movement was confined to the encouragement of chorales, often finely harmonized. These were adopted into Scottish and English use to some extent after 1558.
Zwingli was a musical amateur and not averse to music in church
worship, but his party went far beyond him in antipathy to all existing
usages. In their onslaughts upon churches they ruthlessly destroyed
organs and choir collections. Calvin's influence was cast on the other
side, especially in favor of congregational singing of the Psalms. Hence
arose a demand for metrical versions of the latter and for practicable
tunes.
The evolution of the Calvinistic hymns and tunes, though
analogous to that of the Lutheran chorales, presents peculiar
features. The treasury of popular song from which they drew
their inspiration was much smaller, their total number was less,
and they were disseminated through several countries of varying
traditions. They were not made the source of as much subsequent
treatment by organ-writers, and in general their influence
was much more restricted. Yet in themselves they were often
eminently excellent.
Clément Marot (d. 1544) was the first Calvinistic psalmist. He was introduced
to Huguenot ideas as a boy and suffered imprisonment for them
about 1525. Later, however, when court-poet to Francis I., he prepared
some 30 psalm-versions in ballad style, which were forthwith taken up as a
novelty by the gay court circle and sung to popular airs. But they were
condemned by the Sorbonne, and Marot fled to Geneva, where he added
19 more Psalms (the first 30 were published in 1541, 35 in 1542, 49, with
40 by Beza, in 1555). It is supposed that Marot arranged some of the
melodies used. His version was gradually completed at Calvin's desire by
Théodore de Beza (d. 1605), who became a Huguenot in 1548. The
most famous of those who fitted music to these versions were Bourgeois
and Goudimel, but others experimented with the new and popular style.
Loys Bourgeois, born at Paris, became a Huguenot and was a singer at Geneva in 1545-57, going thence to Lyons and probably later to Paris. He issued chorales (1547, 1554, 1561), harmonized for 4 voices, himself composing many of the melodies. Besides thus being the first writer of Calvinistic music, he issued a theoretical work (1550) that improved solmization and otherwise simplified the hexachord-system. (Cf. Waelrant, sec. 66.)
Claude Goudimel (d. 1572) was born at Besançon about 1505. [It has been commonly said that he was a Netherlander, a pupil of Des Près, the founder, about 1540, of a school at Rome where Palestrina, G. Animuccia, G.M. Nanino and other composers were taught, and therefore 'the father of the Roman school;' but it is now thought that he was never in Rome, and was confused with Gaudio Mell.] From at least 1551 he was in Paris, for a time a partner
