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

Friday, October 20, 2023

"In Peace and Joy I Now Depart"

A couple years ago, I noticed some features in "In Peace and Joy I Now Depart" (LSB #938), sung to the tune "Mit Fried' und Freud'."  Here are the third and fourth musical phrases:


In the first verse, the text here is "Serene and confident my heart; / Stillness fills it."  "Fills" is sung with a melisma (F D), giving a sense of the abundance that the word implies.

In the third verse, the text is "Your invitation summons forth / Ev'ry nation."  Here, "nation" is sung with a melisma, giving a sense of the breadth or entirety of "ev'ry."  Additionally, the words "ev'ry nation" are sung to notes of all different pitches (spanning a sixth:  A G F D C), compounding this effect.

Here are the fifth and sixth musical phrases:


In the third verse, the text here is "By Your holy, precious Word, / In ev'ry place resounding."  The notes to which the words "ev'ry place" are sung are all different pitches (F D C), again giving a sense of the breadth or entirety of "ev'ry."  "Resounding" is sung with a melisma (F E D E D), which provides something of a sense of the word's meaning, like the multiplicity of an echo.

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I also referenced the version in Lutheran Worship (#185).  The translations are different (although the first verse is mostly the same), so there are some elements in the LW version that the LSB version lacks.  The last two lines of the fourth verse are "All God's people find in you / Their treasure, joy and glory," sung to the fifth and sixth musical phrases shown above.  "All" and "people" are both sung with melismas (A G and C Bb A, respectively), giving a sense of this multitude.  The notes are almost all different pitches, providing an additional sense of breadth, and the accidental Bb highlights this sense of entirety in that it incorporates a pitch outside of the key.