"O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright"

Last year, I noticed a few features in "O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright."  Because it's an Epiphany hymn, though, I waited to write about it until it was seasonally appropriate.

It's sung to the tune "Wie schön leuchtet."  Here's the third musical phrase:

In the third verse, the text here is "A ray of purest pleasure."  It's sung to a generally descending phrase, so there's a sense of its "fall[ing]," which is described in the previous line:  "At once there falls from God above."  (Years ago, I noted that the second half of the line "At once there falls from God above" also descends, matching the "fall[ing]" there.)

Here's the last musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here, apparently still describing the Morning Star, is "Rule and might o'er all possessing!"  Pitch-wise, "Rule" (sung to a D) and "might" (sung to a B) really are over "all" (sung to a G).