JE TE SALUE

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 >

JE TE SALUE is named after the original French text and is an altered version of GENEVAN 101 (101). Louis Bourgeois (PHH 3) composed the original GENEVAN 101 for the 1551 Genevan Psalter. A comparison of 248 and 101 will show how the original tune has been extended to fit four textual lines of ten metrical feet. It is unknown who adapted the tune this way. To avoid confusion between this tune and GENEVAN 101, play it through entirely before signaling the congregation to sing. The suggested alternate tune, TOULON (521), is also an adaptation of a Genevan tune (for Ps. 124).

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988