"Veni, Emmanuel" (TLH #62)

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"

For the observation of Reformation Day last year, one of the hymns in church was - of course - "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."  I noticed a handful of small things in LSB #656 (with the rhythmic version of "Ein' feste Burg"*).

Here's the third musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "He helps us free from ev'ry need."  "Ev'ry" is sung with a melisma (C B A), and that musical range gives a sense of the word's meaning.

The other things I noticed all pertain to the last musical phrase:

In the second verse, the text here is "He holds the field forever."  "Forever" is sung with a melisma (A F E D C), musically giving something of a sense of this long period of time.  Similarly, in the fourth verse, the text here is "The Kingdom ours remaineth," with "remaineth" sung to the same melisma and with the same musical impression.

In the third verse, the text here is "One little word can fell him" ("him" being "This world's prince").  There's a descent in the tune (spanning an octave) that musically illustrates that "fell[ing]."  "Fell" is even sung with a melisma (F E D), emphasizing the descent.

---
*In the hymnal, the tune is listed as just "Ein feste Burg," but in German, Burg is a feminine noun, so it takes a feminine article: die (definite) or eine (indefinite).  I have Bach's cantata based on the tune, and the CD case has the title printed correctly ("Ein' feste Burg"), as does the notation I downloaded from IMSLP (which is apparently from 1870):

Unfortunately, it seems that the apostrophe at the end of "ein'" is often omitted.

LSB #420 "Christ, the Life of All the Living"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Matthew 27:33-46, 1 Corinthians 15:57, Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24

Matthew 27:33-46:  "33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.  35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.  36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.  37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, 'This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.'  38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.  39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, 'You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!  If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.'  41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 'He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.  43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.  For he said, "I am the Son of God."'  44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way."

1 Corinthians 15:57:  "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Isaiah 53:5:  "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

1 Peter 2:24:  "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed."

+++

The text is public domain:

Christ, the life of all the living,
Christ, the death of death, our foe,
Who, Thyself for me once giving
To the darkest depths of woe:
Through Thy suff'rings, death, and merit
I eternal life inherit.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Thou, ah! Thou, hast taken on Thee
Bonds and stripes, a cruel rod;
Pain and scorn were heaped upon Thee,
O Thou sinless Son of God!
Thus didst Thou my soul deliver
From the bonds of sin forever.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Thou hast borne the smiting only
That my wounds might all be whole;
Thou hast suffered, sad and lonely,
Rest to give my weary soul;
Yea, the cure of God enduring,
Blessing unto me securing.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Heartless scoffers did surround Thee,
Treating Thee with shameful scorn
And with piercing thorns they crowned Thee.
All disgrace Thou, Lord, hast borne,
That as Thine Thou mightest own me
And with heav'nly glory crown me.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Thou hast suffered men to bruise Thee,
That from pain I might be free;
Falsely did Thy foes accuse Thee;
Thence I gain security;
Comfortless Thy soul did languish
Me to comfort in my anguish.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Thou hast suffered great affliction
And hast borne it patiently,
Even death by crucifixion,
Fully to atone for me;
Thou didst choose to be tormented
That my doom should be prevented.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

Then, for all that wrought my pardon,
For Thy sorrows deep and sore,
For Thine anguish in the Garden,
I will thank Thee evermore,
Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing,
For Thy bleeding and Thy dying,
For that last triumphant cry,
And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high.

+++

The text from Matthew is the main source, at least from a narrative point of view.  The hymn is more concerned about the significance of these events, which the other texts explain.

The "thanks be to God" from 1 Corinthians 15:57 appears in the lines "Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, / Dearest Jesus, unto Thee" at the end of all but the last verse, although the last verse also includes lines about thanksgiving.

The exchange of "with his stripes we are healed" from Isaiah 53 and "by his wounds you have been healed" from 1 Peter appears throughout the hymn, but the hymn also elaborates on this.  For example, the fourth verse says, "with piercing thorns they crowned Thee. ... That as Thine Thou mightest... with heav'nly glory crown me."

"Freu dich sehr" (TLH #61)

This is in 6/4, which I don't think I've ever used before, so it took some getting used to.

"Built on the Rock"

Sometime last year I noticed that in "Built on the Rock" (sung to the tune "Kirken den er et gammelt hus"), "falling" in the line "Even when steeples are falling" is sung to a descending melody, which musically illustrates the "falling."  Since it's only two notes (D to C) and only an interval of a second, I initially didn't regard this as significant enough to write about.  When I watched the One LSB Hymn a Week video of it though, I realized that (in The Lutheran Service Book arrangement, at least) there's a larger descending phrase ("larger" in terms of number of notes and musical breadth) below this.

Here's the melody for "Even when steeples are falling" (the second phrase of the tune):

And here's one of the harmony parts:

In the last two measures, coincident with "falling," there's a descent spanning a major third (G to Eb).

LSB #419 "Savior, When in Dust to Thee"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Ezra 18:30-32, Luke 18:13, Psalm 86:3, Job 42:6

The hymnal cites Ezra 18, but there are only 10 chapters in Ezra.  Ezekiel 18:30-32 seems to be the intended citation:  "30 'Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD.  Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.  31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!  Why will you die, O house of Israel?  32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.'"

Luke 18:13:  "'But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"'"

Psalm 86:3:  "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day."

Job 42:6:  "'therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.'"

+++

The text is public domain:

Savior, when in dust to Thee
Low we bow the adoring knee;
When, repentant, to the skies
Scarce we lift our weeping eyes;
O, by all Thy pains and woe
Suffered once for us below,
Bending from Thy throne on high,
Hear our penitential cry!

By Thy helpless infant years,
By Thy life of want and tears,
By Thy days of deep distress
In the savage wilderness,
By the dread, mysterious hour
Of the insulting tempter's pow'r,
Turn, O turn a fav'ring eye;
Hear our penitential cry!

By Thine hour of dire despair,
By Thine agony of prayer,
By the cross, the nail, the thorn,
Piercing spear, and torturing scorn,
By the gloom that veiled the skies
O'er the dreadful sacrifice,
Listen to our humble sigh;
Hear our penitential cry!

By Thy deep expiring groan,
By the sad sepulchral stone,
By the vault whose dark abode
Held in vain the rising God,
O, from earth to heav'n restored,
Mighty, reascended Lord,
Bending from Thy throne on high;
Hear our penitential cry!

+++

The cited readings all deal with the call to repentance or the behavior that accompanies repentance, and it's primarily these aspects - rather than specific phrases - that the hymn takes from the cited verses.

The first two lines ("Savior, when in dust to Thee / Low we bow the adoring knee") seem to come from Job's "repent[ing] in dust and ashes," and "When, repentant, to the skies / Scarce we lift our weeping eyes" uses the behavior of the tax collector in Luke 18 as a model.

Each verse ends with "Hear our penitential cry," which has some resemblance to "to you do I cry all the day" from Psalm 86.

The other three verses allude to (among other things) Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (verse two) and events leading up to and including His crucifixion (verse three), death, and resurrection (verse four).  Because these events are quickly summarized here, I think it's understandable that they're not listed in the Biblical citations.  For the record, though, Jesus' temptation is recounted in Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13.  The other events span too many chapters to be succinctly cited.

"O der alles" (TLH #60)

"Entrust Your Days and Burdens"

Way back in September, I wrote a post about "Entrust Your Days and Burdens," after which I lookt at the same hymn in Lutheran Worship and noticed something different.  In The Lutheran Service Book, "Entrust Your Days and Burdens" is sung to the tune "Sufficientia," but in Lutheran Worship, it's sung to the tune "Herzlich tut mich verlangen."

There are two musical phrases that reflect the text in the third verse, specifically the lines "From any low depression, / Where agonies are made, / God's grace will lift you upward."

"From any low depression" is sung to a phrase that generally descends:

And "God's grace will lift you upward" is sung to a phrase that ascends at the end:

Musically, these phrases reflect the "low depression" and then the "lift[ing]... upward."

LSB #418 "O Lord, throughout These Forty Days"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Luke 4:1-13, Leviticus 9:23

Luke 4:1-13:  "1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil.  And he ate nothing during those days.  And when they were ended, he was hungry.  3 The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.'  4 And Jesus answered him, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone."'  5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, 'To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.  7 If you then, will worship me, it will all be yours.'  8 And Jesus answered him, 'It is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."'  9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you," 11 and "On their hands they will bear you up, let you strike your foot against a stone."'  12 And Jesus answered him, 'It is said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."'  13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time."

Leviticus 9:23:  "And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people."

+++

The text from Luke is the main source for the hymn, which summarizes Jesus' temptation and shows how His "trust / In God's eternal Word," faithfulness, and praying are examples for us to follow.

I'm not exactly sure how the verse from Leviticus fits into the hymn.  Preceding this verse, Aaron sacrifices a calf and a goat for sin offerings for himself and for the people (verses 8 and 15), and my Bible's study notes for this chapter explain that, like the people of the Old Testament, "we come before God and humbly confess our sins," so I think this appears in the hymn in the second half of the first verse: "Inspire repentance for our sin, / And free us from our past."

"Freut euch, ihr lieben" (TLH #59)

"All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall"

When I transcribed "All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall" last year, I noticed a few instances where portions of the text that mention the fall into sin correspond to descending phrases in the tune ("Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein").  As a side note, the tune is oddly formatted.  There are only four measures, but each of these has either twelve or fourteen beats.  This gave me some problems in making examples of the notation.

"All mankind fall in Adam's fall" (in the first verse) and "As by one man all mankind fell" (in the fifth) are sung to the first musical phrase:

The end of this phrase descends, musically representing the fall into sin that's mentioned in the text.

And "From one to all the curse descends" (in the first verse) is sung to the third phrase:

(I didn't notice this until I made my own notation [because it's divided in the hymnal], but there's a cross inscription here.  I don't think it has any connection to the text though.)

Here, the descent in the tune represents "the curse descend[ing]."

LSB #417 "Alleluia, Song of Gladness"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Psalm 137:1-6, Revelation 19:1-8

Psalm 137:1-6:  "1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.  2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!'  4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?  5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!"

Revelation 19:1-8:  "1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, 'Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immortality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.'

"3 Once more they cried out, 'Hallelujah!  The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.'  4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen.  Hallelujah!'  5 And from the throne came a voice saying, 'Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.'  6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints."

+++

The text is public domain:

Alleluia, song of gladness,
Voice of joy that cannot die;
Alleluia is the anthem
Ever raised by choirs on high;
In the house of God abiding
Thus they sing eternally.

Alleluia, thou resoundest,
True Jerusalem and free;
Alleluia, joyful mother,
All thy children sing with thee,
But by Babylon's sad waters
Mourning exiles now are we.

Alleluia cannot always
Be our song while here below;
Alleluia, our transgressions
Make us for a while forgo;
For the solemn time is coming
When our tears for sin must flow.

Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee,
Grant us, blessed Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter
With Thy faithful saints on high;
There to Thee forever singing
Alleluia joyfully.

+++

The Biblical sources for this one are easily distinguished.  The main source for the hymn is the text from Revelation, specifically the parts about singing "Hallelujah," which appear in phrases like "Alleluia is the anthem / Ever raised by choirs on high" and "There to Thee forever singing / Alleluia joyfully."  The last two lines of the second verse ("But by Babylon's sad waters / Mourning exiles now are we") are from Psalm 137, primarily verse 1, but the "exiles" part comes from "in a foreign land" in verse 4.

"Wie soll ich dich" (TLH #58b)

This is in Eb major, which is not one of my favorite keys.  I tried transposing it to E major, but that wasn't any easier (D major would have been better, but I can't transpose Eb to D in my head), so I cheated a bit and (only for the melody part) used a capo on my mandolin.