN 27 has been generally attributed to Louis Bourgeois (PHH 3), editor of that psalter. Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) com¬posed the harmonization in 1986 for the Psalter Hymnal. Though one of the longer and more difficult Genevan tunes, 27 is accessible because of the repeat of the first two lines and the use of smaller intervals. The tune is mostly Mixolydian. Sing this music with a comfortable tempo that permits the long lines of text to be clearly expressed.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988