This score is far from polished (i.e., you'd have to have three feet to perform measure 63), but wanted to give you a heads up if you might be interested to use this arrangement for Good Friday. [This is not yet published since I finished it at 1am this morning]. Read on.

I know we all love this melody, but 10 verses with an interspersed antiphon can get grueling (and a bit tiresome to the ear). This is also because there are six lines to this melody in which 3 and 4 are repeated in 5 and 6. So, in order to make this musically more interesting I composed an arrangement that grows in intensity as the poem unfolds and including some word painting in the accompaniment (i.e., an ascending passage for 'the scaffold was erected' and a childlike accompaniment that moves to C major for the Nativity verse).

See and Hear Preview


I intend to publish this in the next couple of days whence it is perfected. It will be available on MyOpus.com and I willl include the Latin ABOVE the English. :)

One question. Has anyone published anything using an ICEL text? I am shuddering to think about the legalities of being a partner with them in crime.

UPDATE: I found a text by Caswall (an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer who converted to Roman Catholicism) and might use that instead. Here it is. Can anyone give me an argument on the ICEL verses the Caswall? (Kathy?)

SING, my tongue, the Savior's glory;
tell His triumph far and wide;
tell aloud the famous story
of His body crucified;
how upon the cross a victim,
vanquishing in death, He died.

Eating of the tree forbidden,
man had sunk in Satan's snare,
when our pitying Creator did
this second tree prepare;
destined, many ages later,
that first evil to repair.

Such the order God appointed
when for sin He would atone;
to the serpent thus opposing
schemes yet deeper than his own;
thence the remedy procuring,
whence the fatal wound had come.

So when now at length the fullness
of the sacred time drew nigh,
then the Son, the world's Creator,
left his Father's throne on high;
from a virgin's womb appearing,
clothed in our mortality.

All within a lowly manger,
lo, a tender babe He lies!
see his gentle Virgin Mother
lull to sleep his infant cries!
while the limbs of God incarnate
round with swathing bands she ties.

THUS did Christ to perfect manhood
in our mortal flesh attain:
then of His free choice He goeth
to a death of bitter pain;
and as a lamb, upon the altar of the cross,
for us is slain.

Lo, with gall His thirst He quenches!
see the thorns upon His brow!
nails His tender flesh are rending!
see His side is opened now!
whence, to cleanse the whole creation,
streams of blood and water flow.

FAITHFUL Cross!
above all other,
one and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
none in fruit thy peers may be;
sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest Weight is hung on thee!

Lofty tree, bend down thy branches,
to embrace thy sacred load;
oh, relax the native tension
of that all too rigid wood;
gently, gently bear the members
of thy dying King and God.

Tree, which solely wast found worthy
the world's Victim to sustain.
harbor from the raging tempest!
ark, that saved the world again!
Tree, with sacred blood anointed
of the Lamb for sinners slain.

Blessing, honor, everlasting,
to the immortal Deity;
to the Father, Son, and Spirit,
equal praises ever be;
glory through the earth and heaven
to Trinity in Unity. Amen.