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

Friday, November 3, 2023

"Renew Me, O Eternal Light"

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 3 October.  The hymn was "Renew Me, O Eternal Light," and I noticed a small feature in it.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Herr Jesu Christ, mein's."  Here's the second phrase:


In the second verse, the text here is "And cleanse all my impurity."  "Impurity" is sung to notes of all different pitches (F# G E D), giving a sense of the breadth of that "all."  The notes to which the word is sung also span more than two full measures, and this contributes to the sense of breadth, too.