Hymn #213: Hosanna, Loud Hosanna | First Congregational Church

Jennette Threlfall (1821-1880) is the author of this hymn recalling the triumphal parade and the exhilaration of Jesus’ followers as they entered the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It appeared in her collection of poetry, Sunshine and Shadow (1873).

Jennette Threlfall was a child of misfortune. She was orphaned at an early age and was left mutilated and completely helpless from two different accidents. Yet she maintained a cheerful outlook on life. She was cared for by relatives and died at a cousin’s home on November 30, 1880.

ELLACOMBE is the name of the anonymous tune traced to eighteenth-century German Roman Catholic hymnbooks. Its earliest known use was in 1784 in Wirtemberg, Germany. The tune has long been a popular choir for this text; it appears three times in The New Century Hymnal.

ELLACOMBE was first found in Gesangbuch der Herzoglichen Wirtembergischen Katholischen Hofkapell, a Roman Catholic hymnbook published at Wirtemberg, Germany, in 1784. What is most unusual about this Roman Catholic hymnbook is that most of the hymns were by Protestants.