Calvin felt so strongly about psalm singing that early on he introduced it into his Geneva school. Students were required at the Academy of Geneva to “exercise themselves in singing psalms” every day after the noon meal. Calvin’s goal was to enable children to sing psalms at school, church, and home so that they could help their parents learn to sing them also. Calvin wrote, “If some children, whom someone has practiced beforehand in some modest church song, sing in a loud and distinct voice, the people listening with complete attention and following in their hearts what is sung by mouth, little by little each one will become accustomed to sing with the others.”

“PSALM SINGING IN CALVIN AND THE PURITANS” BY JOEL R. BEEKE IN SING A NEW SONG: RECOVERING PSALM SINGING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, LOC. 496.