Hosanna

‘Hosanna’ is a rousing anthem that veers between duplets and triplets, suggesting both compound and simple time. This gives it the feeling of music for marching band, which was a style of spiritual or revivalist music associated with the reformed churches in both Europe and America common in the early twentieth century; and it was associated with the Salvation Army, too. Mohapeloa must have been aware of these traditions when he wrote ‘Hosanna’. Songs filled with the cry of ‘hosanna’ usually occur during the Christian year around Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, when according to the New Testament Jesus was hailed as he entered Jerusalem. It is no coincidence, then, that the song following ‘Hosanna’ in the songbook by the same name, Hosanna (a song by M.L. Maile) is called ‘Gethsemane’, after the name of the garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Jesus is said to have prayed on the night before his crucifixion.