The Song of the Hours

In my Dramatic Literature class, I just finished reading the play Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht. In the play, the character, Chaplain, sings a song about the “Passion of Our Lord and Savior.” In other words, he was singing about Jesus. This reminded me of our Jesus unit. The song is called The Song of the Hours. Chaplain was inspired to sing the song because another character, Swiss Cheese, was being held captive by soldiers in The Thirty Year’s War. Chaplain inferred that such an act was common “in the history of religion.”

The Song of the Hours

In the first hour of the day

Simple Jesus Christ was

Presented as a murderer

To the heathen Pilate

Pilate found no fault in him

No cause to condemn him

So he sent the Lord away.

Let King Herod see him!

Hour the third: the Son of God

Was with scourges beaten

And they set a crown of thorns

On the head of Jesus.

And they dressed him as a king

Joked and jested at him

And the cross to die upon

He himself must carry.

Six: they stripped Lord Jesus bare.

To the cross they nailed him.

When the blood came gushing, he

Prayed and loud lamented.

Each upon the cross, two thieves

Mocked him like the others.

And the bright sun crept away

Not to see such doings.

Nine: Lord Jesus cried aloud

That he was forsaken!

In a sponge upon a ple

Vineagar was fed him.

Then the Lord gave up the ghost

And the earth did tremble.

Temple curtains split in twain.

Cliffs fell in the ocean.

Evening: they broke the bones

Of the malefactors.

Then they took a spear and pierced

The side of gentle Jesus.

And the blood and water ran

And they laughed at Jesus.

Of this simple son of man

Such and more they tell us. 

I thought this was interesting because the song retells the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion in a clear-cut manner.  The song  goes by every hour of Jesus’ steps to the crucifixion.