"All Christians Who Have Been Baptized"

Many years ago, I wrote a post pointing out a couple instances in "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" where "forever" is sung with a melisma, providing a sense of this duration.  Earlier this month, "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" was the hymn in a Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service (on the 3rd), and I found one I'd missed (probably because it's divided by a line break in the notation).  Here's the second phrase from the hymn's tune, "Nun freut euch":

In the third verse, the text here is "Immersed and drowned forever," with "forever" sung to the notes G D E F.

(More recently, I also wrote about some other features in the hymn.)

"All Christians Who Have Been Baptized"

Many years ago, I wrote about some melisma'd "forever"s in "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized."  When I wrote about the Biblical sources for the hymn last year, I found a couple more features to note.

Near the end of the first verse, there's the line "The gifts He gives to ev'ryone," sung to this phrase from the tune "Nun freut euch":

The three syllables of "ev'ryone" are each sung to a different pitch (A G F), and this gives a sense of that breadth.

There's a similar feature in the third verse.  In the middle, there are the lines "The water of your Baptism day / Restored again whatever / Old Adam and his sin destroyed."  The line "Restored again whatever" is sung to this phrase:

"Whatever" is sung with a melisma, and each syllable is sung to a different pitch (G D E F).  This too gives a sense of breadth.

LSB #596 "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Romans 6:1-10, Ephesians 5:25b-26, Ezekiel 36:25-27, Galatians 3:26-27

Romans 6:1-10:  "1 What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  2 By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

"5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.  8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God."

Ephesians 5:25b-26:  "as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word"

Ezekiel 36:25-27:  "25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Galatians 3:26-27:  "26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

+++

The lines "Consider now what God has done / The gifts He gives to ev'ryone / Baptized into Christ Jesus!" in the hymn's first verse seem to refer to the text from Romans 6.

The third verse incorporates the texts from Ephesians 5 and Ezekiel 36.

Galatians 3:26-27 appears at the beginning of the fourth verse:  "In Baptism we now put on Christ."

The beginning of the sixth verse ("So use it well!  You are made new - / In Christ a new creation!") comes from 2 Corinthians 5:17:  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

"All Christians Who Have Been Baptized"

A couple months ago, one of the hymns I sang in church was "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized," sung to the tune "Nun freut euch."  I noticed a couple instances where "forever" is sung with more syllables than it's spoken with.

The second line of the fifth verse is "And give God thanks forever!" sung to this musical phrase:

The end of the sixth verse is

Until that day when you possess
His glorious robe of righteousness
Bestowed on you forever!

The last of these three lines is sung to this musical phrase:

"Forever" is spoken with three syllables, but in these two phrases, it's sung to four (the last four notes in each phrase), so there's something of a musical representation of that long period of time.