Hymns of the Faith
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
Isaiah 53
A Presentation
of First Presbyterian Church
Jackson,
Mississippi
With
Dr. Ligon Duncan, Dr. Derek Thomas, and Dr. Bill
Wymond
Dr. Wymond: Good morning! This is “Hymns of the
Faith,” brought to you by Jackson’s First Presbyterian Church. The minister of
the First Presbyterian Church is Dr. Ligon Duncan. Stay tuned for “Hymns of the
Faith.”… Here with “Hymns of the Faith” is Dr. Ligon Duncan.
Dr. Duncan: Thank you. And good morning, Bill
Wymond, and good morning to you, Derek Thomas. Delighted to be with both of you
dear brothers for “Hymns of the Faith,” and today we have a powerhouse hymn that
we are going to be studying. Not only is the text and the music to this hymn
profound and deeply moving; this hymn features a team of author/composer,
translator/arranger like very few hymns in all of hymnody.
Some of you who are pop music
aficionados may remember back in the 1980’s the rise of what were called “the
super-groups,” where certain members of a famous pop group would join up, team
up, with several other famous members and form a super-group. Well, let me tell
you, the author/composer/translators and arranger of this particular hymn … [laughs]…they
compose an amazing super-group of people! Bernard of Clairvaux (from the
eleventh and early twelfth century), Paul Gerhardt (from the seventeenth
century), and J. W. Alexander (from the early nineteenth century) give us
the text which is O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. The tune — those of
you who love sacred choral music, you’re going to immediately recognize it as
the PASSION CHORALE, as a part of a very, very famous
piece of music composed by one of the greatest composers of all time, anywhere
in any culture, and certainly one of the finest Christian sacred choral
composers ever, Johann Sebastian Bach. And Bill Wymond’s going to talk about
this. But the tune I think comes from Hans Leo Hassler, and he in his own right
was an amazing composer. I’ve had the privilege of singing some of his
compositions. Bill will tell us about this in a moment, but before we even get
started on this, Bill, I think we need to hear this glorious, glorious chorale
tune to O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. [Dr. Wymond plays.]
Dr. Duncan: Not only do you have a text that
focuses on one of those pinnacle doctrines of Scripture on the atoning work of
Christ and reflecting out of that majestic passage in Isaiah 53, but you have a
text that comes to us from Bernard of Clairvaux (translated by Paul Gerhardt in
the seventeenth century, and then again by J. W. Alexander, the great
Princetonian in the nineteenth century), you’ve got this music by Hans Leo
Hassler, and you’ve got it arranged by Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s in one of the
great chorale pieces.
It all converges…it’s almost a picture of what it’s
going to be like in heaven! Can you imagine in heaven, Derek, when certain of
these stellar servants of the Lord from over the ages are commissioned to come
together? Maybe there’s going to be a preaching service when the five greatest
preachers of all times are given the text of Isaiah 53, and on one Lord’s Day
morning in heaven they’re going to proclaim the word of God from that
passage…and our minds are going to be blown as we reflect upon the Mediator with
whom we are standing and praising? It’s almost like you get a foretaste of it in
this hymn.
Tell us, Derek, just a little bit about this Bernard
of Clairvaux, whom John Calvin was pretty high on. John Calvin really thought
highly of this medieval monk.
Dr. Thomas: He did indeed, and of course that
would be somewhat surprising if you didn’t know that, because Bernard of
Clairvaux of course was a monk and therefore Roman Catholic, and a member of the
Cistercian Order, I think. In Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion,
his magnum opus that he worked on all of his life and is still utilized
today as a textbook for seminary students…or at least should be, there are more
quotations of Bernard of Clairvaux than any other (apart possibly than from
Augustine), which is a very surprising fact. He was called the honey-tongued
doctor…twelfth century. There is some debate as to whether this is from Bernard
of Clairvaux…of course we don’t have any solid evidence of that. The evidence
stems from the fourteenth century, which is a good bit away from the twelfth
century.
Bernard of Clairvaux was the man who wrote the code
of ethics for the Templars, the Knights Templar. He wrote the ethics code for
it; believed in militarily defending the Holy Land from…
Dr. Duncan: Preached the Crusades…was it the
Second Crusades that he preached, or was it the first Crusade? I can’t remember.
He was early on very, very influential in getting Christian princes to defend
the Holy Land from the infidel (by which he of course meant Muslims).
Dr. Thomas: Yes, and like Augustine was profoundly
influenced by his mother…has this mystical strain…I think it’s correct to call
it “pietistic.” He has this mystical strain in him. His two great pieces of
literature are one on the love of God, which Calvin quotes a good bit, and then
a lengthy series of sermons on The Song of Solomon, which only tangentially
refers to the text.
Dr. Duncan: And, boy, is there a long Christian
history of that! [Laughs]
Dr. Thomas: And some would argue that his
interpretation of The Song of Solomon influenced Puritan interpretation of it.
Dr. Duncan: Yes. Even Beza, and others.
Dr. Thomas: So he was on the side of the angels in
part on the atonement. He fell out with Peter Abelard, a very prominent
theologian of his time, because Abelard had suggested that Jesus had died merely
as an example of love, and successfully had Abelard condemned — or at least his
views condemned — by Pope…I’m not sure who the Pope was at the time. But still,
Bernard of Clairvaux is read with some profit for his piety, but it is a
mystical kind of piety and it’s still somewhat strange to me that Calvin loved
him so much…I think grew in love with him. I think the young Calvin was a
little more critical, but I think the late Calvin was almost without criticism
in his quotations.
Dr. Duncan: And Derek, whether this piece
originates with Bernard or not, it is picked up and re-translated by Paul
Gerhardt, who will be familiar to some people who love Lutheran and
English-speaking hymnody that has roots in Germany. What about Paul Gerhardt?
Dr. Thomas: From the sixteenth century, and was
involved in the so-called Thirty Years’ War in Germany…fell out with [now help
me here, Ligon] King Wilhelm I, is it? Wilhelm, I think, tried to introduce an
enforced ecumenical policy of no criticism between Lutherans and the Reformed
churches, and Paul Gerhardt couldn’t comply with that and was ostracized for a
short period of time…I think was unemployed for a time because of that. Today
he’s probably in German hymnody as well-known as Luther himself, I guess.
Probably he translated this. Whether it is a Bernard of Clairvaux original, I
think that the Princetonian gets the laurel wreath here for the translation. J.
W. Alexander’s translation of this is quite, quite stunning, even in the opening
line: “O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down.”
Dr. Duncan: And tell them who J. W. Alexander is.
I mean, as Gerhardt is a famous Lutheran, you couldn’t find a much more famous
nineteenth century American Presbyterian than J. W. Alexander.
Dr. Thomas: Yes! I think I’m going to hand that
over to you–James Waddell Alexander!
Dr. Duncan: Well, many people will recognize the
name Alexander as in Alexander Hall in Princeton. And for Presbyterians,
Princeton in the United States once upon a time had a role somewhat akin to
Mecca, or at least to Edinburgh for Presbyterians in Scotland or in Britain, or
in general. And J. W. Alexander was one of the two ministers most influential in
the founding of Princeton, and was a very, very famous…I think he was at Second
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He and Samuel Miller become very, very
instrumental in the formation of this great institution, and the Alexander
family was sort of regal in Presbyterianism.
Dr. Thomas: He ended, after being Professor of
Church History and Church Government, I think, in Princeton, at Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian Church in New York. Is that still there?
Dr. Duncan: Yes, it is…and is that where our
organ is now? Or is our organ somewhere else? Our organ console, I should say.
Dr. Wymond: It’s actually somewhere else, but Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian Church is still going strong there, and they’ve had some
very famous preachers along the way: James S. Stewart… was he not there? I think
so. And several others, so it’s right there in a prominent place on Fifth
Avenue.
Dr. Duncan: So you have this amazing team of
authors and translators of the hymn, and you’re saying, Derek, that it’s
Alexander who puts it in the form that we’re used to singing it in the English
language. Was this hymn sung in Wales? In England? And in Northern Ireland, when
you were there?
Dr. Thomas: Yes, although I notice that in a
compendium of English hymns, a fairly modern one by Timothy Dudley Smith, it
does not appear for some strange reason…I certainly have always known this, and
I think because I have always known the music which Bill’s going to talk about,
and Bach’s use of this tune in The St. Matthew Passion, which must be the
greatest piece of sacred music ever, ever written, I think…at least that would
be my humble opinion, but the Maestro himself will speak to the…
Dr. Duncan: Yes, and we really do need to spend
some time on the tune and on the arrangement itself, Bill, because it’s
remarkable. It’s got all the pathos and power of German sacred music in it.
Dr. Thomas: I was speaking to a friend of mine
with whom I share a love for classical music, and we’ve been friends for fifty
years. He was trying to explain to me — and he knows more about music, the
actual theory of music, than I do — about how Bach’s theology is so profoundly
wrapped into his music; that he understands the theology behind the text, so in
cantatas, for example, the music isn’t just composed because it’s a nice tune.
It’s actually composed at every level with a deep understanding of the text.
Dr. Duncan: Right. Bill, tell us a little bit
about the PASSION CHORALE, this beautiful tune, the
arrangers…the composers.
Dr. Wymond: Well, this tune was a favorite of
Bach’s. I think he used it more than any of the other chorale tunes, and it’s
also said to have been a favorite of Mozart’s. Both of them are said to have
said that if they could have composed this tune, that would have been their
greatest feat. And the tune is a moving thing, emotionally. I’m just going to
play a little bit of it again… [plays]… there’s emotion wrapped in that
musically.
I think the fact that it descends, rather than
ascends, [plays]… you just asked me what key it is in…and that’s in A
minor. Minor keys are more serious than major keys, and a minor key comes
about because you change a couple of notes in the scale. A major scale in A
would be… [plays]. That last note
there makes a huge difference. There are different kinds of minors, but this
minor… [plays]…that’s one minor; and just
changing a couple of notes makes the tunes have a more melancholy sound.
Dr. Thomas:
It’s always fascinated me how notes, which you can describe mathematically in
terms of the sequence of notes, but how a certain key — in this case a minor key
— can immediately bring about feelings of great sadness and sorrow. I know we
associate the tune now with O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, but even if you
had never known what this was about, what this tune was set to, you’d
immediately think this is something deeply sorrowful.
Dr. Wymond: I
think so. There are the two distinctions: one is major-minor…major keys or minor
keys for a hymn; and then there is the whole other question of the key in which
a hymn is written. Certain keys, or certain notes of the scale upon which a song
will be built, will be brighter or darker, according to what that…
Dr. Thomas:
Right! And you know…and understandably so, but in some smaller churches where
musicians aren’t plentiful, they often change keys because they can’t play
certain keys because there are too many sharps or flats or something. And then
something happens. It’s no longer fitting to what’s being sung! At least in
my opinion…
Dr. Wymond:
Well, I think about that. I do actually here change some keys, but I’m
careful about that. If the hymn is a bright hymn, then I try to go to a
lower bright keythe ancient Greeks made much of the fact that the
scales would affect your emotions very much.
In fact, they thought as part of their
educational system that they had to avoid certain scales and certain keys
because they thought that they would corrupt their youth! And they put a lot of
weight on the emotional aspects, didn’t they?
But anyway, this song is in a minor
key, to be sure, and it just has not only the emotion that comes from the minor
key and the descending line…[plays], but then these intervals like this…[plays]…there’s
a kind of a pleading in that. Just that little turn of phrase right there is
pleading.
Well, I don’t want to spend too much
time talking about that, but you find this effect all the way through this tune,
which, as I said, everybody just thought was a great tune.
What I think is interesting about
this tune is that it started off actually as a love song. Hassler himself
borrowed this from the popular songs of the day, and there are different
texts associated with it as a popular tune. But one of them was O Innsbruck,
I Hate to Leave Thee. So some ballad singer is talking about the fact that
he’s having to leave a town…you know, it’s an I Left My Heart in San
Francisco sort of thing.
Dr. Duncan:
Or Danny Boy, with you know…
Dr. Wymond:
Yes, exactly the same thing! Well, when it was that tune, it had slightly
different rhythm… [plays]…a Renaissance…
Dr. Duncan:
One of those “dance-y” kind of German sounds
that we’ve talked about before. That is fascinating.
Dr. Wymond:
Yes, Renaissance rhythm right there. Hassler
himself was born in Nuremberg, Germany, just after the turn of the 1600’s, in
1601. He was appreciated very much as a musician. He later worked in Bavaria.
His father, Isaac Hassler, was a very important organist in Nuremberg. In the
obituary of his father it says,
“He carefully brought up and trained his son,
Hans Leo, in the fear of God and in the free arts, especially the praiseworthy
art of music.”
So this father gave
attention to rearing his children. And you know if parents do that, their
children often like music!
Dr. Duncan:
Absolutely!
Dr. Wymond:
Not just piano lessons, but other sorts of
things, too. Hassler went to Venice, which was a destination for young Germans
who wanted to learn the best of music, because the arts were highly developed
there in Venice. When he returned back to Germany, he was an organist in
Augsburg for a good while, and then after his patron there died, he went to
Dresden. By the time he got to Dresden, his health had declined and so he was
not as fruitful as he was earlier; and he died. You know lives were sort of
short back in those days. But thankfully, he took this tune and he put it in
a sacred form by changing the rhythm a little bit and also by putting a set of
Christian words to it, and it’s become this beloved work which Bach just thought
was the best thing he could use in The St. Matthew Passion, and he used
it five times.
A “passion” takes
the narrative of the death of Christ, and in Bach’s method and other methods
too, they would insert hymn tunes or chorale tunes to give the reflection of
the author or of the observer to what was happening at the time to Jesus.
And it’s interesting to me that as Bach uses this tune he changes the key
according to the emotion that he is trying to put forth.
When he first starts,
he starts in a kind of a high key [plays], and that comes
early in the narrative of Christ, just before Peter’s denial. Then later,
after Christ is in trial and they are talking about whether to release Barabbas
or not, the tune is more thoughtful [plays]…a lower key.
And then just before the Way of the Cross,
when Christ has to bear the cross, the tune comes in yet another key [plays].
It’s a higher key there, and I think the intent is probably just to have
a heightened emotional reflection. Well, I could go on and on and on, but it’s a
marvelous thing to see how Bach used it.
And I think it’s interesting that this in the
original was a 50-line poem in the Latin, and then it became a 24-line poem
later as it was used in the English translation.
Dr. Duncan: And in our English today we typically
sing three stanzas of it. We sing it, Bill, very often at Communion services,
and it’s so appropriate when reflecting on the person and work of Christ.
Dr. Wymond: And it takes this literary device
and it talks about the head and lets that represent the whole, but in
the original there were seven different body parts that were talked about.
It talked about the hands, the head, the feet, the wounds, and so on like that,
and I thought that was an interesting literary device that it used. And we lose
that a little bit, since we don’t sing all the stanzas.
Dr. Duncan: And presumably the Lutherans may well
have retained some of that, if they used it any for congregational singing. I
guess the Reformed types, like J. W. Alexander, would have been less apt to
meditate on the specific physicality of the person of Christ, Derek. Maybe
that’s why we have a shortened version from the hand of J.W. Alexander.
Dr. Thomas: Right, and possibly in its original
had a crucifix in mind, the contemplation of Christ on the crucifix.
Dr. Wymond: And so, Derek, why do we not
emphasize so much this physical suffering aspect as what is emphasized now?
Not that it’s not important…
Dr. Thomas: Yes….how would you answer that, Ligon?
Dr. Duncan: I think the way I’d start is by
saying it’s very interesting that the Gospel writers, at least two of whom
were there, refused to tell us much about it. You know, it is amazing, given
the horror that crucifixion carried in the ancient world. If you’ve ever read
Martin Hengel or the other descriptions historically of crucifixion, you know
how the awfulness of that act struck terror in the hearts of contemporaries in
the Roman world who had seen it. And yet, in all of the Gospels as Jesus’ death
is described for us, it is …the Gospel writers are incredibly restrained in
their drawing our attention to the physical suffering.
They want us to understand that Christ suffered
physically, but it is clear to me that they want us to understand that
even more than His physical suffering, that His
bearing of our sins and His bearing of the Father’s wrath was, if I can put it
this way, even more important than the physical suffering that He endured.
Because literally tens of thousands of people endured the physical suffering of
Roman crosses, and we can contemplate people that suffered more and longer than
Jesus physically. I mean, Jesus’ death on a cross, for the typical time frame on
a cross, is much quicker than a lot of people’s death on the cross. But
nobody ever bore the weight of sin on a cross but
Jesus.
And again, the text of this song is just glorious:
“O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and
shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded with
thorns, thing only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what
bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I
joy to call Thee mine.”
Bill, let’s hear this marvelous, marvelous hymn and tune.
Vocal solo with organ:
“O sacred
Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded with
thorns, thing only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what
bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I
joy to call Thee mine.
“What Thou, my Lord, hast
suffered was all for sinners’ gain:
Mine, mine was the
transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis
I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor,
vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
“What language shall I borrow to
thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow, Thy
pity without end?
O make me Thine forever; and
should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love to Thee.”