The date of the composition of Hosanna to the Highest is unknown, but it is likely to have been written around 1680. It is singularly composed for tenor and bass voices, and is almost a bass solo, with the tenor entering two thirds of the way through the setting. It is an anonymous poem enjoining those "that possess the sacred art" of music and poetry to break their silence now, or forever after be silent. The music is composed over a slow moving ground in the bass over which the bass voice sings its winding melody.

The bass solo that opens is beautifully lyrical and features Purcellian text illustration. "Let earth triumph below" ends in the low end of the register, and on "for ever silent" it is as thought the singer were unable to quiet himself, so long is the melisma. The bass declaims to the rocks and stones their silence to break, and embarks on a highly florid setting full of repetition and elaboration.

The tenor finally enters on the word "ravish'd" for an extremely ravishing effect. Up until now, the listener has been awed by the lyric nobility of the bass voice, and the weight and grandeur of the bass tessitura. The tenor enters and immediately begins an imitative interplay with the bass. The feeling at once becomes livlier. There is no increase in tempo, but the upper register and the more active motion of the gentle imitation increase the motion towards the end of the piece.

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