Psalm 31, Springmount bog wax tablet, Antrim circa 600 AD

The Psalms

 In 200 two men were  extracting turf in a bog in County Tipperary in Ireland

 What they had discovered was a psalter or book of psalms written in the

 gospel of the hebrews

to memorise and recite the Psalms, in the tradition of the Judaic priesthood

 tiag libuir booksatchel

The word psalms is derived from the Greek Ψαλμοί (Psalmoi), perhaps originally meaning "music of the lyre" or "songs sung to a harp" and then to any piece of music. From psallein "play upon a stringed instrument"

In various biblical passages, David is referred to as “the favorite of the songs of Israel

and most importantly the founder of Temple singing.

The psalms are praise poems and laments sung to the music of a harp

 During this period, the Psalms held a central place in Irish devotion and learning. An indication of it is that the term "Psalter" in Irish came to designate writings other than the canonical text, for instance "The Psalter of Cashel," the "Psalter of Cormac." Students, whether destined for the monastic or clerical state, or lay life, learned to read and write through the Psalter of David.

The hours of the divine office in an Irish monastery as described in navigatio sancti brendani

 secundia 50 62 89 tertia 46 53 114 sexta 66 69 115 nona 129 132 147 vespertina 64 103 112 each time psalmody then prayer then reading

 But the diapsalma which separates the two verses forbids our joining them together. One may, with some critics, regard diapsalma as a Hebrew word meaning "So be it," or as a Greek word denoting a pause in the psalmody. Thus psalma would mean what is sung, diapsalma a silent pause in the psalmody; and just as we speak of singing in unison as sympsalma, so a cessation marked by a certain pause or break in the continuity is called diapsalma. Whatever the explanation, be it this, that, or the other, one thing at least is all but certain, that after the diapsalma the sequence is broken and cannot be linked up with what precedes.[3] St Augustine

 cassian and southern gaul and spain

 From early times, the Divine Office, to which the Psalms were central, was part of Irish liturgical worship. In this the Psalter was probably recited in the course of the week, in seven or eight canonical hours. Seven such hours are already named in an Irish gloss on Ps 118 (119):164 ("Seven times in the day I have given thee praise") in a Hiberno-Latin commentary from about 700 AD. Nonetheless for both monastic and lay circles we have evidence of the practices of the recitation (or even chanting) of the entire Psalter of 150 psalms daily. There was a special devotion to the long Psalm 118 (119).

 THIS Psalm (118 in the Septuagint) figures prominently in the worship of the Orthodox Church. There is a tradition that King David used this psalm to teach his young son Solomon the alphabet—but not just the alphabet for writing letters: the alphabet of the spiritual life. wikipedia

 He took down his book-satchel, and brought out his Psalter, and began singing his psalms. What the learned and the books of Cork relate is that the sound of the scholar's voice was heard a thousand paces beyond the city, as he sang his psalms, through spiritual mysteries, in hymns of praise (for aillib), and annals (or: records, commemorations; annálaib), and sections (or categories; ernalaib), in diapsalms and synpsalms and sets of ten, with Paters and canticles and hymns at the conclusion of each fifty

 A notable feature of Irish Psalm exegesis from earliest times down to the latest manuscripts is its emphasis on the historical sense, that is what the text is supposed to have meant to its original readers well before the advent of Christ. The specific Irish introductions speak of twofold "historical," literal meanings in the psalms, the one understanding them to speak of David and his times principally, if not solely, with no messianic interpretation, the other as speaking of David, his contemporaries and later Jewish history, to Maccabean times, with four psalms (2, 8, 44 and 109 in the LXX and Vulgate numbering) taken as direct prophecies of Christ. This twofold historical sense arises from the confluence of two distinct forms of exegesis. The second is easily identifiable. It is the Antiochene, specifically that of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Theodore's Psalm commentary was translated into Latin by the Pelagian Bishop Julian of Eclanum (ca. 386-454) and the extant portions of this Latin translation are almost all transmitted in manuscripts in an Irish hand (now in Turin and Milan, but originating at Bobbio).

Education in Ireland traditionally began at the age of seven with the learning of the three fifties or 150 psalms of the Old Testament.

in books called psalters of which a famous one is the Cathach, asociiated with St. Columcille, carried as a talisman   into battle by the O'Donnells up until the

 While the Psalms are used extensively in worship and prayer, the original intent was as a vehicle to teach, explain, encourage, and communicate with the individual listener as well as the entire people, hence their public performance.

 wikipedia extracted text edit

 the Cathach

Seventy-three of the 150 Psalms in the Bible are attributed to David.

The supreme kingship of Yahweh is the most pervasive theological concept in the book of Psalms and many psalms attributed to David are directed to Yahweh by name whether in praise or petition.

another found in a bog with a papyrus inner cover the Faddanmore psalter.

Antiphonal singing

As in folk-songs, antiphonal singing, or the singing of choirs in response to each other, was a feature of the Temple service.

At the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah formed the Levitical singers into two large choruses, which, after having marched around the city walls in different directions, stood opposite each other at the Temple and sang alternate hymns of praise to God (Neh. xii. 31).

The Coptic ankh cross, also known as the Gnostic cross, has its origin in the Egyptian Ankh and is the pre Coptic cross of the early Christian gnostic movement.

1. Hymns
2. Lament/complaint psalms
3. Royal Psalms
4. Thanksgiving psalms
5. Wisdom psalms
6. Smaller genres and mixed type

Psalm forms or types also include:^{[citation needed]}

• Songs of Zion – Psalms 48, 76, 84, 87, 122, 134;
• Historical litanies – Psalms 78, 105, 106, 135, 136;
• Pilgrim liturgies – Psalms 81, 21;
• Entrance liturgies – Psalms 15, 24;
• Judgment liturgies – Psalms 50, 82;
• Mixed types – 36, 40, 41, 68

Biblical and contemporary sources mention the following instruments that were used in the ancient Temple:

• the Nevel, a 12-stringed harp;
• the Kinnor, a lyre with 10 strings;
• the Shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn;
• the chatzutzera, or trumpet, made of silver;
• the tof or small drum;
• the metziltayim, or cymbal;
• the paamon or bell;
• the halil or big flute.

The intonations of the Sephardim even more intimately recall the plain-song of the Mozarabian Christians, which flourished in their proximity until the thirteenth century. Their chants and other set melodies largely consist of very short phrases often repeated, just as Perso-Arab melody so often does; and their congregational airs usually preserve a Morisco or other Peninsular character

.Many of the phrases introduced in the hazzanut generally, closely resemble the musical expression of the sequences which developed in the Catholic Plain-Song after the example set by the school famous as that of Notker Balbulus, at St. Gall, in the early tenth century. The earlier formal melodies still more often are paralleled in the festal intonations of the monastic precentors of the eleventh to the fifteenth century, even as the later synagogal hymns everywhere approximate greatly to the secular music of their day.

Saint Tuotilo (Tutilo, Tutilo von Gallen, Tutilo of Gall, Tutilo of Saint Gall) (ca. 850 – ca. 915) was a medieval monk and composer. Born in Ireland^{[citation needed]}, he is said to have been a large and powerfully built man. He was educated at the Abbey of St. Gall and remained to become a monk there. He was the friend of Notker of St. Gall, with whom he studied music under Moengal. Around 900 he visited St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz, a sister Benedictine abbey. From there he transferred two ivory plates for the Evangelium Longum to his home abbey and carved them.

Tuotilo could, anachronistically, be called a renaissance man: he was a speaker, poet, hymnist, architect, painter, sculptor, metal worker, and mechanic.

Tuotilo was buried at a chapel dedicated to Saint Catherine in St. Gall, which was later renamed for him. His feast day is celebrated on March 28.

[edit] Tuotilo's Music

Tuotilo played several instruments, including the harp. The history of the ecclesiastical drama begins with the trope sung as Introit of the Mass on Easter Sunday. It has come down to us in a St. Gallen manuscript dating from the time of Tuotilo.

Most of his compositions have been lost.

 From his musical acquirements he was known as "Patrick's psalm-singer". St. Benignus is said not only to have assisted in compiling the great Irish code of Laws, or Senchus Mor, but also to have contributed materials for the "Psalter of Cashel", and the "Book of Rights".

Click to add text, images, and other content