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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