"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"

Years ago, I wrote about a number of features in "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," but when it was substituted for the "Te Deum" in the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service on the 7th, I noticed a few more.

The hymn is sung to the tune "Grosser Gott."  Here's the fourth musical phrase:

In the second verse, the text here, describing the "Cherubim and seraphim" from the previous line, is "In unceasing chorus praising."  I'd previously noted that "unceasing" is sung with a melisma (A A G A), giving a sense of this duration, but the same is also true of "chorus" (sung to the notes C Bb A).

The fifth musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "Infinite Thy vast domain."  I'd noted before that "Infinite" is sung with a melisma (G A Bb A), giving a sense of that expanse, but the phrase "vast domain" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A Bb C), and this provides a sense of space, too.

In the second verse, the text is "Fill the heav'ns with sweet accord," and the same features are present:  "heav'ns" is sung with a melisma (Bb A), and the phrase "sweet accord" is sung to all different pitches (A Bb C).  Now, though, these features lend a sense of the expansion of that "fill[ing]."

"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"

While singing "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" in church last year, I noticed one connection between the music and the text, but in looking it over again in order to write this post, I found many more.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Grosser Gott," and I'm going to go through it phrase by phrase.

The second musical phrase (repeated later as the fourth musical phrase):

In the first verse, the text here is "Lord of all, we bow before Thee."  The "all" is sung with a melisma (A G), giving a sense of number, and the "bow before Thee" descends, musically representing that "bow[ing]."  The "bow" is also sung with a melisma (C Bb), emphasizing this.

In the second verse, the text here is "Angel choirs above are raising."  The "above" is sung to an ascending interval (a minor third: A to C)(plus the following Bb), directing attention upwards.  There's a similar feature in the fourth line of the first verse ("All in heav'n above adore Thee"), where "above" is again sung to these same notes.  Usually, I probably wouldn't bother pointing out something this small, but - within each musical phrase - this minor third is the largest interval in the entire hymn.  Everything else is extremely conjunct, with either repeated pitches or seconds upwards or downwards.

The fourth line of the second verse (also sung to this same phrase) is "In unceasing chorus praising."  "Unceasing" is sung with a melisma (A A G A), and since the word is drawn out, there's something of a musical sense of its meaning.

The third musical phrase (a repetition of the first musical phrase):

In the third verse, the text here is "Prophets swell the glad refrain."  "Swell" is sung with a melisma (F E), so - as with "unceasing" above - since the word is drawn out, there's a musical sense of its meaning.

The fifth musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "Infinite Thy vast domain."  "Infinite" is sung with a melisma (G A Bb A), musically giving a sense of that great expanse.

In the fourth verse, the text here describes how Jesus was "First to break the bars of death."  "Break" is sung with a melisma now (Bb A).  It's "broken" between two pitches, which musically illustrates the "break[ing]" in the text.

The sixth musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "Everlasting is Thy reign."  As with "Infinite" above, "Everlasting" is sung to a melisma (D D C Bb A), musically giving a sense of a long period of time.

In the third verse, the text here is "Through the Church the song goes on," with "song" sung to a melisma (Bb A).  Since "song" is not limited to just one pitch, there's something of a musical representation of this "go[ing] on."