Extra-canonical Palm Sunday melody

As I've noted before, there are two obligatory Palm Sunday hymns in an Episcopal (or American Anglican) church: “All glory, laud and honor” and “Ride on, ride on in Majesty.”  Apparently they are obligatory for Lutheran congregations too, and in 2015 the LCMS talk show Issues Etc. did an 54-minute podcast episodes on the latter. Today at church we did both, along with the Bach-harmonized “O sacred head, sore wounded”; this is a pretty standard American Anglican combination.

I’ve written repeatedly about “Glory and laud and honor,” as John Mason Neale originally began his most ecumenically successful hymn translation. In my 2018 journal article on Hymnal Noted, it was found in 22 of 24 major American hymnals from the 20th century.

Three Riding Tunes

However, for the closing processional, “Ride on” had an unfamiliar tune, so I thought I’d research the various options. To recap, the text was written in the 1820s by an Oxford poetry professor.

In my list of top Lenten hymns, I noted there are two commonly used tunes. I checked a broader range of hymnals, and Hymnal 1940 was the only one to have three tunes:

1. The King’s Majesty: Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, Book of Common Praise 2017.
2. Winchester New: The English Hymnal, New English Hymnal, Hymnal 1916, Hymnal 1940, Book of Common Praise 2017.
3. St. Drostane: Hymnal 1916, Hymnal 1940. This appears to have been the preferred 19th century American tune but has fallen away.

King’s Majesty is the one I sang as a kid. It appears to have become the American standard, as it is the only tune in two 2006 Lutheran hymnals: the ELCA’s Evangelical Lutheran Worship and the LCMS’ Lutheran Service Book. It was so popular that it was the only one retained by Hymnal 1982.

About the tune, The Hymnal 1940 Companion writes:

The King’s Majesty was composed by Graham George for this text in the Hymnal 1940. It is a splendid example of the modern unison tune, with a rhythmic freedom which helps convey to the listener the grandeur of its subject.

Alas, for those not familiar with it, that rhythmic freedom helps make it difficult to sing.

Winchester New — a 17th century Lutheran tune — has both a straightforward metre and is familiar from other usages (it appears three times in Hymnal 1940 and Book of Common Praise 2017. It is the only tune I’ve seen for this text in English hymnals.

Hubert Parry

However, today our music director threw me for a loop by using a fourth tune, Jerusalem, by the great English choral composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918). Hymnary says that this 1916 (double long metre) tune is most often used for “O day of peace that dimly shines” and “And did those feet in ancient time.”

The latter is how it appears in New English Hymnal, with the text by poet William Blake that some have called England’s alternative national anthem. Apparently this was the text for which Parry wrote the tune, and how it was premiered by his former student Walford Davies. It was one of his final works, as he died in 1918 in the great influenza epidemic.

Still, I was unable to find anyone outside our parish who uses this idiosyncratic pairing. My childhood choir director had his own idiosyncratic combination — “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” to Land of Rest — so obviously it’s easy to do for anyone who knows how to look up an alternate tune with the same meter.

Exemplary Passion anthem

Hymns for Palm Sunday and the Passion narrative tend to focus on Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem. However, in choir we are rehearsing “Ihr Töchter Zions”:

Ihr Töchter Zions, weint über euch selbst und über eure Kinder.
Denn siehe, es wird die Zeit kommen,
da werdet ihr sagen zu den Bergen: fallt über uns!
Und zu den Hügeln: deckt uns!

It is from Felix Mendelssohn’s sacred oratorio, Christus, Op. 97. The anthem is in triple meter and it feels like one of Mendelssohn’s dances or songs, with the lyric passages plaintive in Christ’s warning to the citizens of Jerusalem.

On Thursday, we are singing it in English translation:

Daughters of Zion, weep for yourselves and your children,
For surely the days are coming,
when they shall exclaim to the mountains: “Fall down on us!”
and to the hills: “hide us!”

The text is adapted from Luke 23:26-28 (KJV):

26. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
27. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
28. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

This is the passage (only in Luke) of the passion, after Jesus has been condemned by Pilate but before he arrives at Calvary.

The phrase “Daughters of Zion” does not appear in Luke, but does appear earlier in the passion narrative upon Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem — in Matthew (21:5) and John (12:15) — both quoting Zechariah 9:9 and Isaiah 62:11.

The reading shows up in the lectionary differently among Anglican prayer books. In the 1928 BCP, it’s the gospel for the Maundy Thursday mass, as it was in the 1662 BCP.

From 1979 onward, ECUSA (and the ACNA) have read Luke 23 the same way in their parallel three year lectionaries: the 1979 prayer book, RCL, and ACNA trial use. In all three, Luke 23 appears in the Sunday lectionary on Palm Sunday Year C (2016 and 2019).

Whenever this gospel is read, this Mendelssohn piece seems like a great anthem to support that reading.

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.

Palm Sunday Hymnody

After going to church services this morning, I thought I’d update my earlier thoughts on the canon of Palm Sunday hymnody.

Everyone’s Standard Palm Sunday Hymns

Both four years ago and two years ago, I noted the two preferred Palm Sunday hymns:

• “All glory, laud and honor” combines a 9th century text and a 17th century Lutheran tune (H40: #62; H82: 154).
• “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty,” a 19th century text (H40: #64; H82: #156)

In the earlier posting, I also noted how a LCMS pastor-blogger listed these as the preferred processional and recessional for this day. Not surprisingly, the Lutheran Service Book provides the same (Lutheran) tune for the former, but a different (German) tune for the latter.

As is often the case, the text of H82 has problems, while the text of H40 is more consistent with the original text.

The other problem with Hymnal 1982 is that it uses King’s Majesty as the tune “Ride on” — a tune that is hard to sing. Meanwhile Hymnal 1940 provides the easier Winchester New — mimicking the earlier CoE hymnals, The English Hymnal (#620) and Hymns Ancient & Modern.

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

In the three year rotation of the RCL, the Liturgy of the Palms (rather than the Passion) uses three different gospels are used to mark Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem:

• Year A: Matthew 21:1-11
• Year B: Mark 11:1-11
• Year C: Luke 19:28-40

To introduce these gospels, each would seem to suggest as a gradual “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” (H40: 355.1; H82: 450). This is based on an 18th century American text, set to the tune of Coronation:

All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all!

Crown him ye martyrs of your God,
who from his altar call:
Praise him whose way of pain ye trod
and crown him Lord of all!

Hail him, the heir of David's line,
whom David Lord did call,
the God incarnate, Man divine,
and crown him Lord of all!

At the Name of Jesus

A similar theme is called out by one of the Epistles assigned for this date. In the RCL, all three years (for the Liturgy of the Passion) assign Philippians 2:5-11. This passage concludes (in the KJV):

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is the basis for “At the Name of Jesus” (H40: 356.1; H82: 435):

At the Name of Jesus
every knee shall bow,
every tongue confess him
King of glory now;
'tis the Father's pleasure
we should call him Lord,
who from the beginning
was the mighty Word.

The text was published by Caroline Noel in 1870.

Since 1925 — with the publication of Songs of Praise by Oxford University Press — this hymn has been sung to the tune King’s Weston by Ralph Vaughan Williams. (RVW coincidentally, helped edit this hymnal). This is the tune used both by Hymnal 1940 and Hymnal 1982.

Conclusions
Together, this suggests four standard (and very familiar) hymns for Palm Sunday. The latter two were not commonly used 70 years ago, but match the latest fashion in liturgical readings for this feast day.

Hymnal 1940 and other guides may recommend the use of Good Friday hymns — such as “O Sacred Head Sore Wounded” (H40: #75) and “Ah, Holy Jesus” (H40: #71.1). And they certainly may be appropriate for supporting the Liturgy of the Passion on Palm Sunday. However, in my opinion, it seems like these hymns are more suitable to be saved for Good Friday, or to used on other days in Lent (such as Lent V).

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.”

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.)