When I wrote a post about the Biblical sources in "Faith and Truth and Life Bestowing" last month, I noticed a few significant melismas. The hymn is sung to the tune "Holy Manna." Here are the third and fourth phrases:
In the first verse, the text here is "Seed to life eternal sowing, / Scattered on the wind abroad." "Eternal" is sung with a melisma (F G G F), giving a sense of duration, and "Scattered" is sung with a melisma (C C D), giving something of a sense of its meaning. In the second verse, the text here is "Daily in our hearts increasing, / Bearing fruit that shall remain." "Increasing" is sung with a melisma (G F A G F D), so there's a sense of the word's meaning.
