SKU: A0.926663

In chapter two of Paul's letter to the Philippians, Paul begins speaking to his readers about encouragement, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, and godly affection and sympathy for one another. He says, we are to count others as more important than ourselves. He pleads, Complete my joy by doing these things. From this point, Paul breaks immediately into this other known 1st century Hymn to Christ (Verses 5-11), which I have called, The Great Humility of Christ. The hymn text is a beautiful exposition of the Gospel; Christ in the form of God, did not hold onto (grasp) His equality with God, but humbled Himself and took on the human form of a servant (slave) and poured Himself out for all of mankind.

The anthem is composed for SATB (a cappella) choir in two stanzas, with a bridge section and a coda. The piece is scored in D minor, but weaves between D minor and G Major (representing the dual natures of Christ-fully God and fully man). After the first stanza, regarding Christ’s taking on human flesh, the unthinkable happens; Christ humbles Himself in holy obedience to be put to death, even a humiliating and repugnant death on a cross. Here in the anthem we find the musical bridge between the two stanzas with the sopranos holding onto a single note (high D) followed by a cascade of dissonant suspensions, one voice handing off to the other, finally resolving in a descending scale.

The second stanza declares God’s having exalted Christ as a consequence of His sacrifice, giving Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. The final coda (in G Major) trumpets the pronouncement that; Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.