The Hymn of Jesus

He studied the plainsong hymns used in the prelude while assisting his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams in the editing of The English Hymnal (1906).

[4][5] Searching for similar texts, he chose a passage from the apocryphal Acts of John, edited by the Theosophist G. R. S. Mead, which ostensibly gives us the words sung after the Last Supper by Christ and his disciples as they danced in a circle.

[6][7] Though he had little knowledge of Ancient Greek, Holst produced his own translation of the hymn during the early months of 1917, helped by Mead, Jane Joseph, and Clifford Bax.

He also visited a monastery to research the proper phrasing of Pange lingua and Vexilla regis, the two plainsong hymns he was to use as a prelude for the work.

[16] The Hymn of Jesus was so great a success as to bewilder its composer; he quoted the Biblical verse, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you!".

"[18] The Times wrote that it was "undoubtedly the most strikingly original choral work which has been produced in this country for many years...Though Mr Holst writes in the boldest harmonic style, the two choirs often singing the most conflicting chords simultaneously, the texture never sounds crude, because the expressive purpose is always kept in view as a bigger thing than incidental technical effect.

[19] The Royal College of Music performer quoted above thought that the Hymn "for all its novelty of expression seemed firmly rooted in the great tradition of English choral writing".

[21] One critic wrote that "Its spell...wore off considerably by the end of the century, perhaps because Holst interrupts the fun to reverently remind us that the mystical Jesus is speaking".