from the Greek ψάλμος, the art or act of singing psalms. The earliest music of the Psalms is not now known. The modern Jewish psalmody is by no means the same in all their synagogues in different countries. Psalms were sung by the primitive Christians, but there are no data to show the precise nature of the melodies. St Augustin (lib. x. Confess. cap. 33) says, "De Alexandrino Episcopo Athanasio sepe mihi dictum commemorari, qui tum modico flexu vocis faciebat sonare lectorum psalmi, ut pronunciari vicinior esset quam cantati." St Athanasius was made bishop of Alexandria in 326. Of the Ambrosian and Gregorian chants of the fourth and sixth centuries time and change seem to have spared little more than the tonalities. In Roman Catholic church services the psalmody varies according to the particular occasion; and so also in some Protestant churches. Many of the psalm-tunes now in general use in Protestant churches were composed in the time of Luther, or not long afterwards, for the Protestant congregations which then began to spread over the European continent. Others of these tunes are the productions of various Protestant musicians in later times. Amongst the authors of these more recent tunes we find the names of some of the Bachs, of Handel, and several other eminent German composers. Psalm-tunes are for voices only, or for voices accompanied by the organ, or for voices accompanied by different instruments; others for a single voice alone, or accompanied, and so on.

(g. r. g.)