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

Friday, December 3, 2021

"Once He Came in Blessing"

A couple years ago, I noticed two small features in "Once He Came in Blessing," sung to the tune "Gottes Sohn ist kommen."  Here are the third and fourth musical phrases:


In the first verse, the text here is "Came in likeness lowly, / Son of God most holy."  "Lowly" is sung to a descending group of notes (G F Eb), and to some degree, this illustrates that humility.  "Holy" is sung with a melisma (F Eb D C Bb), musically giving a sense of degree (for "most").