Head for the Hills!

For Sunday, December 7, 2025
How Beautiful Upon the Mountains by John Stainer

By David Jolliffe

            Having grown up among the West Virginia hills, I have always held dear those hymns and anthems that reflect the perspective that hills and mountains—indeed, high ground in general—are locations where one can find comfort, solace, and communion with God.  Think of songs as different was “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “I Will Lift Up My Eyes Unto the Hills”—these and others lovingly reveal the higher places as holy places.

            The St. Paul’s Choir will sing one of the most tender of these high-placed pieces in the 11 am service on December 7:  John Stainer’s “How Beautiful Upon the Mountains.”  Stainer, who lived from 1849 to 1901, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1888 for his service to church music.  He became a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London at age 10 and eventually became the principal organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later at St. Paul’s. where he succeeded the eminent organist John Goss.  Stainer’s compositions are rarely heard these days with the exception of his robust oratorio, The Crucifixion, which is regularly performed in Anglican churches during Holy Week.  The St. Paul’s choir sang The Crucifixion five years ago.

The text for “How Beautiful Upon the Mountains” comes from Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace; that publisheth salvation;
that saith unto Zion, Thy God Reineth!

As you listen to the anthem, notice how the voice parts enter in stages, building up the musical texture beautifully.  The highest harmonic tension is reserved for the last line of the text, and the work ends very quietly with the repeated words, “that publisheth peace”—surely a goal for which we can all strive in these fraught times.