A bowed string instrument of the late 17th century. It was probably intended for use in teaching choral singing in churches where neither organ nor other instrumental support was available, and it was adapted to the use of the musically untaught. Its invention is attributed to John Playford the elder (1623–86/7). No examples are known to survive, but the instrument appears to have had some currency during the early years of the 18th century, as shown by an advertisement in the 5th and 6th editions of John Playford’s The Whole Book of Psalms (issued by Samuel Sprint and Henry Playford in 1699 and by Samuel and John Sprint and Henry Playford in 1700) for The Psalmody, published by Henry Playford. This book was also advertised in the Post Boy (27 June 1699) as ‘A Book of Directions to Play the Psalmody, an instrument invented by John Playford, adapted to the tunes in use in all churches. London: H. Playford and R. Meares, 1699’. It contained directions for playing psalm tunes by letters rather than by musical notation, on an unnamed instrument (possibly the ‘psalmody’ of the title). No details of this instrument are known, but in 1705 Richard Jones described a nine-string instrument that used letter tablature and was played by striking the strings with a small piece of wood, and in 1725 ‘W.S.’ gave detailed instructions for making a one-string, fretted instrument (invented about 30 years earlier) that was apparently played from normal notation. James Leman, in 1729, was the first to use the name ‘psalterer’. From his description, the instrument was similar in form to the bass viol of the period but had only two strings, tuned an octave apart and passing over a fretted fingerboard on which the stopping positions were marked by letters. By fingering the instrument according to a prepared letter sequence or code, the player could produce simple psalmody melodies or basses. Printed guides in letter tablature were apparently supplied by certain music sellers.
Leman suggested that a rather more advanced version of the psalterer could be produced by adding a third or ‘mean’ string between the other two, tuned a 5th above the lower. He left the matter with the observation ‘And this I suppose to be the utmost improvement that can be made upon this instrument’. A manuscript of 1737, based on Leman's three-string psalterer, gives directions for numerous psalm tunes and two anthems. The idea of a marked and fretted fingerboard was to reappear in Sweden about 1829, with a more advanced instrument, the Psalmodikon.
R. Jones: The Most New and Easy Method of Singing the Psalms (London, 1705)
W.S.: An Help to the Singing of Psalm-tunes, with Directions for Making an Instrument with One String (London, 1725) [a pencilled note gives the name William Sherwin]
J. Leman: A New Method of Learning Psalm-Tunes with an Instrument of Music called the Psalterer (London, 1729)
J. Forfitt: A Select Collection of Psalm-Tunes and Anthems set in Three Parts for the Voice and a Musical Instrument called the Psalterer (MS, 1737, US-NHub, Osborne Collection MS 17)
N. Temperley: ‘John Playford and the Metrical Psalms’, JAMS, xxv (1972), 331–78
S. Jeans: ‘The Psalterer’, GSJ, xxxix (1986), 2–20
PHILIP BATE/SALLY DRAGE