"God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It"

A number of years ago, I wrote a post about some small features in "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It," but when it was the hymn in a Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service recently (on 16 April), I found more to add.  The third line of the fourth verse is "When I die, I leave all sadness," sung to this musical phrase from the tune "Bachofen":

"All" is sung with a melisma (G F), and the phrase "All sadness" is sung to notes of all different pitches (G F E C).  Both of these articulations provide a sense of breadth or entirety.

"God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It"

On two different occasions last year, I found a couple things to write about in "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It," sung to the tune "Bachofen."

In the first verse, the fifth line is "Do I need earth's treasures many?" sung to this phrase:

"Treasures" is sung with a melisma (Bb A G), musically giving a sense of amount ("many").

The third line of the third verse, directed to Satan, is "Drop your ugly accusation," sung to this phrase:

"Drop" is sung with a melisma and to a descending pair of notes, so although it's only a small interval (F E), there's a musical sense of its meaning.  There's a similar feature for "accusation," the thing to be "drop[t]" (if only metaphorically):  it's sung to a descending group of notes (A G F E C), emphasized with a melisma.

The sixth line of the third verse, still directed to Satan, is "All your might has come unraveled," sung to this phrase:

"All" is sung with a melisma (G A), musically giving a sense of entirety.