Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.
Showing posts with label Heavenly Hosts in Ceaseless Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heavenly Hosts in Ceaseless Worship. Show all posts

Friday, August 18, 2023

"Heavenly Hosts in Ceaseless Worship"

A couple years ago, I noticed some features in "Heavenly Hosts in Ceaseless Worship," sung to the tune "Love's Light."  Here's the first musical phrase:


In the second verse, the text here is "All creation, all redemption" (the sense is completed in the following line:  "Join to sing the Savior's worth").  "Creation" is sung with a melisma (D F F D), and "redemption" is sung to notes of all different pitches, spanning a fifth (F A C).  Both of these articulations provide a sense of the breadth or entirety of those "all"s.

Here's the last musical phrase:


In the first verse, the text here is "Fall before the Father's throne."  Generally, the melody descends, so there's a sense of this "fall[ing]."

In the second verse, the text is "And to everlasting days!"  "Everlasting" is sung with a melisma (A F G F E), and since the word is stretched out, there's a sense of that duration.