We May Not Count Her Armies

Memorial Day Mixed Feelings on a Favorite Hymn

Dear Reader,

It is Memorial Day here in the U.S., commemorating all who have died in defense of the country.

One of my favorite tunes is Thaxted, derived from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. I first heard it in “O God Beyond All Praising.”

The best-known setting is the original: British patriotic hymn “I Vow to Thee My Country”; Holst