Choices abound on Palm Sunday. The deliciously vulgar but beloved Jean-Baptiste Faure The Palms, or something more sublime like John Ireland's Greater love or Weelkes's Hosanna to the Son of David?
Ride on, ride on in majesty to ST. DROSTANE or THE KING'S MAJESTY (copyrighted tune, sorry)? ** Some people apparently even do WINCHESTER NEW (though I haven't myself). Of course, it largely comes down to what denomination you are. and therefore what hymnal you use, though in these days of composition software, desktop publishing and whatnot you can pretty much mix and match whatever you want (copyright permitting).
For that matter, is it Palm Sunday at all, or Passion Sunday? Can you sing Hosanna, loud hosanna as the closing hymn, or must you do O sacred head, sore wounded? And if you do sing the Hosanna, and next week you sing The day of resurrection, will you sing ELLACOMBE again, or LANCASHIRE?
Personally, I think that if Passion Sunday predominates, you give everyone a pass on coming to church Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They've heard the story - bring on the Resurrection!
** At church today this choice at least was apparently avoided by not singing it at all. Too much Passion, not enough Palm. (Definitely O sacred head as the recessional).
No comments:
Post a Comment