For the last couple weeks, I've been watching Worship for Shut-Ins religiously (pun intended). One of the hymns in this week's service was "Take My Life and Let It Be," and as I listened to it, I noticed that in the final phrase there's usually a melisma that emphasizes a specific word in the text. I referenced my hymnal and found that "Take My Life and Let It Be" is included with two melodies, "Patmos" (LSB #783) and "Hendon" (#784). The melismas I noticed are present only when the text is sung to "Patmos." Here's the phrase:
In the first verse, that melisma corresponds to "flow," so movement is implied musically. In the second, it acts as musical elaboration for "beautiful" in the text. In the third, there's an extra syllable for "messages," so the melisma further demonstrates how "my lips" (from the previous line) are "filled" with God's word. I'm not sure if there's a clear extra-musical meaning for that melisma in the fourth or fifth verses, but in the sixth, it sort of musically underlines the "only" in "Take myself, and I will be / Ever, only, all for Thee." It emphasizes the exclusivity of that dedication of the self to God (and also brings the First Commandment to mind).
At the bottom of the page in my hymnal, Frances R. Havergal is credited with the text and William H. Havergal with the tune ("Patmos"). I did some research, and apparently they're father and daughter. It seems that either the text was written to the music or the music was written to the text, which is probably why those eighth notes and resulting melismas combine so well to produce these emphases. Like I mentioned above, they aren't present when this text is sung to "Hendon" (written by Henri A. C. Malan).
