Scripture Verse

The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Matthew 21:9

Introduction

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John M. Neale (1818–1866)
Wikipedia

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Words: Theo­dulph of Or­le­ans, cir­ca 820 (Glor­ia laus et hon­or). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John M. Neale, Med­iæ­val Hymns and Se­quenc­es (Lo­ndon: Jo­seph Mas­ters, 1851), num­ber 22, as Glo­ry and Hon­our, and Laud Be to Thee, King Christ the Re­deem­er. Trans­lat­ed by Neale a se­cond time in The Hym­nal Not­ed, 1854. In 1859, the com­pil­ers of Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern made al­ter­ations, with Neale’s agree­ment, re­sult­ing in the text be­low.

Music: St. Theo­dulph Mel­chi­or Tesch­ner, in Ein an­däch­tig­es Ge­bet (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1615) (🔊 pdf nwc). Bach used this cho­rale in his St. John’s Pas­sion. Will­iam H. Monk wrote the har­mo­ny in 1861.

Alternate Tune:

Origin of the Hymn

Some of our best hymns were orig­in­al­ly writ­ten ma­ny cen­tur­ies ago in the La­tin lang­uage, and have been brought in­to our Eng­lish hym­no­dy by de­vout mo­dern trans­lat­ors.

In the year A. D. 820 Theo­dulph, the Bi­shop of Or­le­ans, was im­prisoned at Metz by King Lou­is, the De­bon­naire, who was the son of Char­le­magne.

The Bi­shop had been false­ly ac­cused of dis­loy­al­ty to his king, but he bore with pa­tience his cap­ti­vi­ty and the ig­no­mi­ny brought up­on him by sus­pi­cious gos­sip­ers.

While in pri­son his me­di­ta­tions were up­on the King of kings, and, tak­ing the beau­ti­ful sto­ry of Christ’s tri­um­phal en­try in­to Je­ru­sa­lem as his theme, he wrote a Palm Sun­day hymn that has sur­vived to the Chris­tian Church these ele­ven hun­dred years…

An an­cient tra­di­tion has it that the Bi­shop train­ed a chor­us with­in the clois­ters to sing his hymn with beau­ti­ful ef­fect; and once they were sing­ing it thus while King Lou­is and his court were pass­ing on their way to the Ca­thed­ral. So en­chanted was the king by its beau­ty that he com­mand­ed that the Bi­shop be re­leased from his pri­son at once.

The fol­low­ing year he died; but his church ca­non­ized him be­cause of his pre­emi­nent pi­ety. And to-day he is known as Saint Theo­dulph.

Price, p. 23

Lyrics

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All glo­ry, laud and hon­or,
To Thee, Re­deem­er, King,
To whom the lips of child­ren
Made sweet ho­san­nas ring.

Thou art the King of Is­ra­el,
Thou Da­vid’s roy­al Son,
Who in the Lord’s name com­est,
The King and Bless­èd One.

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The com­pa­ny of an­gels
Are prais­ing Thee on high,
And mor­tal men and all things
Created make re­ply.

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The peo­ple of the He­brews
With palms be­fore Thee went;
Our pray­er and praise and an­thems
Before Thee we pre­sent.

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To Thee, be­fore Thy pas­sion,
They sang their hymns of praise;
To Thee, now high ex­alt­ed,
Our me­lo­dy we raise.

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Thou didst ac­cept their prais­es;
Accept the pray­ers we bring,
Who in all good de­light­est,
Thou good and gra­cious King.

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Thy sor­row and Thy tri­umph
Grant us, O Christ, to share,
That to the ho­ly ci­ty
Together we may fare.

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For hom­age may we bring Thee
Our vic­to­ry o’er the foe,
That in the Con­quer­or’s tri­umph
This strain may ev­er flow.

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Triumphal Entry
Bernhard Plockhorst (1825–1907)