John Angus
1515-96.

Benedictine monk, Precentor and Almoner of Dunfermline Abbey during the Reformation period. He is often credited with the metrical psalm tune ‘Dunfermline’; while there is no proof of his authorship it was composed within his period and its title suggests he might well have been its composer. He played a large part in the preparation of the new psalter but his main work was the composition of suitably singable tunes for the canticles and the metrical version of the psalms. Ten of these are extant and it is a pity that they are not sung today, they include ‘The Simboll or Creide of Athanasius’, ‘The Sang of the Blessit Virgin’ and ‘The Song of the Thre Childring’.

It has been suggested that Angus anticipated the Reformation in music by providing metrical pieces which the people could sing in the vernacular. This would have been dangerous at a time when the authorities were seeking out heretics and it is unlikely that Abbot Dwiet would have permitted such innovations. More likely he continued in the abbey church under its first Protestant minister, David Ferguson, and composed for the new type of services. We know that he was appointed vicar of Inverkeithing (1562) and parson at Crieff (1595) but these were probably titular offices without duties, a common device to provide such as he with a small pension.

It is also said that he had a living or a pension in con­nection with the Chapel Royal at Stirling; this may have been because of his musical talents but no definite facts are known about it. One of his fellow compilers of the metrical psalter describes John Angus as ‘gude and meike’ and he may be considered representative of a large number of sincere servants of the ‘auld faith’ who, without any sense of hypocrisy, could embrace the Reformed interpretation of Christian worship and doctrine.