The Feast of All Souls

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Author of life, where’er they be,
Safe in thine own eternity,
Our loved are living unto thee:
Alleluia!

All souls are thine, and here or there
They rest within thy sheltering care;
One providence alike they share:
Alleluia!

Thy Word is true, thy ways are just;
Above the requiem, "Dust to dust,"
Shall rise our psalm of grateful trust:
Alleluia!

O happy they in God who rest,
No more by fear and doubt oppressed,
Living or dying, they are blest:
Alleluia!

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1888; alt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluia)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861



Five Years Ago: The Feast of All Souls

One Fold, One Faith, One Hope Restore

Today's hymn of unity, one of this year's ordinary time themes, was adapted from a longer poem by the Quaker activist John Greenleaf Whittier, which was written for a somewhat different purpose.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thy grace impart! in time to be
Shall one great temple rise to thee
Thy Church our broad humanity.
Alleluia!

Sweet flow'rs of love its walls shall climb,
Soft bells of peace shall ring its chime
Its days shall all be holy time
Alleluia!

A sweeter song shall then be heard,
The music of the world's accord
Proclaiming Christ, the living Word!
Alleluia!

That song shall swell from shore to shore,
One fold, one faith, one hope restore
The seamless robe that Jesus wore.
Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1864; adapt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluias)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861

This four-stanza text may have been first adapted for congregational singing in the Unitarian New Hymn and Tune Book (1914) but the Whittier poem dates back to the Civil War. It was written for the dedication of "Thomas Starr King's house of worship," which was the second church building of the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco (pictured here), which was at 133 Geary Street (now the site of the Neiman-Marcus department store).

Thomas Starr King was a prominent Unitarian minister and respected orator of his day, who came to California in 1860 and used his political influence to ensure that California remained part of the Union in the months leading up to the Civil War. In addition, he helped organize the West Coast division of the United States Sanitary Commission (predecessor to the Red Cross) and raised a great deal of money for that organization. Whittier's original theme of unity in his fifteen-stanza poem for Starr King was more about the divisions of the war and its causes, as seen in these two stanzas:

But through the war-cloud, pray to thee

For union, but a union free,

With peace that comes of purity!

That thou wilt bare thy arm to save,

And, smiting through this Red Sea wave,

Make broad a pathway for the slave!

The familiar tune used for this hymn was arranged by William H. Monk from a choral piece by Palestrina, and is most often sung at Easter, with The strife is o'er, the battle done.

Two Years Ago: Amy Beach

One Year Ago: Amy Beach

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

In some traditions, the word Alleluia is not spoken during worship in Lent, making its return on Easter Sunday more significant. Easter hymns are therefore full of Alleluias, making up for lost time, so to speak (or sing). This one begins and ends with a triple Alleluia (actually, four in a row at the end).

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

The strife is o'er, the battle done,
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun.
Alleluia!

The powers of death have done their worst,
But Christ their legions hath dispersed:
Let shouts of holy joy outburst.
Alleluia!

The three sad days are quickly sped,
Christ rises glorious from the dead:
All glory to our risen Head!
Alleluia!

Christ closed the yawning gates of hell,
The bars from heaven's high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise his triumphs tell!
Alleluia!

Christ! by the stripes which wounded thee,
From death's dread sting thy servants free,
That we may live and sing to thee.
Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Latin, 17th cent.
tr. Francis Pott, 1859; alt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluias)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861

This hymn which will be sung in many places today comes to us from a Latin Jesuit hymn printed in Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum (1695), though some sources claim it dates back as far as the twelfth century. The first Latin stanza was:

Finita jam sunt praelia,

Est parta jam victoria;

Gaudeamus et canamus,

Alleluia!

John Mason Neale translated this text for one of his collections as:

Finished is the battle now;

The crown is on the Victor's brow!

Hence with sadness, sing with gladness,

Alleluia!

and though he may have followed the rhythm and rhyme scheme better, I think everyone agrees that Francis Pott came up with the better verse in this case.

William H. Monk, in his capacity as musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), derived this tune for this text from a section of a longer choral work by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, probably the finest Italian composer of the sixteenth century. From the final Gloria Patri section of Palestrina's Magnificat tertii toni Monk took the first and second lines here, repeated the first line, and added the Alleluias. In some hymnals the triple Alleluia is used as a refrain, repeated after each stanza, but his intention was to use those only at the beginning and end. Maybe he thought that it was possible to sing too many Alleluias.

P.S. The Resurrection window above is from the Church of St. James the Lesser in the English village of Dorney, near Eton.

One Year Ago: Rising Up From Grief and Tears