"Werde munter" (TLH #296)

"Awake, My Heart, with Gladness"

One of the hymns in the Easter service I attended was "Awake, My Heart, with Gladness," and I noticed a few interesting features in it.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Auf, auf, mein Herz."  Here's the second musical phrase:

The fourth verse begins with the lines "Now hell, its prince, the devil, / Of all their pow'r are shorn."  The second of those lines is sung to the above phrase, and "all" and "pow'r" are both sung with melismas (B C# and C# B, respectively), musically giving a sense of that entirety.

The third and fourth lines of the fifth verse are "Though bitter war it [the world] wages, / Its work is all in vain."  The second line is sung to the same phrase as above (the first and second musical phrases are repeated as the third and fourth), and here too, "all" is sung with a melisma (C# B), giving a sense of entirety.

The penultimate line of the sixth verse is "He [Christ] shatters hell's grim thrall," sung to this musical phrase:

"Shatters" is sung with a melisma (F# G# A), and this articulation provides a sense of the word's meaning.

LSB #675 "Oh, What Their Joy"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Revelation 7:10-17; 21:2-7

Revelation 7:10-17:  "10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'  11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'

"13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?'  14 I said to him, 'Sir, you know.'  And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"15 'Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

Revelation 21:2-7:  "2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'

"5 And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'  Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'  6 And he said to me, 'It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment.  7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

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The text is public domain:

Oh, what their joy and their glory must be,

Those endless Sabbaths the blessed ones see!

Crowns for the valiant, to weary ones rest;

God shall be all, and in all ever blest.

In new Jerusalem joy shall be found,

Blessings of peace shall forever abound;

Wish and fulfillment are not severed there,

Nor the things prayed for come short of the prayer.

We, where no trouble distraction can bring,

Safely the anthems of Zion shall sing;

While for Your grace, Lord, their voices of praise

Your blessed people shall evermore raise.

Now let us worship our Lord and our King,

Joyfully raising our voices to sing:

Praise to the Father, and praise to the Son,

Praise to the Spirit, to God, Three in One.

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The first two verses come from the passage from Revelation 21, and the last two verses come from the passage from Revelation 7, although while the hymn emphasizes singing, the text from Revelation 7 has "crying out with a loud voice" and "saying."

The line "Crowns for the valiant, to weary ones rest" in the first verse seems to have specific Biblical sources too:  "Crowns for the valiant" from either James 1:12 ("when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him") or Revelation 2:10 ("'Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.'") and "to weary ones rest" from Matthew 11:28 ("'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'").

"We Gather Together"

The grammar nerd in me feels that I have to comment that "gather together" is redundant.

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Played with the "mellow" drawbar organ sound on my Hammond SKX, with the Hammond XPK-130G pedals

"Erhalt uns, Herr" (TLH #295)

Transposed from E minor to A minor

"With High Delight Let Us Unite"

Yester-day, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 14 April.  The hymn was "With High Delight Let Us Unite," and as I was following along in my hymnal, I noticed a feature to write about.

The hymn is sung to the tune "Mit Freuden zart."  Here's the sixth phrase, from roughly the middle of the tune:

In the third verse, the text here (continuing the sense from the previous lines "His honor speed / By word and deed") is "To ev'ry land, ev'ry nation."  "Ev'ry land" and "ev'ry nation" are both sung so that each syllable is sung to a different pitch (G F# E and F# G E D, respectively).  Such an articulation provides a sense of breadth.

The first verse ends with the line "Good news to save ev'ry nation," and while the musical phrase is different, "ev'ry nation" is sung to the same pitches noted above, producing the same effect.

LSB #674 "Jerusalem, O City Fair and High"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Revelation 21:2-3, Revelation 7:9-12, Matthew 17:1-9

Revelation 21:2-3:  "2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God."

Revelation 7:9-12:  "9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'  11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'"

Matthew 17:1-9:  "1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.  3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  4 And Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good that we are here.  If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.'  5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.'  6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.  7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Rise, and have no fear.'  8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

"9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, 'Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.'"

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The text is public domain:

Jerusalem, O city fair and high,

Your tow'rs I yearn to see;

My longing heart to you would gladly fly,

It will not stay with me.

Elijah's chariot take me

Above the lower skies,

To heaven's bliss awake me,

Released from earthly ties.

O happy day, O yet far happier hour,

When will you come at last,

When by my gracious Father's love and pow'r

I see that portal vast?

From heaven's shining regions

To greet me gladly come

Your blessed angel legions

To bid me welcome home.

The patriarchs' and prophets' noble train,

With all Christ's foll'wers true,

Who washed their robes and cleansed sin's guilty stain,

Sing praises ever new!

I see them shine forever,

Resplendent as the sun,

In light diminished never,

Their glorious freedom won.

Unnumbered choirs before the shining throne

Their joyful anthems raise

Till heaven's arches echo with the tone

Of that great hymn of praise.

And all its host rejoices,

And all its blessed throng

Unite their myriad voices

In one eternal song.

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Basically, the first two verses come from the passage from Revelation 21, and the last two verses come from the passage from Revelation 7, although the citation should extend a bit further and include verses 12-13:  "13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?'  14 I said to him, 'Sir, you know.'  And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'"

The passage from Matthew 17 (specifically "his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" in verse 2) seems to be present in the lines "Resplendent as the sun, / In light diminished never" in the third verse.  In the Scripture passage, this describes Jesus, but in the hymn, it describes the righteous who have washed their robes.

The lines "Elijah's chariot take me / Above the lower skies" in the first verse seem to refer to events in 2 Kings 2, although Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11), not in a chariot.

"Jesus Shall Reign"

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Upper:  42 8875 543

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Pedal:  44

Played with the "mellow" drawbar organ sound on my Hammond SKX, with the Hammond XPK-130G pedals

"Munich" (TLH #294)

Transposed from Eb major to F major

"Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands"

Last year, I noticed a couple features in "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands," sung to the tune "Christ lag in Todesbanden."

The second line of the fifth verse, modifying "our true Paschal Lamb" from the previous line, is "Whom God so freely gave us," sung to this musical phrase:

"Freely" is sung with a melisma (A G F), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").

There are three instances in the hymn where "forever" is sung with a melisma, giving a sense of duration.  The first is about halfway through the third verse, in the line "From death's pale brow forever," sung to the same phrase as above.  "Forever" is sung to the notes G F E D.

The other two instances are in the line "Its sting is lost forever," which occurs near the end of the third and fourth verses.  "Forever" is again sung to the notes G F E D, but the musical phrase is a bit different from that above:

LSB #673 "Jerusalem, My Happy Home"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Psalm 137:1-6; Hebrews 12:22-24; Revelation 21:10-12; 22:1-2

Psalm 137:1-6:  "1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.  2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!'  4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?  5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!"

Hebrews 12:22-24:  "22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

Revelation 21:10-12:  "10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed"

Revelation 22:1-2:  "1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

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The text is public domain:

Jerusalem, my happy home,

When shall I come to thee?

When shall my sorrows have an end?

Thy joys when shall I see?

O happy harbor of the saints,

O sweet and pleasant soil!

In thee no sorrow may be found,

No grief, no care, no toil.

Thy gardens and thy gallant walks

Continually are green;

There grow such sweet and pleasant flow'rs

As nowhere else are seen.

There trees forevermore bear fruit

And evermore do spring;

There evermore the angels dwell

And evermore do sing.

Apostles, martyrs, prophets, there

Around my Savior stand;

And soon my friends in Christ below

Will join the glorious band.

O Christ, do Thou my soul prepare

For that bright home of love

That I may see Thee and adore

With all Thy saints above.

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The first verse seems to come primarily from the text from Psalm 137, although the other cited texts also describe the new Jerusalem.

The lines "In thee no sorrow may be found, / No grief, no care, no toil" in the second verse seem to come from Revelation 21:4:  "'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'"

The third verse and the first half of the fourth verse come from Revelation 22:1-2, and the second half of the fourth verse seems to come from the text from Hebrews 12 (specifically the "innumerable angels in festal gathering" in verse 22).

The fifth verse could come from "the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" in Hebrews 12:23, although the context ("around my Savior stand") seems to point more to Revelation 7:9-10:  "9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'"

The description "bright home of love" in the sixth verse seems to come from the text from Revelation 21, particularly verse 11.

"Beautiful Isle of Somewhere"

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Pedal:  22

"Es ist gewisslich" (TLH #293)

"My Song Is Love Unknown"

I wrote about the Biblical sources for "My Song Is Love Unknown" years ago, but recently, I was thinking about the hymn and noticed a similarity between it and part of a Psalm.  The hymn's first verse ends with the lines "Oh, who am I / That for my sake / My Lord should take / Frail flesh and die?"  In essence, this asks the same question as Psalm 144:3:  "O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?"  The hymn considers this question in the context of the crucifixion.

LSB #672 "Jerusalem the Golden"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Revelation 21:18-23, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Revelation 7:9-17, Isaiah 60:19-20

Revelation 21:18-23:  "18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass.  19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.  The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.  21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

"22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.  23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb."

2 Corinthians 4:17-18:  "17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

Revelation 7:9-17:  "9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'  11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'

"13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?'  14 I said to him, 'Sir, you know.'  And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"15 'Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

Isaiah 60:19-20:  "19 The sun shall be no more your light be day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended."

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The text is public domain:

Jerusalem the golden,

With milk and honey blest -

The promise of salvation,

The place of peace and rest -

We know not, oh, we know not

What joys await us there:

The radiancy of glory,

The bliss beyond compare!

Within those walls of Zion

Sounds forth the joyful song,

As saints join with the angels

And all the martyr throng.

The Prince is ever with them;

The daylight is serene;

The city of the blessed

Shines bright with glorious sheen.

Around the throne of David,

The saints, from care released,

Raise loud their songs of triumph

To celebrate the feast.

They sing to Christ their leader,

Who conquered in the fight,

Who won for them forever

Their gleaming robes of white.

O sweet and blessed country,

The home of God's elect!

O sweet and blessed country

That faithful hearts expect!

In mercy, Jesus, bring us

To that eternal rest

With You and God the Father

And Spirit, ever blest.

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The text from Revelation 21 appears in the first two verses.  The first line of the hymn ("Jerusalem the golden") is derived from the description in verses 18-21, and the second half of the hymn's second verse ("The Prince is ever with them; / The daylight is serene; / The city of the blessed / Shines bright with glorious sheen") comes from verses 22-23, although there's an overlap here with Isaiah 60:19-20.

The passage from 2 Corinthians 4 seems to appear in the second half of the first verse:  "We know not, oh, we know not / What joys await us there: / The radiancy of glory, / The bliss beyond compare!"

The text from Revelation 7 appears in the first half of the second verse and the entirety of the third verse.

The line "With milk and honey blest" in the first verse comes from the description of the promised land in Exodus.  I think the first occurrence is in Exodus 3:8.

The "eternal rest" mentioned in the fourth verse may refer to Matthew 11:28-29:  "28 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'"

"Amazing Grace"

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Lower:  00 7643 234

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Played with the "mellow" drawbar organ sound on my Hammond SKX, with the Hammond XPK-130G pedals

"Ach bleib bei uns" (TLH #292)