Old 100th

Background

The Genevan Psalter was compiled over a number of years in the Swiss city of Geneva, a center of Protestant activity during the Reformation, in response to the teaching of John Calvin that communal singing of psalms in the vernacular language is a foundational aspect of church life. This contrasted with the prevailing Catholic practice at the time in which sacred texts were chanted in Latin by the clergy only. Calvinist musicians including Loys Bourgeois supplied many new melodies and adapted others from sources both sacred and secular. The final version of the psalter was completed in 1562. Calvin intended the melodies to be sung in plainsong during church services, but harmonized versions were provided for singing at home.

Lyrics

The original lyrics set to this tune in the Genevan Psalter are translated from Psalm 134:

You faithful servants of the Lord, sing out his praise with one accord, while serving him with all your might and keeping vigil through the night. Unto his house lift up your hand and to the Lord your praises send. May God who made the earth and sky bestow his blessings from on high.

Old 100th is commonly used to sing the lyrics that begin "All People That on Earth Do Dwell," Psalm 100, a version that originated in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561) and is attributed to the Scottish clergyman William Kethe. Kethe was in exile at Geneva at this time, as the Scottish Reformation was only just beginning. This version was sung at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, with harmonization and arrangement by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The first verse is as follows:

All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell; Come ye before Him and rejoice.

A hymn commonly sung to Old 100th is "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow," using the text often referred to as the Doxology, written in 1674 by Thomas Ken, a clergyman in the Church of England. This hymn was originally the final verse of a longer hymn entitled "Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun," though it is most commonly sung by itself as a doxology. The traditional text is:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Modernized versions of that text are also widely used. The melody can be used for any hymn text in long meter, that is, with four lines of eight syllables each. The hymn From all that dwell below the skies, a paraphrasing of Psalm 117 by Isaac Watts with the Doxology as the final verse, is commonly sung to the tune. In the Sacred Harp and other shape note singing traditions, the tune is sung with the text "O Come, Loud Anthems Let Us Sing," a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 95 from Tate and Brady's A New Version of the Psalms of David.

In other works

Voluntary on the Old Hundredth - also called The 100th Psalm tune. Set as a Lesson. This is an organ piece using the psalm tune as a theme, not unlike a chorale prelude, and was meant for church use. Authorship is somewhat dubious, the piece was either written by John Blow or his student Henry Purcell.

Bach harmonized the hymn "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir", a hymn by Paul Eber sung to the same tune, several times: the chorale cantata BWV 130 and the chorales BWV 326 and BWV 327

Hubert Parry's - Three Chorale Fantasias is based on the Old 100th.

Virgil Thomson - quoted in several movements of his score for The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936).

Paul Hindemith - quoted in his Trauermusik (January 1936).

Benjamin Britten - 1948 cantata St Nicolas

David Maslanka - Symphony No. 4

Frank Ticheli - Angels in the Architecture

Felix Mendelssohn - Piano Trio in C minor Op 66, 4th movement Finale

Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Old 100th Psalm Tune ("All people that on earth do dwell")

The 1893 song "The Volunteer Organist" by George Spaulding features the Old Hundredth in its refrain - it is played by the piano and is harmonised to an original vocal melody.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the congregation sings "Old Hundred" to celebrate the reappearance of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Joe Harper at the funeral service being held for them after they had gone missing and were presumed dead.

"Old Hundredth" is also the title of a short Science fiction story by Brian Aldiss, in which the human race have evolved the ability to transcend their physical bodies and exist as music and energy, thus attaining peace and simplicity. The story ends when the protagonist, one of a number of intelligent and evolving animals who seek to emulate Humanity's example, chooses to die after being forced into committing a violent act which is against her ethical code. She thus seeks redemption in an afterlife, much as the words of the original Psalm 134 suggest.