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

Friday, November 29, 2024

"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"

Years ago, I wrote about a number of features in "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," but when it was substituted for the "Te Deum" in the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service on the 7th, I noticed a few more.

The hymn is sung to the tune "Grosser Gott."  Here's the fourth musical phrase:


In the second verse, the text here, describing the "Cherubim and seraphim" from the previous line, is "In unceasing chorus praising."  I'd previously noted that "unceasing" is sung with a melisma (A A G A), giving a sense of this duration, but the same is also true of "chorus" (sung to the notes C Bb A).

The fifth musical phrase:


In the first verse, the text here is "Infinite Thy vast domain."  I'd noted before that "Infinite" is sung with a melisma (G A Bb A), giving a sense of that expanse, but the phrase "vast domain" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A Bb C), and this provides a sense of space, too.

In the second verse, the text is "Fill the heav'ns with sweet accord," and the same features are present:  "heav'ns" is sung with a melisma (Bb A), and the phrase "sweet accord" is sung to all different pitches (A Bb C).  Now, though, these features lend a sense of the expansion of that "fill[ing]."