From Chamber to Church: The Remarkable Emergence of Thomas Sternhold as Psalmist for the Church of England.

STERNHOLD, Thomas; PSALTERS; PSALMS (Musical form); SIXTEENTH century; CHURCH of England

The paper explores the question of why Thomas Sternhold's small collections of metrical psalms, originally produced as godly entertainment for King Edward VI, became the kernel of the pre-eminent liturgical metrical psalter used in the Church of England in the sixteenth century. The author examines Sternhold's metrical psalms in comparison to two other metrical psalters, subjecting each to an analysis of their stated purpose, their relationship to biblical texts, their use of sources, their relationship to emerging evangelical biblical hermeneutics, and their style of paraphrase, rhyme and metre. The conclusions drawn from this examination suggest that the longevity, popularity and ultimate success of the Sternhold psalm media for public sung worship lies, ironically, in the initial lack of intent to use it as a liturgical text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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