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

Friday, September 8, 2023

"My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker"

A few years ago, I noticed a handful of features in "My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker," sung to the tune "Nun lob, mein' Seel'."  Here's the first musical phrase:


In the second verse, the text here is "He offers all His treasure."  "Treasure" is sung with a melisma (G A B), giving a sense of the entirety of that "all."

This phrase is re-used as the third phrase, and the same feature is also present in the line "His love beyond all measure" (still in the second verse).  Here, "measure" is sung with the same G A B melisma.

At the beginning of the fourth verse, the text is "His grace remains forever."  Here, "forever" is sung with a melisma (D G A B), and since it's stretched out, there's a sense of that duration.

About halfway through the first verse, there are the lines "Forget Him not whose meekness / Still bears with all your sin," sung to these musical phrases:


Similar to the above, "all" is sung with a melisma (F# G), giving something of a sense of entirety.  Additionally, "sin" is sung to a note held for five beats, and this long duration mirrors that great amount ("all").

A little more than halfway through the second verse, there's the line "And high as heav'n above us" (the sense is completed later in the verse:  "He puts our sins away"), sung to this musical phrase:


Pitchwise, "heav'n" (sung to a C) really is above "us" (sung to a G).