{"id":24607,"date":"2023-02-09T14:31:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T13:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=179835"},"modified":"2023-02-09T14:34:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T13:34:07","slug":"hymns-for-lent-our-top-five","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five\/","title":{"rendered":"Hymns for Lent: our top five"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Pound picks his favourite five hymns for Lent <\/p>

By Jeremy Pound\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 09 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Running from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday, the 40-day period of Lent marks the period Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness and, today, is largely associated with self-deprivation and penitence.<\/p>\n

The hymns traditionally sung during Lent largely reflect those themes and, unsurprisingly, have an air of doom-and-gloom about them. Not all are minor-key misery fests, however, and there are some gems to be found in the Lent section of any hymnbook. Here are five of the best hymns for Lent\u2026<\/p>\n

Best hymns for Lent<\/h2>\n

O thou who dost accord us<\/h3>\n\n<p>The roots of \u2018Innsbruck\u2019, the tune to which \u2018O thou who dost accord us\u2019 is sung, can be found in \u2018Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen\u2019 (Innsbruck, I must leave you), a song by the early Renaissance Dutch composer Heinrich Isaac. Later, JS Bach later took Isaac\u2019s tune and harmonised it for his own purposes, giving us the version we familiar with today, and including it as a chorale in his 1727 <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/guide-js-bach-st-matthew-passion-best-recordings\/"\"><em>St Matthew Passion<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The English hymn\u2019s words, a translation of the Latin hymn \u2018Summi largitor pr\u00e6mii\u2019, were first published in 1859 in <em>Verses by a Country Curate<\/em>, the work of teacher and clergyman John William Hewitt.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Be thou my guardian and my guide<\/h3>\n<iframe title=\""Be\" thou=\"\" my=\"\" guardian=\"\" and=\"\" guide=\"\" cantus=\"\" choro=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kuirBAKHc5g?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" web-share=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>This much-loved Lent hymn is the work of two Isaacs. As is so often the case, the tune \u2013 known today as \u2018Abridge\u2019 \u2013 came first, published by Isaac Smith, a precentor and draper from East London, in c1770 in his <em>Collection of Psalm Tunes in Three Parts<\/em>. And then, in 1842, came the words by Oxford-based priest Isaac Williams, as found in his <em>Hymns on the Catechism<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>A colleague of Cardinal Newman, Williams wrote many hymn texts, though few remain popular today. Following a typical Lent theme, \u2018Be thou my guardian and my guide\u2019 expresses a desire to be saved from sin and temptation and, coupled with Smith\u2019s rather charming major-key tune, is affecting in its simplicity and directness.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Christian, dost thou see them<\/h3>\n<iframe title=\""Christian,\" dost=\"\" thou=\"\" see=\"\" them=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/APICI8iToRg?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" web-share=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>If \u2018Be thou my guardian\u2019 issues a gentle plea to be led away from potential demons, \u2018Christian, dost thou see them\u2019 is about bashing them firmly on the head \u2013 \u2018Christian, up and smite them\u2019, is how the first verse instructs us to deal with \u2018the troops of Midian\u2019 (a reference to an enemy of Israel in the Old Testament, but also a more generic term for those who hold untoward thoughts).<\/p>\n<p>Those words are by John Mason Neale, a 19th-century academic and priest whose many other hymns include \u2018A great and mighty wonder\u2019 and \u2018Christ is made the sure foundation\u2019. Also suitably full of blood and thunder, the D minor \u2018Gute B\u00e4ume Bringen\u2019 tune was written by the German Peter Sohren in the late-17th century.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Take up thy cross, the Saviour said<\/h3>\n<p>A more uplifting outlook is expressed in \u2018Take up thy cross\u2019, which promises strength and support against adversity for those follow the right path. In this instance, the words come from the US, published in 1833 in <em>Visions of Death, and Other Poems<\/em> by Charles Everest, a Connecticut rector.<\/p>\n<p>The anonymous \u2018Breslau\u2019 hymn tune was originally published in <em>As Hymnodus Sacer<\/em>, a German collection dating from 1625, and was arranged by Felix Mendelssohn, no less, two centuries later.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Forty days and forty nights<\/h3>\n<p>Written in 1856, the hymn \u2018<strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/40-days-and-40-nights-lyrics\/"\">Forty days and forty nights<\/a><\/strong>\u2018 by Nottinghamshire rector George Hunt Smyttan devotes its first two verses to describing Christ\u2019s period in the wilderness with memorable lines such as \u2018Prowling beasts about thy way, Stones thy pillow, earth thy bed\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Over the following four verses, we are encouraged to share in his suffering and reap the rewards for doing so. The colourful nature and optimistic outlook of Smyttan\u2019s words are, alas, not matched by \u2018Heinlein\u2019, the 17th-century melody to which they are usually sung \u2013 a workaday effort in D minor, it does at least conjure up the gloomy mood of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The hymn is not, incidentally, to be confused with the 1956 Muddy Waters song \u2018Forty Days and Forty Nights since my baby left this town\u2019, which is about something entirely different.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Jeremy Pound picks his favourite five hymns for Lent <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24608,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five.jpg",1890,1355,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five-300x215.jpg",300,215,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five-768x551.jpg",768,551,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five-1024x734.jpg",800,573,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five-1536x1101.jpg",1536,1101,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/02\/hymns-for-lent-our-top-five.jpg",1890,1355,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Jeremy Pound picks his favourite five hymns for Lent","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}