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

Friday, December 24, 2021

"All My Heart This Night Rejoices"

Earlier this year, when I transposed "Fröhlich soll mein Herze" in order to record it, I found a slew of small features to note in the hymn "All My Heart This Night Rejoices" (TLH #77).

I'll go phrase by phrase.  Here's the first:


In the tenth verse, the text here is "Hither come, ye heavy-hearted."  As if to reflect the "heav[iness]," the melody descends at the end.

I didn't find any musical features in the second or third phrases, but I did notice some merisms in the text:  "far and near" in the first verse and "great and small" in the eighth.

The fourth musical phrase:


In the eleventh verse, the text here is "Every hand outstretchèd."  "Outstretched" is sung with a melisma (F G F), and this expanded pronunciation (indicated by the accent) gives a sense of the word's meaning.

The sixth and seventh musical phrases (combined because they're so short):


In the first verse, the text here is "Till the air / Ev'rywhere."  Each syllable of "ev'rywhere" is sung to a different pitch (Bb Ab G), giving a sense of that breadth.

In the eighth verse, there's an-other merism here:  "Hail the Star / Near and far."

In the fifteenth verse, the text here is "There on high, / In that joy."  "High" is sung to the highest note in the phrase (and even in the whole tune), and this gives a sense of its meaning.

The eighth musical phrase:


In the fourth verse, the text here is "Left His throne above us?"  (This completes the sense from earlier in the verse:  "Should the Son of God not love us, / Who, to cheer / Suff'rers here, / Left His throne above us?")  Pitch-wise, "throne" (sung to an Ab) really is above "us" (sung to an Eb).