Part of the Matheson Trust Sacred Audio Collection

This kind of Gaelic congregation psalmody is technically called “free heterophony”: a precentor leads off with the first lines of a psalm, and the congregation follows, ebbing and waning. Similar liturgical forms survive, among others, in congregations of Old Time Baptists in the Appalachian Mountains, and Black Primitive Baptists in Alabama/USA.

Back Free Church, Isle Of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, 2003

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Or you can watch the original video following this link.

Arc Light Editions has recently published two collections of high quality recordings from the same congregation in Lewis.