Lyrics: Theodulph of Orleans, c.820. Translated by John Mason Neale, 1854.
Music: ST THEODULPH by Melchoir Tesner, 1615. This tune, and the lyrics, cry out for organ:
Theme: Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!†Matthew 21:9
Another hymn that’s not on my playlist nor that of any church I’ve ever attended. This one started out as in Latin written as a processional hymn, in the Middle Ages when the priest and the congregation used to carry the cross or relics through the town in procession on special occasions such as Palm Sunday.
Refrain:
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 Blessed One.
The company of angels
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
with palms before thee went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before thee we present.
To thee before thy passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to thee, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.
Thou didst accept their praises;
accept the prayers we bring,
who in all good delightest,
thou good and gracious King.
Theodulph of Orleans was born in Spain about 760 AD. He was both a poet and a theologian.The Emperor Charlemagne appointed him Bishop of Orleans, France. However, when Charlemagne died, his son, Louis the Pious suspected Theodulph of treason, and he was imprisoned in Angiers in 818.
While in prison, Theodulph wrote the verses that give us this hymn. Theodulph died in while still in prison in 821.
John Mason Neale noted “another verse was usually sung until the seventeenth century, at the quaintness of which we can scarcely avoid a smileâ€:
Be Thou, O Lord, the Rider,
And we the little ass,
That to God’s holy city
Together we may pass.
Quaint. Yes, and we think some of today’s praise songs have somewhat foolish lyrics. I don’t know whether we can blame Theodulph or Neale or someone else for trying to make us all into donkeys.
Sources:
The Center for Church Music: All Glory Laud and Honor.
Precious Lord Take My Hand.
Catholic Encyclopedia: Theodulf
This and “Hosanna, loud hosanna” have been the repertoire for Palm Sunday at virtually every church I’ve attended. And we have almost always sung it as three stanzas, alas. It’s much better when used as an actual processional and done in five stanzas with refrain as you have it here. We finally did it as a processional at Fremont Baptist last Palm Sunday, for the first time, but we still sang the hymnal’s three stanzas.
The tune, also called “Valet will ich dir geben” (from the first line of its original German text, unrelated to Theodulph’s Latin “Gloria laus et honor”), is also used for some other texts (with a meter of 7.6.7.6.D, there are many texts that will fit it) including “Blest be the King whose coming” (Fred Pratt Green’s, I believe, translation of the Spanish hymn “Bendito el Rey que viene”), “From Bethany the Master”, “God is my strong salvation”, “Hail to the Lord’s anointed”, “Hosanna in the highest”, “O Lord, how shall I meet thee”, “The morning light is breaking”, and “With happy voices ringing” in my index of 39 hymnals.
I don’t understand your comment that this is a hymn unknown/unplayed in any churches you have attended … I have attended several dozen in my life, in several different countries, and ALL know this one as a traditional Palm Sunday processional.
Greetings. I haven’t dropped by for awhile. I enjoyed your comments on the hymn “All Glory, Laud and Honour.” A thousand years old, but still in use. (I was a little surprised that no church you’ve ever attended ever used it.
As to the quaintness of the hymn’s reference to us as “asses”…! we’d be unlikely to sing that stanza today, but I do get the point. That it is a wonderful thing to be engaged in humble service for the Lord. And the unusual analogy reminded me of a sermon by evangelist Dwight L. Moody. He was preaching on the selection of Saul to be king over Israel, and said, “Saul went out to search for his father’s asses [I Sam. 9:3], and found a whole nation of them that wanted to make him king!”
And if you’ll excuse a brief “commercial:†With the arrival of fall, we begin to think of the Christmas season up ahead. If you do not have a good book on the subject of our Christmas carols, I encourage you to take a look at mine, Discovering the Songs of Christmas. In it, I discuss the history and meaning of 63 carols and Christmas hymns. The book is available through Amazon, or directly from Jebaire Publishing. (Might make a great gift too!)