Fortunatus and Neale teach us about the cross

Some of the oldest hymns in the Anglican canon are by Fortunatus, the 6th century cleric who was the leading Latin poet of his era — the first century after the fall of Rome — and a contemporary of Gregory the Great. His best known are probably the Easter hymns “Hail thee, festival day” and “Welcome happy morning.”

As with so many things ancient and medieval, much of what we know and use of Fortunatus’ work is owed to John Mason Neale, who did the original translation of “Hail thee, festival day.” Today for Good Friday we sang two of the Fortunatus’ hymns for Holy Week that were translated by Neale:

• Pange lingua gloriosi: “Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle” (a slightly different arrangement than #66 in Hymnal 1940)
• Vexilla Regis prodeunt: “The royal banners forward go,” sometimes credited to Theodulph of Orleans. We sang the H40 #63 version, transposed down one step (from G to F).

The Royal Banners Forward Go

The latter begins

The royal banners forward go,
The cross shines forth in mystic glow,
Where he, as man, who gave man breath,
Now bows beneath the yoke of death.

This translation was first published in 1851 (without music) by Neale in his Medieval Hymns & Sequences. In this book, he explains the text thus:

This world-famous hymn, one of the grandest in the treasury of the Latin Church, was composed by Fortunatus, on occasion of the reception of certain relics by S. Gregory of Tours and S. Radegund previously to the consecration of a church at Poitiers. It is therefore strictly and primarily a processional hymn, though very naturally afterwards adapted to Passiontide.

As with all popular Neale translations, it later was picked up by Hymns Ancient & Modern and The English Hymnal.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion lists eight latin verses:

Vexilla regis prodeunt
Fulget crucis mysterium
Quo carne carnis conditor
Suspensus est patibulo.

Confixa clavis viscera
tendens manus, vestigia
redemptionis gratia
hic inmolata est hostia.

Quo vulneratus insuper
Mucrone diro lanceae
Ut nos lavaret crimine
Manavit unda et sanguine.

Impleta sunt quae concinit
David fideli carmine
Dicens In nationibus
Regnavit a ligno Deus.

Arbor decora et fulgida
Ornata Regis purpura
Erecta [sic] digno stipite
Tam sancta membra tangere.

Beata, cujus brachiis
Saecli pependit praemium
Statera facta corporis
Praedam que tulit Tartari.

O crux ave, spes unica
Hoc passiones tempore
Auge piis justitiam
Reisque dona veniam.

Te summa Deus trinitas
Collaudet omnis spiritus:
Quos per crucis mysterium
Salvas, rege per saecula.

It also said

Since the tenth century it has been the Vesper office hymn from Passion Sunday to Wednesday in Holy Week. The “vexillum” was the old Roman cavalry standard which, after Constantine, was surmounted by a cross instead of the Roman eagle.

The six verses in H40 are V1,4,5,6 of Fortunatus, and two concluding stanzas from the 10th century office hymn. The H40 HC says the text has been in the Episcopal Hymnal since 1874, making it one of the first of Neale’s hymns adopted for U.S. use. According to Hymnary, the text is reprinted in 118 hymnals.

Sarum Plainchant

H40 has two tunes. The second tune, Parker, was written in 1894 for this text.

As for #63 (First Tune), Hymnal 1940 Companion says

The first tune, Vexilla Regis, is the Sarum form of the traditional melody for this text, undoubtedly as old as the words themselves.

Hymnal 1982 (#162) retains this text-tune pairing, but says the oldest record of the tune is a 12th century Roman manuscript. It is dropped from the Book of Common Praise 2017;  the text (with the other H40 tune) was published in the 1939 Book of Common Praise.

Medieval Lutheran Hymnody

Next to Anglicans, the Lutherans are the most respectful of our medieval (and ancient) liturgical and musical patrimony. Thus, it was not completely surprising that Thursday Issues Etc. broadcast a new one-hour segment on this hymn, with an enthusiastic endorsement by LCMS pastor (and chief liturgist) Will Weedon.

This hymn is part of the Lutheran canon, although (as Weedon alludes to) the latest LCMS hymnal, the 2006 Lutheran Service Book, provides a less Gregorian and more hymn-like chant (#455), with reduced melisma, barred to a consistent 3-beat rhythm.

Pastor Weedon noted that the hymn had several Holy Week applications, including Maundy Thursday and the veneration of the cross at Good Friday. (Today we sang it after the veneration of the cross). In his view, the “royal banners” would be better understood as battle standards, as when Romans (or Christians) were going to fight the enemy.

Weedon was excited that the third verse was a quote from a reference to the cross in Psalm 96:10 in the Old Latin, pre-Vulgate (presumably Vetus Latina) book of psalms. In the 6th century, the Vulgate was less than 200 years old and Fortunatus would have known the earlier (Septuagint-derived) psalter. In the earlier psalm, the verse refers to the “wood,” i.e. the wood of the cross.

In accord with this view, the Adam Clarke commentary identifies multiple quotations of this earlier psalm translation by the patristic fathers:

Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth - Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, quotes this passage thus: Ειπατε εν τοις εθνεσι, ὁ Κυριος εβασιλευσε απο του ξυλου, "Say among the nations, the Lord ruleth by the wood," meaning the cross; and accuses the Jews of having blotted this word out of their Bibles, because of the evidence it gave of the truth of Christianity. It appears that this reading did exist anciently in the Septuagint, or at least in some ancient copies of that work, for the reading has been quoted by Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Pope Leo, Gregory of Tours, and others. The reading is still extant in the ancient Roman Psalter, Dominus regnavit a ligno, and in some others. In an ancient MS. copy of the Psalter before me, while the text exhibits the commonly received reading, the margin has the following gloss: Regnavit a ligno crucis, "The Lord reigns by the wood of the cross." 

Musical Recordings

iTunes lists three vocal recordings, from Ely Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, and St. John’s College Cambridge. The Gloucester Cathedral recording is of tune Gonfalon Royal, the alternate tune (#128.ii) for the text (#79) in the New English Hymnal. It is not obvious what St. John’s singing.

The Ely recording is the only recording I could find of the Sarum tune. Shazam™ says that it is also the one used in the Issues Etc. broadcast.

So while this is one of Neale’s less popular texts, nonetheless it continues on 150 years later as a testimony in the third millennium from the middle of the first millennium.

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.

A favorite hymn day, but not a favorite hymnal

At the ACNA parish I attended on Palm Sunday, we had a great collection of hymns. The opening hymn was the obligatory processional — “All glory, laud and honor” — that combines a 9th century text and a 17th century Lutheran tune (H40: #62; H82: 154). Since this time we started outside the building, I ended up acting as de facto cantor: all those years as a High Church (PECUSA) choir boy came rushing back.

The second hymn was the other obligatory Palm Sunday hymn “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty.”  The Hymnal 1940 Companion says it was written in the 1820s by Henry Hart Milman, an Oxford poetry professor. As it turns out, on Holy Monday the Issues Etc. (unofficial) LCMS radio show reposted their earlier interview with Pastor Will Weedon on this Passiontide favorite.

On Palm Sunday, we used the tune King’s Majesty — composed for Hymnal 1940 — which is the only tune given in Hymnal 1982 (H82: #156). While it is a wonderful stately tune — suitable for a Cathedral choir — I had forgotten how hard that was to sing: it’s out of my range, the voice leading is difficult, and this year the rest of the congregation clearly didn’t know it well.

Hymnal 1940 (H40: 64) gives an alternate choice, the familiar (and much easier) Winchester New, a 17th century German tune also used for the Advent hymn “On Jordan’s bank.” This is also the tune used with this text in my 1876 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern. Oremus implies that this is the only tune that Church of England worshipers would know.

H40 also has a third option, St. Drostane, but I’ve never heard that sung. However, it was the first tune for the US Hymnal 1916 (#125), with Winchester New listed as second tune. The Hymnal 1940 Companion says “St. Drostane was composed by John B. Dykes for this hymn in Chope’s Congregational Hymn and Tune Book, 1862,” which implies it is a familiar American but not Anglican tune. (Unfortunately, I don’t have music in any of my 19th century PECUSA hymnals.)

So Hymnal 1982 made life difficult for our small parish by omitting the easier (and more Anglican) of the two melodies. But that’s not the only problem with H82. While singing the hymn, I also noticed their trademarked bowdlerization of the text. Even Oremus (written by a hymnal modernist) lists the original text for the second verse:

The company of angels
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply.

This is also the text in Hymns Ancient & Modern. However, that’s not good enough for the PC authors of Hymnal 1982:

The company of angels
is praising thee on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.

I guess they’re proud of themselves for only changing two phrases, but it’s neither a subtle change nor faithful to the original text:

Coetus in excelcis te laudat caelicus omnis
Et mortalis homo, cuncta creat simul.

Even with my complete lack of formal Latin training, I know that “Et mortalis homo” does not mean “we.”

Hymns for Maundy Thursday?

As a child, I don't recall spending a lot of time in Church during Holy Week: after we left Palm Sunday, we didn’t return until Easter morn. (Of course, back then I needed my parents to drive the 11 miles to church and back).

As an adult, I’ve made a point to attend church at the beginning and end of Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday and ending with Good Friday. Due to work and travel schedule, this year I attended Maundy Thursday instead of Good Friday.

By its nature, Good Friday has always seemed like a no-music Holy Day. The liturgical index in the Hymnal 1940 lists hymns for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Eastern Even and Easter Day. For Thursday, it likes hymns for Holy Communion but not morning or evening prayer (but then there’s no morning prayer setting for Christmas Eve or Easter Even).

Singing hymns seems particularly appropriate for Maundy Thursday, given the final line of Mark’s account of the Last Supper (Mark 14:26):

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Hymnal 1940 does not list any hymns between “Passiontide” and “Eastern Even,” but in the liturgical index it lists five possible hymns — 189, 193, 194, 195, 199 — all from the Holy Communion section. I recognize only one of these hymns — “Father, we thank the who hast planted” (#195) — because of the wonderful 16th century Louis Bourgeois tune. But none of these communion hymns seem explicitly tied to Holy Thursday.

Hymnal 1982 has a large collection (#158-173) labelled “Holy Week,” but most of these seem mostly Lenten, Passiontide or Good Friday type hymns. This includes #168 (“O sacred Head, sore wounded”) and #172 (“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”) which are also in H40 (#75, #80). Still, none of these are specifically about the Last Supper, nor are the Holy Communion hymns in H40 (#189 - #213).

Tonight I attended Maundy Thursday at an LCMS church — something I’ve often done since leaving fancy ECUSA churches with nice buildings for struggling Schism I or II refugees without buildings. And despite the chronic habit of Concordia Publishing House towards planned obsolescence as a way to make money, it seems like they’ve gone further than most in filling this gap, with two Last Supper hymns in the Lutheran Service Book.

The one we sung tonight was #445, “When You woke that Thursday morning”. The text was written by (LCMS) Lutheran pastor Jaroslav Vajda (1919-2008) for CPH, while the music was written by Marty Haugen (b. 1950) for  GIA, a rival publisher. Despite its contemporary bonafides, the tune seemed quite singable and the text reads more like a modernized version of a 19th century text than a traditional sappy praise song. (However, as part of an obnoxious trend of modern hymnals to sell a separate book to organists, the hymn is harmony-free).

The other one, #446 (“Jesus, greatest at the table”), also combines two contemporary compositions: a  text sold by CPH with a tune (“New Malden”) from the British Methodists (that appears to have been composed in 1971). I didn’t hear it so I can’t speak to its singability.

Interesting, our pastor chose a slightly different Holy Thursday hymn (#436) for communion, one that is certainly familiar to Anglicans:

Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,
Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

The same hymn is in H40 (#70) as a Passiontide hymn; there the tune is called “Petra” (vs. “Gethsemane” in LSB) but it’s the same 1853 tune by Richard Redhead. H40 has the same 1825 text by James Montgomery as in the 1876 Hymns Ancient & Modernbut not that tune.

Both H40 and A&M have 3 verses: about the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Our Lord. The Hymnal 1940 Companion notes that Montgomery had both 1820 and 1825 versions of the text, that the hymn first entered the American hymnal in 1874. It also notes that the Americans dropped the 4th verse (“Early hasten to the tomb”) — a verse that is in the LSB but one we did not sing tonight.

The LCMS pastor’s choices reminds us that the day did not end for Jesus or the Apostles with the Last Supper, but continued on from the Mount of Olives in the inevitable road to Calvary. Even with these Lutheran options, it seems like there are more opportunities to craft hymns for one of the holiest feasts of the year.

Palm Sunday and Passiontide

Today is Palm Sunday, remembering Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But as long as I can remember — and as recorded in the 1940 Hymnal — it has also been Passiontide, summarizing the entire duration of Holy Week (or at least the trial and crucifixion of our Lord.)

This morning I worshipped at a Hymnal 1940 parish. Two of the three hymns were Palm Sunday standards:

• “All Glory, Laud & Honor” (H40: #62), the standard Palm Sunday processional for every ECUSA, Schism I and Schism II parish I’ve attended for the past many decades.
• “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty” (H40: #64, 1st): the other hymn in our hymnal that focuses on Jesus’ entry and path to the cross
• “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded”(H40: #75): clearly more of a Good Friday hymn.

The first two are (to me) mandatory Palm Sunday hymns. Update: I’m glad to see that LCMS pastor Rick Stuckwisch lists these two hymns as his recommended processional and recessional hymn for today.

I have mixed feelings about scheduling crucifixion hymns on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is by itself one of the most important stories of the New Testament — really the denouement of Christ’s early ministry. To me this is Our Lord’s coming out party, in which his followers both proclaim his kingship (not an earthly one, as it turns out) and also he arrives in glory at the historic capital of God’s chosen people of the first covenant, to create a new convenant.

Good Friday to me is a separate service, with separate liturgy. But realisticially, a fraction of Christians attend on Good Friday while Palm Sunday often attracts C&E Christians (who often step it up during Advent and Lent). There is also the question of whether music is really appropatite during Good Friday: most Anglo-Catholic clergy I know have treated it as a very solemn, quiet service.

Certainly, if Palm Sunday is doing dual duty for Good Friday, there are plenty of great hymns that commemorate Christ’s crucifixion. Instead of Hymn #75, I would choose “Ah, Holy Jesus,” (H40: #71, 1st) that great Lutheran hymn with the tune Hierzliebster Jesu by Johann Crueger. (I would love to hear the 2nd tune, Sarum plainsong Mode IV, but no one seems to use it).

But there are no shortage of choices in our hymnal. “Drop, Drop Slow Tears,” (H40: #69) the 17th century hymn with music by Orlando Gibbons is both timeless and also relatively easy to sing. And for a Good Friday service, it would be impossible to beat “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord,” one of the few pieces of American folk music in Hymnal 1940 (#80).

If you’re not doing Good Friday hymns on Palm Sunday, how would you fill out the liturgy? This morning’s church used “Lift High the Cross,” which to me seems like a happy Good Friday hymn. Asked for advice by a music director, I think I came up with a better choice.

For Luke 19:28-40 — given by this year’s lectionary for Schism II/TEC churches (Year C of RCL) — a hymn website suggested a hymn I would not have thought of: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” (H40: 355):

All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of All!

Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of All!

Perhaps this is more of a Christ the King Sunday hymn, but if you want a familiar (easily sung) hymn for the recessional that captures the theme of Christ’s triumphal entry, IMHO it’s hard to beat. As Oremus notes, it’s also present in all the major US and English hymnals, another testimony to its staying power. Finally, to me it’s one of those great hymns — in music, lyrics and theology — that is always worth singing, no matter what the excuse.

Update: On the March 29 episode of Issues Etc., Pastors Todd Wilken and Will Weedon spent an hour discussing the imagery of “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty” and the broader significance of Palm Sunday. On March 30, the two discuss the observance of Holy Week, including that combination of Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday is a postwar change in the liturgy.

Light from darkness

Holy Week is the high point of the liturgical year, reminding us of the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his passion and resurrection. In only a few days, the Virgin Mary and the disciples went from the darkest moment of his death to the miracle of the first Easter.

Our entrance hymn this morning at church was the standard Palm Sunday processional:

All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

It’s hymn #62 in Hymnal 1940, #154 in Hymnal 1982, #86 in Hymns Ancient & Modern. As with most hymns about the historic Jesus, the focus is on our God and Savior, not on our emotions or selfish desires.

The hymn text was composed in the early 9th century: Hymnal 1940 says 820 but the Catholic New Advent Encyclopedia says 810. We owe our English translation of the Latin (as with so many other timeless hymns) to John Mason Neale. The 17th century tune is credited to Melchior Teschner, a German Protestant (i.e. Lutheran) pastor.

The text was written Theodulf of Orléans, the Spanish-born cleric appointed Bishop of Orléans by Charlemagne. This is what the New Advent Encyclopedia says about Theodulf and his hymn:

A hymn composed by St. Theodulph of Orléans in 810, in Latin elegiacs, of which the Roman Missal takes the first six for the hymn following the procession on Palm Sunday (the use to which the hymn was always dedicated). The first couplet,

Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit Rex Christe, Redemptor,
Cui puerile decus prompsit hosanna pium,

is sung by chanters inside of the church (the door having been closed), and is repeated by the processional chorus outside of the church. The chanters then sing the second couplet, the chorus responding with the refrain of the first couplet, and so on for the remaining couplets until the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross, whereupon the door is opened, the hymn ceases, and the procession enters the church. The words of the refrain ("puerile decus") suggested the assignment of the hymn in the Middle Ages to boy chanters (thus at Salisbury, York, Hereford, Rouen, etc.). The hymn is founded on Psalm 23:7-10 (Vulgate); Psalm 117:26; Matthew 21:1-16; Luke 19:37-38.

In addition to providing a prologue to the darkest day for Jesus’ followers, this hymn is a gift to the faithful from the Dark Ages, that period after the fall of Rome when the church and monastic learning provided continuity between the Roman era and the eventual return of civilization in our modern era.

There are about 30 video performances available now on Google Video/YouTube. So if your church didn’t perform it this morning, a virtual version is available on the web. (Probably not an option anticipated by Theodulf, Teschner or even Neale.)