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

Friday, April 10, 2020

"On Eagles' Wings"

About a year ago, I noticed some features in "On Eagles' Wings."

The first line of the refrain is "And He will raise you up on eagles' wings," sung to this phrase (the tune is also titled "On Eagles' Wings"):


There's an ascending melody with a rather large interval (a sixth) to reflect that "rais[ing]... up."

I also noticed a few things in the third verse:  "You need not fear the terror of the night, / Nor the arrow that flies by day; / Though thousands fall about you, / Near you it shall not come."  The middle two lines are sung to these phrases:


"Flies" and "thousands" are sung with melismas (C# B and A A Bb respectively), musically giving a sense of movement for "flies" and amount for "thousands."