With Palms Before Thee Went

I completely forgot about Palm Sunday until today; not  that I forgot it was happening but it never occurred to me that it would be nice to post about it!
 At first I thought, "All Glory Laud and Honor", of course, I should have no problem finding a video, right? Wrong! I spent half my afternoon searching for a simple arrangement with only the three verses and nothing else. Couldn't find a thing; either the verses were all mixed up or the choristers waving their palm branches, and the priests swinging their censors and waving their crosses, were simply too distracting, or it was a medley with another song, or the words were unintelligible, or, as was most common, all of those at once!
 Finally I gave it up! I have an excellent recording of it on a CD which is next on my list of songs to post on youtube, but I haven't done it yet, being that I still have to create a slide for it and write out all the words. So I will instead share with you my previous youtube project which is also a "Palm Sunday song". 

  "Come Ye Faithful, Raise The Strain"

After I reviewed this one, I decided that I like it better right now, (granted, listening to the same song over several times will make any other song seem attractive!)
   The song, is a call to believers to come and sing of Christ and His great works. In the first verse the writer, John of Damascus(696-754), speaks of God's works in Israel when He led them from Egypt.
 He goes on to describe how our sins flew from the light of Christ's resurrection on that Easter morning. In verse three, he relates Jesus' coming to Jerusalem, and, in verse four, His triumph and power over death!
   
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought forth Israel into joy from sadness;
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters.

’Tis the spring of souls today; Christ has burst His prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death as a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
From His light, to Whom we give laud and praise undying.

Now the queen of seasons, bright with the day of splendor,
With the royal feast of feasts, comes its joy to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem, who with true affection
Welcomes in unwearied strains Jesus’ resurrection.

Neither might the gates of death, nor the tomb’s dark portal,
Nor the watchers, nor the seal hold Thee as a mortal;
But today amidst the twelve Thou didst stand, bestowing
That Thy peace which evermore passeth human knowing.

The tune in the video above was the oldest tune Ave Vir­go Vir­gin­um, written in the fifteen hundreds by Johann Roh, but when Arthur S. Sullivan wrote "St. Kevin" in the eighteen hundreds, this tune became the most popular and is the one you'll find first if you search youtube! This tune is lovely as well, but I prefer the former, perhaps because that is the one I grew up with! but if you would like to hear "St. Kevin", here is a link to it, http://youtu.be/U_UvwsR84v0  .
  Once more, I beg your pardon for my tardiness and wish you a wonderful Resurrection day!  What a glorious Lord we have, "Lowly and humble, seated on a donkey, even the foal of a beast of burden!"
                                           Fear Not Oh Daughter Of Zion!  
Your King Is Coming!

Share this:

0 comments: