Favorite Lenten hymns

After starting this blog nine years ago — with 262 posts so far — only a few mention hymns for the first five weeks of Lent. (I did previously comment on appropriate hymns for Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday).

So as I did for Advent, Christmas (in 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2015) and Easter, it seemed like a good time to provide an overview of the hymns available for Lent (including Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday).

I cross-referenced hymns from these periods from The English Hymnal (COE 1906), Hymnal 1940 (ECUSA) and Hymnal 1982 (ECUSA). I also matched the hymns from these lists to two Missouri Synod (LCMS) hymnals: The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) and Lutheran Service Book (2006).

Eleven hymn texts (twelve combinations) stood out. Because there’s such a small number, I found that I previously wrote about five of these texts.

Title	Tune	TEH	H40	H82	TLH	LSB	Remarks
Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended	Herzleibster Jesu	70	71.1 *	158	143	439	Holy Week
All glory, laud, and honor	St. Theodulph	622	62	154	160	442	Palm Sunday
Forty days and forty nights	Aus der Tiefe	73	55	150			Early Lent
Lord Jesus, think on me	Southwell	77	417	641	320	610
Lord, who throughout these forty days	St. Flavian		59			*	Early Lent
O sacred head, sore wounded	Passion Chorale	102	75	168	172	449 *	Holy Week
Ride on, ride on in majesty	The King's Majesty		64.1	156			Palm Sunday
Ride on, ride on in majesty	Winchester New	620	64.2		162	441	Palm Sunday
The glory of these forty days	Erhalt uns, Herr	68.2	61	143			Early Lent
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?	Were You There		80	172		456	Holy Week
When I survey the wondrous Cross	Rockingham	107	337	474	175.2 *	426 *	Holy Week

* Another tune available

Three of the hymns (all with “forty days” in the title) are both written and commonly used for Ash Wednesday or the first Sunday in Lent. Two (“All glory, laud, and honor” and “Ride on, ride on in majesty”) are clearly written for Palm Sunday. Four are about the passion of Christ, which could be celebrated on Lent 5 (“Passiontide” in the 28 BCP) or any time in Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday or (when hymns are used) Good Friday. And in fact, these dates are when the these hymns are assigned by Hymnal 1940: Ash Wednesday, Lent 1, Lent 5, or Palm Sunday.

“…Ride on in majesty” has two tunes: Winchester New is preferred by the CoE hymnals (dating back to the 19th century Hymns Ancient & Modern), and (the considerably more difficult) King’s Majesty which was introduced in H40 and the only one kept by H82.

This is really a list of the top hymns: there are other hymns worth mentioning that weren’t quite as popular. I hope to publish a more complete list at some point in the future.