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

Friday, July 2, 2021

"Jerusalem, O City Fair and High"

When I transcribed the text for "Jerusalem, O City Fair and High" a couple years ago, I also found some musical things to note.

It doesn't seem worth it to post an excerpt of the notation for this, but at the end of the second verse, "home" is sung to the tonic note (D in D major).  Musically, then, there's a sense of coming "home."

Most of what I want to note is in these phrases:


The tune is "Jerusalem, du hochgebaute Stadt."

In the second verse, the text here is "To greet me gladly come / Your blessed angel legions."  "Legions" is sung with a melisma (E F# G A), musically giving a sense of that multitude.

In the fourth verse, the text here, describing heaven, is "And all its blessed throng / Unite their myriad voices."  "Voices" is sung with a melisma (E F# G A) to give a sense of being a "myriad."  Additionally, this specific melisma illustrates the meaning of the line.  While "voices" is sung to multiple syllables, these syllables form one word.  In the same way, these many voices are "unite[d]" in one song.