‘The Crucifixion’ by John Stainer, of which this chorus is a key movement, was first performed in Marylebone Parish Church in February 1887, conducted by Stainer himself.
It has become popular for many a parish church choir as a Passiontide devotion, although it is dismissed by some as excessive Victorian schmaltz.
However, if you listen to the whole work having in mind its subtitle ‘A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer’, you will find wonderful examples of word painting of the biblical texts, and the listener surely cannot fail to be moved by it.
