What are your favorite Maundy Thursday hymns and tunes?

Friends,

We are just hours away from one of my favorite days of the year, Maundy Thursday, the day Jesus was betrayed and shared the Last Supper with his friends. The events of that day some 2000 years ago inspired arguably the greatest music ever written.

It begs the question to our friends of the Music Board, what are your favorite Maundy Thursday songs?

I have compiled ten of my favorites and hope you will enjoy listening to them tonight and tomorrow. It is sad that we will not be able to gather for services, but perhaps this music will bring comfort to us.


10. Ah, Holy Jesus
Lutheranism is essentially Augustinian Protestantism. No where is this clearer than with Johann Heermann's 1630 hymn, Herzliebster Jesu. The British poet laureate, Robert Bridges, translated it for us in 1897. It is a perfect confessional hymn, one I commend as an opening hymn to a home service if you are worshiping at home this week.

9. Jesus, Remember Me
There were two others crucified with Jesus that Good Friday. Both criminals, one mocked Jesus, while the other saw that Jesus had done no wrong. As he hung on the cross next to Jesus, he pleaded, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). As sinners, all Christians pray to Christ that same entreaty. This song was first published in 1981 by the Taize Community in France, and was written by Jacques Berthier, the masterful organist at St. Ignace Church, Paris. We have confidence that Jesus surely does remember us.

8. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Isaac Watts was one of the greatest English hymn writers. This classic, written in 1707, is based on Galatians 6.

7. Were You There and Were You There, by Johnny Cash
First appearing in print in 1899, this slave spiritual has a much longer history that we will never know in this world. The Congregationalist minister William Barton put the words and music on paper, but whoever wrote this inspired piece did so in a place of deep agony, even torture. When I hear the repeated "tremble" my soul trembles knowing the pain that inspired it. I tremble, tremble. Lord, I was there. Please forgive me.

6. Ubi Caritas
"Where charity and love are, there God is." The origins of this hymn are largely unknown. It was likely a Gregorian chant. Around 1960, Paul Benoit, a Roman Catholic priest and organist, composed the music and expanded the chant, basing it on St. Paul's classic 1 Corinthians 13 treatise on love.

5. O Sacred Head Sore Wounded
Most Americans will know this as Sacred Head Now Wounded. Our version comes from a Presbyterian minister, James Waddel Alexander, who edited in 1830 the older English version by John Gambold. Gambold was a lover of Salve mundi salutare, a medieval poem written either by Bernard of Clairvaux or Arnulf of Leuven, and translated it into English in 1752. Each of this poem's stanzas describe the seven body parts of Christ wounded on the Cross. The slow and reflective tune comes from Bach, as a part of his sacred St Matthew Passion (1727).

4. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Some liturgists insist that this is an Advent hymn, but I believe it is a perfect Communion hymn at Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. Historians believe this hymn was written 1600 years ago, taken from the Syrian or Jerusalem church. The English language has Gerard Moultrie to thank for translating and paraphrasing and publishing it in 1864. He titled it Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn.

3. Ave Verum Corpus
Mozart finished this piece just six months before his death in 1791. He did not intend for it to be used during Holy Week, but it matches the mood perfectly, and I highly commend it to you. He based the words on a Latin communion hymn attributed to Pope Innocent VI about 700 years ago. Many of my fellow Protestants object to the theology of this hymn, arguing that it too strongly pushes for a transsubstantial view of the Eucharist.

2. Miserere mei, Deus
Gregorio Allegri composed this beautiful hymn in 1638. Its scriptural inspiration is Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God. Legend has it that the hymn could only be sung once a year and only in the Sistine Chapel. Mozart, however, at the age of 14, heard it in 1770 and memorized it. He wrote it down and had it published, and the music, which some have called "the most beautiful piece of music ever written" spread throughout the world. If you have never heard it sung in a large church or cathedral with good acoustics and singers, you have truly missed one of the most glorious pleasures and treasures in human history.

1. What Wondrous Love Is This
We do not know the author of this most touching of songs. It first appeared in the hymnals of American Methodists and Baptists in 1811. The tune actually is an ancient English ballad about Captain Kidd, a pirate. Its incorporation in the Christian hymnary shows "what you intended...for evil, God intended for good." All things can be sanctified through our Christ, who loves us so wondrously. When from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be, and through eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on!

Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU

P.S. I look forward to sharing my top ten Easter hymns at the appropriate time. Until then, let us take on the earnestness and somberness of this time.