Notable amongst these was John Playford, clerk of the Temple
Church in 1652. Benjamin Payne, clerk of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, in
1685, the author of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, wrote of Playford as
"one to whose memory all parish clerks owe perpetual thanks for their
furtherance in the knowledge of psalmody." The _History of Music_, by
Hawkins, describes him as "an honest and friendly man, a good judge of
music, with some skill in composition. He contributed not a little to
the art of printing music from letterpress types. He is looked upon as
the father of modern psalmody, and it does not appear that the practice
has much improved." The account which Playford gives of the clerks of
his day is not very satisfactory, and their sorry condition is
attributed to "the late wars" and the confusion of the times. He says:
"In and about this great city, in above a hundred parishes there are but
few parish clerks to be found that have either ear or understanding to
set one of these tunes musically, as it ought to be, it having been a
custom during the late wars, and since, to chuse men into such places
more for their poverty than skill and ability, whereby that part of
God's service hath been so ridiculously performed in most places, that
it is now brought into scorn and derision by many people." He goes on to
tell us that "the ancient practice of singing the psalms in church was
for the clerk to repeat each line, probably because, at the first
introduction of psalms into our service great numbers of the common
people were unable to read.
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