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

Friday, November 27, 2020

"God of Grace and God of Glory"

Last month, I wrote a post on "God of Grace and God of Glory."  One of the features I noted was that "long" in the lines "From the fears that long have bound us / Free our hearts to faith and praise" is sung with a melisma for a sense of duration.  A few days after that post was published, I lookt at the version of "God of Grace and God of Glory" in Lutheran Worship and discovered a slight difference.

In The Lutheran Service Book, "long" is sung with a two-note melisma (F E):


In Lutheran Worship, "long" is sung with a three-note melisma (G F# G):


This isn't a particularly significant difference, but because of that extra note, there is a bit more emphasis in the Lutheran Worship version.