HOTC #34: LSB 504, Father Most Holy
The Holy Trinity, by Luca Rossetti da Orta, 1738-1739, Church of St. Gaudenzio, Ivrea, Turin, Italy
Lutheran Service Book contains only four hymns specifically for Trinity Sunday (several others, of course, are fit for purpose but categorized elsewhere).
The Author
We return to the work of that most productive of poets: Anonymous. The original text is in Latin, and is quite ancient, being found in documents from the 900s and 1000s.
The English text before us, with a few alterations, is the work of the Victorian English clergyman Percy Dearmer, and was included in The English Hymnal, a collaborative effort between Dearmer and the eminent British composer Ralph Vaughn Williams which was published in 1906.
The Text
The first verse lays out the three persons of the Trinity in respect to their roles in the biblical narrative. Landing on the Sunday directly following Pentecost, I think it can hardly be coincidental that over half of this verse is given over to a description of the Holy Spirit.
The second verse is more Athanasian in nature: the Trinity is “unity unshaken,” “very God of heaven,” and so forth - as with Athanasius’ lengthier tome, there will be no confusion here.
The third verse places Creation relative to the uncreated, eternal Almighty - the point of Creation is to praise and worship the Creator. The verse ends with a plea for God to hear those praises.
The final verse brings Trinity Sunday to its logically doxological conclusion - “We praise Thee, we worship Thee,” in the immortal words of the Te Deum.”
The Tune
This tune is a sprightly 17th Century French creation, and is named after the incipit of the Latin text that appears with it in the earliest sources: “Christe sanctorum decus angelorum,” or (roughly), “Christ, the glory of the holy angels.”
The tune has been quite popular over the years, and Hymnary.org lists it in no less than 134 hymnals. It appears again in Lutheran Service Book at LSB #875, with it’s much more familiar text, “Father, We Praise Thee.”
The D Major key is very bright and fits the sprightly, bouncy nature of the tune. As a tune of very little early popularity, it does not appear in the traditional repertoire, but has obviously been of some use in the realm of modern church music (examples will be posted below).
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