Thomas Weelkes's "Hosanna to the Son of David" is among the finest examples of the English Renaissance anthem - a form of sacred composition that took root in the Church of England in the late sixteenth century and reached its early peak in the hands of composers like Weelkes, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons. This anthem, setting Matthew 21:9 for six voices, remains the most celebrated of Weelkes's sacred works and a standard of the English choral repertoire.
The Composition
Weelkes composed the anthem around 1600, during his time as organist at Chichester Cathedral, where he held the position from 1602 until his death. The work is scored for six voice parts (SAATTB or similar distribution), an unusually rich texture that Weelkes exploits to create a cascading, overlapping exclamation of praise. The anthem is through-composed - each phrase receives individual musical treatment - rather than being built on a recurring harmonic pattern. This through-composed structure allows the music to follow the emotional arc of the text: the building crowd, the swelling acclamation, the final resounding 'Hosanna in the highest.'
Biblical Text
The text is drawn directly from Matthew 21:9 (KJV): 'Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.' This is the crowd's acclamation as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Matthew's account quotes Psalm 118:25-26 - 'Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD... Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD' - which was itself a liturgical processional psalm used at the Feast of Tabernacles and at the Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The word 'hosanna' (Hebrew hoshiah-na) means 'Save now!' or 'Please save!' - an urgent petition that has been reinterpreted as a pure exclamation of praise. In its original Psalm 118 context it is a cry for divine deliverance; in the Palm Sunday context it has acquired messianic meaning: the crowd is crying for salvation to the one who, they sense, might actually provide it. Weelkes's setting allows this ambiguity - petition and praise - to coexist: the music is jubilant but also urgent, celebratory but not merely decorative.
The Creator
Thomas Weelkes (c. 1576-1623) is best known today for his madrigals, which represent the apex of the English madrigal tradition. His collection Madrigals of 5 and 6 Parts (1600) includes the famous 'As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending' and demonstrates his extraordinary skill in word-painting and voice-leading. His sacred music, though less celebrated than his madrigals, shows the same gifts applied to liturgical texts. He was organist at Winchester College (1598-1601) before his appointment to Chichester, where his career was troubled by accusations of drunkenness and blasphemy. He was dismissed from Chichester in 1617 but allowed to continue composing until his death in 1623.
Musical Analysis
The anthem opens with overlapping entries on 'Hosanna' - each voice entering in turn, building the texture from one voice to all six - a technique derived from the continental motet tradition but adapted to English liturgical use. The voices then declaim 'to the Son of David' together, before separating again into polyphonic complexity on 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' The final 'Hosanna in the highest' builds to the fullest texture of the anthem, all six voices moving together in a homophonic climax that gives the anthem its sense of culminating joy.
Weelkes uses suspension - momentary dissonances caused by held notes against moving voices - to create harmonic tension that resolves into consonance, a technique that in the context of Palm Sunday worship adds emotional depth: the crowd's cry for salvation carries within it the anxiety of uncertain hope.
Performance History
The anthem was composed for the liturgy of the Church of England and was part of the service of Morning or Evening Prayer for Palm Sunday. It entered the wider choral repertoire in the twentieth century as the early music revival brought renewed interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean sacred music. Cathedral choirs across England and the English-speaking world perform it regularly on Palm Sunday, and it has become a standard work in the repertoire of choral societies and professional chamber choirs.
Legacy
The anthem is aevidence that the English anthem tradition, while less internationally celebrated than the Italian madrigal or the German chorale, achieved comparable heights. Weelkes's technical command of six-voice polyphony equals that of his Italian contemporaries, and his ability to give the repeated word 'hosanna' freshness through eleven iterations testifies to both compositional skill and genuine theological engagement with the text. The anthem remains the most frequently performed of Weelkes's sacred works and a touchstone for the English Renaissance choral style.