One of the things I do in my admittedly lazy retirement (besides volunteer work for St. Paul’s and occasional pro bono consulting) is the writing of hymntext – new verse for beloved Anglican tunes. My “Hymn For Jubilee,” written for the Jubilee Year 2000, received commendation from the Queen of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury and an invocation of
blessing from the Pope. Just recently I have written “A Song for Lent” – verse paraphrasing Psalm 51, the Psalm for Ash Wednesday. It is metered for the familiar musical setting of “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” – Bach’s adaptation and harmonization of Hans Leo Hassler’s ‘Herzlich tut mich verlangen’ – surely one of the most mournful tunes in Christendom.
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Charles Hudgins
