Logan
Puritan Board Graduate
I had an idea for a psalter app and wanted to ask for input or (dare I mention it) assistance? I have some programming skills but have no experience with app building for either iOS or Android.
There are currently three psalter apps available for Android that I am aware of. One for the 1650 psalter (it's very, very basic and doesn't appear to have any options to change text size), one for the the 1912 "The Psalter", and one for the Book of Psalms for Worship, and it's not nearly as nice as the one for iOS.
The idea came about when I was using a split-leaf psalter recently (which I personally love for the ability to mix and match music). I thought that a tablet would be the perfect venue to use a split-leaf psalter because it just naturally would fit on a tablet for navigation and such. And not being limited by bulk, why limit it to any one psalter then?
So ideas I've had so far would be:
Obviously there are copyright issues. Not all music or words are in the public domain and some organizations wouldn't want to let their intellectual work be used for a project like this. I am also under no delusions that this would be a profitable enterprise, it would be a labor of love as all the people interested in it are probably on this board
The benefit, in addition to the usefulness of having music and midi files, would be to have access to a huge selection of music. The Book of Psalms for worship has some Common Meter tunes that are quite beautiful and would work well with the 1650 Psalter (I've used 42D's beautiful "Steadfast" for psalms of lament in the 1650). There's also some classic tunes from the Genevan psalter that you might get in say, the Comprehensive Psalter but not in any other. You could potentially have all (or nearly all) the tunes, and all the psalters.
Aside from the logistics of getting folks like the FCS, RPCI, RPCNA, RPCGA, and PCEA in on this, are there any thoughts or ideas? Am I the only person living who would be excited about this or even use it?
Any volunteers to help me?
There are currently three psalter apps available for Android that I am aware of. One for the 1650 psalter (it's very, very basic and doesn't appear to have any options to change text size), one for the the 1912 "The Psalter", and one for the Book of Psalms for Worship, and it's not nearly as nice as the one for iOS.
The idea came about when I was using a split-leaf psalter recently (which I personally love for the ability to mix and match music). I thought that a tablet would be the perfect venue to use a split-leaf psalter because it just naturally would fit on a tablet for navigation and such. And not being limited by bulk, why limit it to any one psalter then?
So ideas I've had so far would be:
- Include 1650 Psalter, BoPfS, BoPfW, Sing Psalms, Psalm Singing in the 21st century, etc.
- Have suggested tunes linked by the text (tap it and the music portion of the split-leaf jumps to the tune)
- Allow for bookmarks for tunes tied to text (if you prefer a specific tune to a psalm, bookmark it, tap it and the music portion jumps to it)
- Include a wide variety of music
- Include midi files for playing tunes (possibly even playing a select part, such as bass, alto)
- Have an option to "combine" split-leaf and insert text into the notes like Comprehensive Psalter, for example, though this would be quite difficult to set up and would take a huge amount of work.
Obviously there are copyright issues. Not all music or words are in the public domain and some organizations wouldn't want to let their intellectual work be used for a project like this. I am also under no delusions that this would be a profitable enterprise, it would be a labor of love as all the people interested in it are probably on this board
The benefit, in addition to the usefulness of having music and midi files, would be to have access to a huge selection of music. The Book of Psalms for worship has some Common Meter tunes that are quite beautiful and would work well with the 1650 Psalter (I've used 42D's beautiful "Steadfast" for psalms of lament in the 1650). There's also some classic tunes from the Genevan psalter that you might get in say, the Comprehensive Psalter but not in any other. You could potentially have all (or nearly all) the tunes, and all the psalters.
Aside from the logistics of getting folks like the FCS, RPCI, RPCNA, RPCGA, and PCEA in on this, are there any thoughts or ideas? Am I the only person living who would be excited about this or even use it?
Any volunteers to help me?
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