Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is approaching! The last Sunday in Lent celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. As he approached the gates, seated on a donkey, the crowds scattered palm leaves before him. The crowds also sang a part of Psalm 118: 

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.

There were (and are) many composers who have written Hosannas and other pieces from the life of Jesus for Palm Sunday!

Here are a few:

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1540-1611) wrote a Hosanna filio David (Hosanna to the Son of David), a very popular piece. It is an extract from a larger work; the Pueri Hebraeorum.

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) wrote a glorious and exciting Hosanna.

Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) has his The Woman with the Alabaster Box, using the story from Matthew 26: 6-13. It concerns the poor woman who pours a precious oil on the head of Jesus and the disciples complain about the waste, with his reply.

Thomas Caustun

Thomas Caustun (or Causton) is a little-known English composer who lived around 1520-1569. However, his music (a whole pile of them, in fact) was published in the first collection of sacred music for the recently formed Anglican church in England.

The Certain Notes, set forth in four and three parts, to be sung at the Morning, 

Communion, and Evening Prayer was published in 1560 (well, possibly. There is a partial version of the 1560 one, but people now suspect it was only partially printed but never completed, and was actually officially published in 1565) by John Day. Caustun's music is some of the first pieces written for the newly-formed Anglican church, and it helped fill the vacuum.

John Stafford Smith and Anthems

Besides whipping up the national anthem for the U.S., he wrote glees, catches, and anthems. His father was the organist at the Gloucester Cathedral, and John studied with William Boyce. After his studies, he became associated with the Chapel Royal in London, becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel and an organist there.

In 1793, he released a collection of anthems, titled (appropriately enough) Anthems Composed for the Choir-Service of the Church of England. So there!

Iterum Press has just released one of his anthems: Come unto Me, All Ye That Labour, for SATB and accomp.

Forgotten Composer: John Stafford Smith

John Stafford Smith (1750-1836): hmmmmm . . .  where do I know that name from? Oh yes, he's the composer of the national anthem of the United States! Well, yes, in a way. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica:


Long assumed to have originated as a drinking song, the melody was taken from the song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which first surfaced about 1776 as a club anthem of the Anacreontic Society, an amateur mens’ music club in London. Written by British composer John Stafford Smith—whose identity was discovered only in the 1970s by a librarian in the music division of the Library of Congress—the song was sung to signal a transition between the evening’s orchestral music concert and after-dinner participatory singing.



And Francis Scott Key?


Key, a lawyer, wrote the lyrics on September 14, 1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry, Maryland. Key’s words were first published in a broadside in 1814 under the title “Defence of Fort McHenry.” It was then printed in Baltimore-area newspapers with an indication that the words were to be sung to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The title was changed to “The Star-Spangled Banner” when it appeared in sheet music form later the same year…

Did John Stafford Smith know about Key's words and its publication? This information doesn't seem to be recorded (as far as I know), but he probably did know: it was released during Smith's lifetime, the melody was quickly adopted by the American Navy soon after it this, the melody was used for many other purposes as well. It is an interesting question. Maybe worthy of an essay.
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John Stafford Smith wrote a lot more music than just this one piece, though. That's in the next entry.

Iterum Press

Iterum Press specializes in the publication of sacred music for choir written between 1750-1900. Why is our press different? We discover musical jewels that have vanished into obscurity but need to be brought back into the church repertoire. Works by Attwood, Bristow, von Neukomm,  and Carr are some of the composers that we offer here. They can be performed in the church, or even in concerts. And not expensive. Check out our website.

What music does that mean?

It will be forgotten music treasures. Music by well-known composers of that time: Joseph Barnby,

George Frederick Barstow, or Samuel S. Wesley. Not just the pieces we know, though. The forgotten music that is worth singing again.

Music by composers that have been lost in time: Philip Trajetta, John Beckwith, or Benjamin Carr. They were well known in their day, but have been almost completely erased today. Iterum Press has found sacred choir music from these composers.