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

Friday, May 14, 2021

"Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation"

Over the last couple years, I found a number of things to note in "Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation," sung to the tune "Westminster Abbey."

Here's the second phrase:


In the third verse, the text here is "All the gifts they ask to gain."  "Gifts" is sung with a melisma (B A), giving a sense of the entirety of that "all."

Here's the fourth phrase:


In the first verse, the text here is "Binding all the Church in one."  Similar to what's described above, both "all" (A B) and "Church" (G F#) are sung with melismas for a sense of the entirety of "all."  In the fourth verse, the text here, describing the Trinity, is "Ever three and ever one."  The second "ever" is sung with a melisma (G F# F#), giving something of a sense of duration.

In the arrangement in The Lutheran Service Book, the melody and harmony parts converge at the end of this line so that the E is sung by both.  Musically, this illustrates the word's meaning, although the effect is more applicable to the voices converging at the end of the line "Binding all the Church in one."