Thursday 21 February 2019

Hymns for Passiontide: "Cheerful He to Suffering Goes?"


Hymns for Passiontide: “Cheerful He to Suffering Goes?” 
By William Lyon Tupman. For a Catechesis class at St. Michael's Croydon, 21st February 2019. 
Focus texts: New English Hymnal, Passiontide hymns; Apostles' Creed; Julian of Norwich, Showings

Hymns, such as “My Song is Love Unknown” by Ireland and Crossman, are a beautiful and important feature of our Christian worship. They allow us to put two of the many gifts God has given us (music and words) to a perfect use – to aid our worship of Him, giving Him glory. How fitting. But hymns are also able to teach us more about aspects of the life of Jesus Christ, His ministry and our theology, and often reiterating Christian orthodoxy over heresy. I will now examine four hymns for Passiontide from the New English Hymnal; if you have access to a copy of the hymnbook, having it to hand now will be very helpful, but otherwise you can find all the words and tunes to these hymns online (including rolling scores on YouTube). 

Hymn 82, "Drop, drop, slow tears," is a well-loved devotional hymn. Being very short (with only three relatively short verses), it is both simple and effective in its devotion to our Lord. 

It is a hymn which emphasises Christ's agony and anguish throughout; all three verses focus on the tears of Christ. Verse one opens with the line "Drop, drop, slow tears". The repeated "drop" comes in a major third higher than the first instance of the word (F to A), immediately fixing the focus on Christ's tears. It seems doubtless that Christ's suffering is the focus, here; the words "tears" in verse one, together with "eyes" in verse two and "floods" in verse three (all occurring at the end of the first line of each verse) are all set to the note C in the soprano part; the highest pitch of note heard in the hymn. 

However, it is not only Christ's passion which is in the spotlight; so is our hope and salvation in Christ. The tonality is firmly settled in F Major (with major keys or chords generally signalling positive emotions in music), which hints at reassurance. Furthermore, this hymn is usually sung slowly and moderately quietly; a real sense of peace is implied. For wider context, the beautiful and peaceful 'Spiegel Im Spiegel' by Arvo Pärt is written in a similar way. And it is indeed peace which equally prevails in this hymn; Christ is the "Prince of Peace" (verse one), and He brings us peace by drowning "all" our "faults and fears" (verse three) - through and with the tears of Christ. 

Hymn 84, "It is a thing most wonderful," is longer and has a more elaborate tune than "Drop, drop, slow tears." The hymn expresses the awe of the worshipper at the love Christ showed us, by how He Himself came to save us from our sins. 

In last term's Catechesis sessions at St Michael's, we explored many aspects of the Incarnation of Christ; this term, we are focusing on the Paschal Mystery (Christ's passion, death and resurrection). This hymn showcases the union of Christ's Incarnation and Passion, as seen in verse one, where we see how "God's own Son should come from heaven, and die to save a child like me". A sense of awe is felt strongly here; E-flat is the highest note heard in each verse, and it is set to the word "Son" in verse one. Yes, it really is God's own dear Son who came from Heaven to save us from our sins. Is it "almost too wonderful to be"? Maybe - but this is the decision God has made for us, to come as God Incarnate to save us from our sins (as the worshipper sings in verse two). The Incarnational words "come from heaven" is creatively word-painted to a falling melodic line in verse one; Christ freely chose to stoop down from Heaven, in order to save us. 

Throughout, this hymn evokes awe at Christ's death because of His love for us, with the worshipper singing of seeing His death in verse three. This is almost like Julian of Norwich, who prayed to suffer so she could experience something of the suffering of Christ, as an act of devotion and love. And this is the key-note of the whole hymn - love. As well as it being written in the key of love and union with God (E-flat Major), love underpins the whole text of the hymn; Christ's love for us in verses one, two and three, and the worshipper's love for Christ in verses four and five. While the love Christ shows for us is still infinitely more than we can possibly express (perhaps symbolised to a degree here by the three-two verse ratio), we still do our best to love Him; the word "love" in verse five is, again, on the highest note of the verse (E-flat). The hymn concludes eschatologically, with the worshipper looking forward to when they see Christ "as thou art" in verse five. 

Hymn 85, "Jesu, meek and lowly," is again emphatic of the love Christ has for us, and of our gratitude at His salvific actions. The suffering of Christ is not as pronounced in this hymn as it was in "Drop, drop, slow tears"; here, the emphasis is more on the salvation won for us by the powerful, triumphant Christ. 

On the surface, it would seem that Christ's meekness is emphasised (in verse one); but this refers more to His character than any notion of Him being weak, and it perhaps also reminds us of His Incarnation (as seen in verse one of "It is a thing most wonderful"). Verse one introduces the crying theme also seen in "Drop, drop, slow tears"; but this is the worshipper's tears here, rather than Christ's. Jesus is predominantly portrayed as being powerful and triumphant in this hymn; He is the "Prince of life and power" in verse two, and our "salvation's tower" who still calls sinners to follow Him - even while He is on the cross. Christ is, here, clearly in control of His passion; just as the Gospels of Luke and John explicitly emphasise (and Mark and Matthew, albeit more implicitly). Indeed, his display of power on the cross inspires the worshipper to bend "low" before the Lord in adoration in verse three - just as we do at Benediction in front of the Blessed Sacrament. 

Christ's passion and suffering is, of course, still remembered in this hymn; His "red wounds streaming... blood" in verse four are a testimony to this. But the wounds stream with "life-blood" which is "gleaming," "flowing" and "bestowing" pardon freely. Thus, the focus remains firmly on the salvation Christ has won for us, His followers, by his death through love for us, uniting us with God. Moreover, the tonality of the hymn maintains this positive focus, again being in E-flat Major - the key of love and union with God. In addition, the eschatological direction of verse six brings the hymn further into the present context; Jesus's salvific actions in the past have guaranteed for us a safe future, and now we may be continually accompanied, guided, directed and protected by our Lord. 

Hymn 93, "Were you there?," is as well known as an anthem as it is a hymn. It is a Spiritual song; in its traditional form, the melody is an American Spiritual designed to be sung in unison throughout, and the words are a Negro Spiritual (the choir version and adapted anthems feature various harmonisations). It is in some ways quite different to the other three hymns seen so far; but it also shares much in common. 

The hymn unmistakably resonates with the Creed, in a way much more so than the other three hymns; yet all four of these hymns promote orthodoxy over heresy. Let us consider how Christ was, as the Apostles' Creed states, "crucified, died and was buried... On the third day He rose again from the dead." In this hymn, Christ was crucified (verse one); Christ died (verses three and four); Christ was buried (verse five); and Christ rose (verse six). 

The way in which the Creed is set here invites us to ask, "do we realise what Christ has done for us?" And also, "do we know what this means for us?" Every verse is composed of one Credal line, repeated once, and using a similar melodic contour but at a higher pitch in its repetition (and once again, like two of the three other examples of Passiontide hymns I've analysed here, it is written in the key of E-flat Major – the key of love and union with God). And each verse – whether being about Christ's crucifixion, death, burial or resurrection - evokes the same response from the worshipper, in the chorus - three-fold trembling (repeated), followed by a further repetition of the content of the verse. To me, this emphasises how Christ's passion, death and resurrection are all parts of Christ's one, complete, eternal and perfect salvific event. 

Together, these hymns for Passiontide show both the suffering and triumph of Christ, in His passion, death and resurrection - the Paschal Mystery – and how we respond in devotion, awe and love. While some hymns may emphasise either the suffering or the glorification of Christ more, the hymns are united - directly or indirectly - in their recognition of Christ's motivation of love for why He performed His salvific actions - and our love for Him. 

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