The translation was made by the learned John M. Neale (See [67]) who wrote that “another verse was usually sung, until the 17th century, at the pious quaintness of which we can scarcely avoid a smile:
“Be thou, O Lord, the rider,
And we the little ass;
That to God’s holy city
Together we may pass.”
MUSIC. ST. THEODULPH was composed by Melchior Teschner (c. 1615), a Lutheran pastor and musician. It was originally sung to the German chorale, Valet will ich dir geben (“Farewell, I gladly bid thee”), a hymn for the dying. That the same tune is used to carry a cheerful, festive hymn, as well as a hymn for the dying, illustrates the plasticity of hymn tunes. Bach used the tune in his St. John’s Passion, and it is also associated with Gerhardt’s “Wie soll ich dich empfangen.” It is widely used as a Palm Sunday processional with St. Theodulph’s words. The refrain may be sung by the congregation, answering to the verses sung by the choir. Processional hymns were almost invariably sung that way in the medieval church and Canon Douglass suggests that “we should put this plan into far wider practice if we really desire to improve our congregational singing.”
101. Ride on, ride on in majesty
Henry H. Milman, 1791-1868
A popular Palm Sunday hymn and incidentally one of the finest poems in our hymn books. It was written by Henry H. Milman at the age of 30, the year he was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University—1821.
Henry H. Milman was born in London, the son of Sir Francis Milman, physician to the King. After a brilliant career at Oxford, he was ordained at 25, appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford at 30. Later he became canon of Westminster and finally dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which high office he filled with distinction. He is the author of thirteen hymns. Milman was interested, too, in drama and wrote several plays and translated Greek plays. He is best known, however, as a historian, having published The History of the Jews in 1829, and the History of Latin Christianity in 1855, both of them classics.