O Sacred Head, from Hassler to Bach

Ep 10, Part A: O Sacred Head Now Wounded, the music and poetry behind this famous hymn. In Part A, we meet Hans Leo Hassler, who wrote the original tune, and look at an earlier text, 'Herzlich thut mich verlangen', first used with the tune. There is also some discussion of Modulation and Diminished chords, with Henry Urcell as an example. 0:00 - Introduction; 0:59 - 'No.72' Bach's Fifth Variation; 3:47 - About the St Matthew Passion; 10:29 - Musical origins, Hans Leo Hassler; 13:16 - Hassler's music; 15:25 - Christoph Knoll's poem 'Herzlich thut mich verlangen'; 22:35 - Johann Cruger's arrangement; 25:40 - Paul Gerhardt publishes his poem; 27:24 - Detour, Henry Purcell 'Thou knowest Lord'; 33:15 - Diminished chords. This video is based on historical musical scores, my own performances of historical scores, some extracts of historical writing, all in the Public Domain, combined with my own original commentary. It includes a CD cover used to draw attention to music I like, but the music from the CD is not used in the episode. This video might interest those who like hymns, sacred music, religious poetry, music history and Classical music.