This post will grow from Palm Sunday to Easter, as I add some music for each day of Holy Week, plus links to passages in the New Testament Gospels about each day (except Wednesday).
(I’m using embedded YouTube videos for the music. For most of you that means adds, usually skippable. Sorry about that.)
Music for Holy Week
Palm Sunday
I remember visiting Old Jerusalem, walking through its gates, viewing it from the Mount of Olives. My time there wasn’t quite the same as the New Testamant describes, but for me it was a remarkable day.
Here Stanford Olsen, an acclaimed veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, sings “The Holy City” with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. I remember singing this splendid anthem as a teenager in a much smaller choir. I recall hearing my father-in-law sing it too.
If you want to read some scripture about Palm Sunday, here are some links:
Holy Monday
For Holy Monday, “O God Beyond All Praising,” by The Georgia Boy Choir Festival Choir.
This hymn is more about the week than the day. There are probably some hymns out there about the barren fig tree and the second cleaning of the temple, but I’d rather enjoy this one.
Michael Perry’s lyrics are copyrighted, so read them here. This arrangement moves some things around and omits a few lines—but now you know that, so you can avoid confusion.
The Gospel readings for Holy Monday are:
Holy Tuesday
Tuesday’s selection looks forward to some of Thursday’s most beautiful teachings, which only John recorded. (Gethsemane will draw my attention on Thursday.) Here is the King James Version of the text:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
“In my Father’s are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
“And if I go I will prepare a place for you, and come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
“And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. . . .
“Let not you heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
“And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. . . .
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but my me.
“If he had known me, ye should have known my Father also. . . .
“The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubed, neither let it be afraid.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you.” (John 14:1–7, 26–28)
Today’s selection uses a different translation; hence the text is “In my Father’s house are many dwellings.” Here is “My Father’s House” by a choir at Martin Luther College in Wisconsin.
Gospel readings from Holy Tuesday are extensive, but there are none from Holy Wednesday. You may as well save half for tomorrow.
- Matthew 21:20–46; 22; 23; 24
- Mark 11:20–33; 12; 13; 14:1–2, 28
- Luke 20; 21; 22:1–6
- John 12:20–43
There are treasures aplenty here, including a sermon on faith, prayer, and forgiveness; some parables; rendering unto Caesar that which bears his image, and to God that which bears his; the two great commandments; the widow’s mite; and more. I suppose I might have found some music for some of it, but I didn’t. There’s nothing stopping you, of course.
Holy Wednesday
There is no account the the Gospels of what Jesus did on Wednesday of Holy Week. Today’s music celebrates something he’ll say on Thursday: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Craig Courtney’s beautiful “There Will I Be” combines this passage with famous words from Ruth: “Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16–17).
On YouTube my favorite recording of “There Will I Be” is audio only, by Soli Dei Gloria. If you’d rather see the singers themselves (and the pianist), here’s another performance, by a Bernards High School Choir from Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Maundy Thursday
Beyond even Thursday’s wondrous teachings and other events, Thursday evening brings the atoning agonies of Gethsemane, which, combined with Friday’s agonies on the cross and Sunday’s resurrection, comprise the center point in time for us all.
Here a children’s choir, assembled for a session of the October 2024 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sings a children’s hymn, “Gethsemane.”
Thursday’s readings in the Gospels are extensive, including some beloved chapters from John:
Good Friday
. . . is an odd name for a day which began with an illegal trial and a brutal flogging—39 strokes with a multi-thonged whip, into which pieces of bone and metal were woven, because the law forbid 40 strokes—and a continued with crucifixion and burial. Odd, except that from such great evil came the greatest good. We might sing of the meeting of infinite love and infinite sorrow.
I have two choral settings of the same text for you; perhaps you’ll love them both. I think the text merits the repetition. It’s not just about the crucifixion; it’s about taking it personally.
Here’s a choir from St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, singing “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” to one of the tunes to which it is often sung.
I love even more the Gilbert Martin choral arrangement, which I had the pleasure of conducting once or twice. Here the singers are a large festival choir in Pasadena, California, at the Lake Avenue Church. The organ accompaniment, played here by the noted Frederick Swann, is stunning.
The Gospel readings on Good Friday are these:
Holy Saturday
. . . has little text in the Gospels, but I’ll be back with that and some music.
My Thoughts from Easters Past
I write on Easter and related themes occasionally, so there’s an Easter category page here at the blog, if you’re into more reading this week: David Rodeback on Easter.
I’ll add something here too, later in the week.
