"Before You, Lord, We Bow"

I was looking at "Before You, Lord, We Bow" last month, and I noticed a feature and also discovered something I'd previously noted but neglected to write about.

The hymn is sung to the tune "Darwall's 148th."  Here are the fifth and sixth phrases:

In the third verse, the text here is "May ev'ry tongue / Be tuned to praise."  The phrase "ev'ry tongue" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A B C), giving a slight sense of this entirety.

The seventh and eighth musical phrases:

In the first verse, the text here is "Our hearts we raise / To You, our King!"  "Our hearts we raise" is sung to an ascending phrase, demonstrating the meaning, even if the text is a bit more metaphorical.

"On What Has Now Been Sown"

One of the hymns in an online church service I watched a few weeks ago was "On What Has Now Been Sown," sung to the tune "Darwall's 148th."  I noticed a small feature near the end of the first verse.  The penultimate line is "Do Thou in grace the harvest raise," sung to this phrase:

"The harvest raise" is sung to an ascending group of notes (C to F), so there's a musical sense of that "rais[ing]."

"Darwall's 148th" (TLH #46)

"Christ Is Our Cornerstone"

A couple months ago, I happened to think of the first phrase in "Christ Is Our Cornerstone," and I realized a connection between the text and the music.  The first line is the same as the title ("Christ is our cornerstone"), and the first music phrase (of the tune "Darwall's 148th") is:

The tune is in C major, and there are three C notes (in two octaves) in this opening phrase.  C is the note that C major is based on, and when "Christ is our cornerstone" is sung to this phrase, those important C notes coincide with "Christ," "our," and the "-stone" of "cornerstone."  The hymn text plainly proclaims that "Christ is our cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20), but since these words connect with the musical foundation of the tune, this conviction is emphasized by the music.

"Darwall's 148th"

I'd intended to do something related to St. George since to-day is St. George's day, but I already recorded "St. George's, Windsor" back in February.

In lieu of that, I pickt a short and simple one: "Darwall's 148th."  I did some research on this tune a year or two ago, and apparently it was written for the 148th Psalm, which - according to my lectionary - is the Psalm for this week, so there's a topicality to this anyway.

The tune is used for a couple hymns, but I lookt at "Christ Is Our Cornerstone" (LW 290, LSB 912).

I've recorded this one before, but that was last September, before this project's current incarnation.