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

Friday, January 19, 2018

"To Jordan's River Came Our Lord"

One of the hymns in church a couple weeks ago (for the Baptism of Our Lord) was "To Jordan's River Came Our Lord."  I noticed a couple little things about it.

It's sung to the tune "Winchester New," the first phrase of which has a cross inscription:


I don't think there's any connection between this cross inscription and the hymn's text; however, in the sixth verse, the line here is "Now rise, faint hearts, be resolute," so the ascent in the melody (a fourth: F to Bb) connects to the call to "rise."

In the fifth verse, there's a descent in the melody that musically represents "Adam's fall."  The whole verse is:
The Father's word, the Spirit's flight
Anointed Christ in glorious sight
As God's own choice, from Adam's fall
To save the world and free us all.
The third line is sung to this musical phrase:


There's an-other cross inscription here, but I don't think there's any connection between this one and the hymn text either.

Finally, there's a descent in the last phrase that mirrors the descent mentioned in last line of the third verse: the Holy Spirit "Descended on Him from above":