Sojourn worship leader/songwriter Jeremy Quillo tells us the story behind the writing of his great song “Hosanna In The Highest.”
Everyone agrees that the beginning of Spring is the best time to discuss the components of a Christmas song, right? No? Well then, let’s just pretend - sort of like the guy in the Smith’s Furniture commercial who says “Christmas in JULY sale!!” (ask someone who lives around here if you’re confused). Anyway, back to the task at hand: breaking down the song “Hosanna In The Highest,” from Sojourn’s album Advent Songs.
This one began with the lyrics; and I had no melody or music to go with it. That’s not something I do very often, but the words to this song seemed different than what I’m used to writing. The first thing I did was try to picture the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the shepherds out in the fields. That is something that has always fascinated me about the Christmas story - those men who get mentioned but whom we never hear much about except that they were sort of off to the side as all this happened, and they were stunned.
I thought about what it must have been like for these guys to be there, even down to the details. Was it cold? Could they see their breath? How far were they from the manger? I actually wrote several verses focusing on this, which never made it into the final version of the song. The main part that did stay was the 3rd verse:
Hear the shepherds with one voice:
“Hail! The king of Israel!”
Tell the people to rejoice,
“Christ the Lord, Emmanuel!”
From that idea, I decided to just try to come up with something like a snapshot of such a powerful moment. That’s where the first two verses came in, to sort of set up the scene. In the first verse I liked the idea of the repeated theme of light, and the multiple meaning of the “lasting light” (capturing both the literal light of the star of Bethlehem, and the symbolic light of the Lord Himself).
For the second verse I just wanted a simple picture of Mary holding the Messiah in her arms, which is something that many of us find perplexing and amazing. I almost hear the last line of that verse (where the angels “speak”) as a barely audible whisper.
Okay, now onto the music. This is something that is always really subjective, but I went with a chord progression that I liked and also one that I thought went along with the serious tone of the song. It’s obviously hard to explain the theory behind these things; it’s just that certain bass lines and melodies help to paint a clearer picture of what the song is saying. I began the song in the key of D major, and moved in and out of simple chords around that, just enough to keep the melody interesting. Moving into the 3rd verse has such a lift lyrically, that it was kind of a no-brainer to move to E major from then on out. That also gives the chorus a lift at the end.
Mike’s (Cosper, Sojourn’s Worship Arts Pastor)Â guitar melody (that “dun, duh-dun, duh, dunnnnn” thing in the intro) was a great addition and also went well with the chorus.
Overall, I was really happy with the song and it’s always great to come back to it during the Advent season. I would like to write an entire album of Christmas songs someday. We’ll see what happens…
“Hosanna In The Highest”
Bright the stars o’er Bethlehem
Shining in the darkest night
Guide the hearts of mortal men
Leading them to lasting light.
Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, In the highest.
Come to where the manger lay
Mary with her child asleep
List’ning to the angels say
“Here is born the glorious King!”
Hear the shepherds with one voice
“Hail! The king of Israel!”
Tell the people to rejoice
“Christ the Lord, Emmanuel”
Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, In the highest.
