L. le Bourgeois

Loys “Louis” Bourgeois was a French composer and music theorist of the Renaissance. He is most famous as one of the main compilers of Calvinist hymn tunes in the middle of the 16th century. One of the most famous melodies in all of Christendom, the tune known as the Old 100th, to which the Protestant doxology is often sung, is commonly attributed to him.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Louis Bourgeois (composer).

From the period sources

Loys Bourgeois, born in Paris around 1510, was a significant figure in the music of the Reformation, known for his work with the French version of the Psalms. He was a follower of Calvin, residing with him in Geneva from 1545 to 1557, where he served as a cantor for the church (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883). During his time in Geneva, Bourgeois sought to introduce harmonized, multi-part psalm settings, a practice that ultimately led to a disagreement with the church leaders and his return to Paris in 1557.

Bourgeois is renowned as one of the first to harmonize the melodies for the French Psalms, with three collections in four to six parts published at Lyons in 1547 and Paris in 1561, some of which contained his own melodies (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). While the common notion attributes the original setting of Marot’s psalms to Bourgeois and Claude Goudimel, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1875) clarifies that this is true only for the settings in parts, as earlier single-part melodies for the Geneva churches were composed by Guillaume Franc. Beyond his psalm arrangements, Bourgeois also published a treatise, “Le droict chemin de musique” (Geneva and Lyons, 1550), which proposed a reform in the nomenclature of musical tones based on solmisation syllables, a system that was widely adopted in France (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). This work notably advocated abandoning the Guidonian hand method in favor of solfège, and introduced a more rational system for naming notes across different scales, which remained in use in France until around 1800 (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883).