Clap your hands all you nations

Trumpet stop, organ of St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
(one of the last organs built by the late Kenneth Tickell in 2014)

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise (the third in the Ascension Day series) is “Clap your hands all you nations” by John Bell.  The tune is brisk and slightly syncopated, which suits the style of an acclamation of praise.  The format is of three verses, each verse having four lines with a refrain of “Amen, Alleluia!” after each line. This could lend itself to a cantor-and-response setting, or the whole hymn can easily be picked up by the congregation.

The words are based on Psalm 47, and include in verse 3 of the hymn verse 5 of the psalm, “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet” (NRSV translation). It is this phrase “God has gone up” that links this psalm with the Ascension. Gerald Finzi wrote an Ascensiontide anthem “Sing praises out”, which includes verses from this psalm and Ps.24 along with lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetry. I have two recordings of this, a grand one by the Halifax Choral Society and a more intimate one by the smaller choir of Lincoln College, Oxford.

The Biblical account of the Ascension in Luke/Acts (with a brief mention by Mark) does not mention trumpets, in fact the disciples are portrayed as confused rather than triumphant at the spectacle.  The trumpets, used in many human societies to herald the arrival of a ruler, are perhaps intended to represent rejoicing in heaven at the successful return of the Son of God from his mission to earth, hence Finzi’s wording that we sing praises to God “seraphicwise” (that is, like the angels).

Meditating on the words of the hymn and the psalm, I was struck by John Bell’s wording of Ps.47:9, “those on earth who are mighty still belong to our maker”.  I can see a double meaning here: that God abandons no-one, be they powerful or powerless in society; or that everyone, even if they see themselves as ‘above the law’ on earth, is still accountable to God for their actions.  The second perhaps fits the theme of the season better: Jesus may have gone out of sight, but he still knows what we are doing and will one day judge us for it.

We’re out of the Easter season now, so according to my plan no more Saturday hymns until Advent (just because there are fewer than 365 hymns in the book).  On Sunday we start looking forward to Pentecost.

One thought on “Clap your hands all you nations”

  1. As I have said about two other hymns in this book which have chorus-like refrains at the end of each line (in the style of “Christ the Lord is risen today – Alleluia”), I think these hymns are very difficult to write, for the sense of each line has to be self-contained within that line and not depend on flowing over into the next line. And, for me, this hymn fails that test too. When singing it I was sorely tempted to follow the words as written for verse 1, and then run verses 2-3 together into one verse missing out the “Amen Alleluia” punctuations and adapting the rhythm so as to make the lines fit, and do the same for v4-5 making a total of 3 verses.

    Stephen draws attention to the double meaning of “Those on earth who are mighty still belong to our Maker” (v5 of the hymn) which paraphrases “the kings of the earth belong to God” of Ps 47:9b. I think the Psalmist is saying that the heathen nations will eventually be converted/subsumed into acknowledgement of God, and as such will become part of the eventual wider congregation of worshippers – the same kind of hope as Paul expresses in Romans 11:25-32, and when trying to paraphrase it myself (as part of a hymn to the tune of “Onward Christian Soldiers” I wrote:

    Nobles of the nations,
    now reduced to ranks,
    join the folk of Israel
    giving him their thanks.

    On the music, John Bell’s harmonies also raise my hackles in a couple of places: to me the tenor C# on the fourth beat of bar 3 is a mistake – it should be a D# (the B7 chord highlights this); and to me the clash between the descending tenor and the stationary alto, leading into the 3rd beat of bar 9, is a muddying noise in the harmony.

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