Psalm 113 (Old 113th)

About the music

Before it acquired the ‘old’ adjective, this tune was paired with Psalm 113 in sixteenth century English-language psalters, including the Wode Psalter, but it also had a previous life on the continent. Attributed to Matthias Greitter (1495-1550) of Strasbourg, it was sung to Psalm 119 (Es sind doch selig alle), later to Psalm 68 in the Genevan Psalter, and also to the German chorale O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, which appears in several works of J. S. Bach (e.g. BWV 402)