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

Friday, February 14, 2025

"With the Lord Begin Your Task"

I was looking at "With the Lord Begin Your Task" a couple months ago and found a number of instances of the same sort of feature.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Fang dein Werk."  Here are the first two musical phrases:


In the fifth verse, the text here is "Thus, Lord Jesus, ev'ry task / Be to You commended."  The phrase "ev'ry task" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A G E), giving a sense of breadth or entirety.

These musical phrases are repeated for the next two lines.  In the second verse, the text is "On the Lord cast ev'ry care; / He is your salvation," and the phrase "ev'ry care" is sung to the same group of notes (A G E), providing the same effect.

Here are the fifth and sixth musical phrases:


In the first verse, the text here is "Ev'ry morn with Jesus rise, / And when day is ended."  The same feature is here, too:  the phrase "ev'ry morn" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A B C), but now this articulation lends something more like a sense of number.

In the third verse, the text is "All your trust and hope repose / In the mighty Master."  Like the above, the phrase "all your trust" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A B C), giving a sense of entirety.