"O Wondrous Type! O Vision Fair"

Last year, I noticed a small feature in the Transfiguration hymn "O Wondrous Type! O Vision Fair."  It's sung to the tune "Deo gracias."  Here's the third musical phrase:

In the fourth verse, the text here is "For which in joyful strains we raise" (the sense is continued into the next line:  "The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise").  "Joyful" is sung with a melisma (C Bb Ab), providing a sense of either ebullience or abundance (for the "-ful" suffix).

"O Love, How Deep"

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from the 10th.  The hymn was "O Love, How Deep," and I noticed a few features to write about.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Deo gracias."  Here's the second musical phrase:

In the second verse, the text here is "Of higher or of lower place" (it continues the sense from the previous line:  "He sent no angel to our race").  "Higher" is sung with a melisma (C Bb G), giving something of a sense of its nature as a comparative adjective (more notes for a greater degree).  Additionally, the musical phrase illustrates the relative positions of "higher" (sung to higher notes) and "lower" (sung to lower notes).

In the seventh verse, the text is "For love so deep, so high, so broad" (stating the reason for giving "All glory to our Lord and God").  "Deep" and the second "so" are both sung with melismas (F G and F C, respectively), providing a sense of degree.  The words "so broad" are sung to half notes, and because these stand in contrast to the shorter quarter or eighth notes that precede them, there's a sense of the degree of "so" and the meaning of "broad."