Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Friday, November 24, 2017

"Rise, My Soul, to Watch and Pray"

A couple months ago, I sang "Rise, My Soul, to Watch and Pray" in church and noticed a small thing about the fourth verse, specifically the lines: "Pride and sin / Lurk within, / All your hopes to shatter."  The last of these three lines is sung to this melody:


(The tune is "Straf mich nicht.")

The "shatter[ing]" that the text mentions is represented musically here.  The word "shatter" itself is sung to three syllables rather than the two it's spoken with, and "hopes" - what pride and sin wish to shatter - is sung with two syllables rather than the single syllable it's spoken with.