AST SUNDAY, our volunteer choir sang a truly magnificent hymn known as INNSBRUCK. The Germans marry this melody to many different texts: Wer hat dich so geschlagen; Ich bin’s, ich sollte büßen; Nun ruhen alle Wälder; and so forth. In English, it’s frequently married to texts such as: O Lord, Who Dares to Smite Thee; The Duteous Day Now Closeth; Hail, Jesus, Hail! Who for My Sake; Upon the Cross Extended; O Thou Who Dost Accord Us; Now Woods and Wolds Are Sleeping; O Food of Exiles Lowly; Come Then, My Soul, and Gladly Sing and so forth.
Dom Gregory Ould • The version we sang uses an exceptional Roman Catholic Translation from 1670AD, and the text is Crux Fidelis (a.k.a. Pange Lingua). Credit for pairing text with tune goes to Dom Gregory Ould (d. 1939), a famous Roman Catholic musician who served our Savior as a Benedictine monk at Fort Augustus Abbey in Scotland:
Below is from a legendary performance
by Wilhelm Furtwängler, recorded ‘live’
during Holy Week (1954) just seven months
before Furtwängler’s death:
It is also frequently used as
“O Esca Viatorum,” a Eucharistic
hymn. — Learn more.
Addendum • Here’s how melody and text appeared in the 1910 hymn book by Dom Gregory Ould (mentioned earlier):
