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

Friday, June 25, 2021

"Today Your Mercy Calls Us"

Last week, KFUO posted a picture with the first verse of "Today Your Mercy Calls Us":


Between reading the text in the picture and then looking up the hymn in my hymnal, I noticed a couple features.  In the lines "However great our trespass, / Whatever we have been, / However long from mercy / Our hearts have turned away" the syllables of both "however"s and of "whatever" are each sung to different pitches (D G F#, G E C, and B A F#, respectively).  Here's the notation for those lines (the tune is "Anthes"):


These articulations give a sense of the breadth of possibility in those words' meanings.