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Friday, August 24, 2018

"O Christ, Who Called the Twelve"

Early this year, one of the hymns I sang in church was "O Christ, Who Called the Twelve" (sung to the tune "Terra beata" [Latin: "prosperous earth"]).  I noticed two small things about it.

The first two lines are "O Christ, who called the Twelve / To rise and follow You," sung to this musical phrase:


"To rise" is sung to an ascending phrase with a melisma (E F# G), so there's a musical representation of that "ris[ing]."

The third verse ends with the lines "And help us climb the lonely hills / Where love is crucified."  The second of these two lines is sung to this phrase:


There's a cross inscription to represent "crucified."