The Catholic Church had confined the execution of liturgical singing to a single ecclesiastical body: the 'schola'. The Reformation, however, aimed at returning it to the congregation of the faithful. This musical practice did not end at the doors of the church or the schools, but the singing of the Psalms could be heard in the streets, the shops and in the homes of those who practised domestic polyphonic music. It was here that the Psalms and religious chansons were soon to dethrone - sometimes by simply changing the words - the popular Renaissance secular chansons, now considered 'foolish, vain and unseemly' - in a word, immoral. On listening to this Huguenot literary and spiritual treasury, one can only dream of what the Reformation musical tradition could have become had it not been nipped in the bud by the tragic events of the Religious Wars...

Sung texts in English.