"Faith and Truth and Life Bestowing"

When I wrote a post about the Biblical sources in "Faith and Truth and Life Bestowing" last month, I noticed a few significant melismas.  The hymn is sung to the tune "Holy Manna."  Here are the third and fourth phrases:

In the first verse, the text here is "Seed to life eternal sowing, / Scattered on the wind abroad."  "Eternal" is sung with a melisma (F G G F), giving a sense of duration, and "Scattered" is sung with a melisma (C C D), giving something of a sense of its meaning.  In the second verse, the text here is "Daily in our hearts increasing, / Bearing fruit that shall remain."  "Increasing" is sung with a melisma (G F A G F D), so there's a sense of the word's meaning.

"Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings"

Two years ago, I wrote a post about "Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings."  About a month ago, I found a few more features to note.

In the second verse, creation is described as "Filled with creatures large and small."  "Large and small" is a merism.

At the end of that verse, there's the line "May our care encircle all," sung to this phrase from the tune "Holy Manna":

The three syllables of "encircle" are each sung to a different pitch (F A G), so while the intervals aren't very large, there's something of a sense of breadth and of the word's meaning.

The hymn's refrain is:

Lord, we pray that we, Your people

Who Your gifts unnumbered claim,

Through the sharing of Your blessings

May bring glory to Your name.

The third line is sung to this phrase:

"Blessings" is sung with a melisma (A G F D), and because it's spread out to more notes, there's a sense of its being "shar[ed]."

"Christ, the Word of God Incarnate"

Last year, I found some interesting features in "Christ, the Word of God Incarnate."  It's sung to the tune "Holy Manna," in which there are eight musical phrases but six of these are the same two repeated:

The third verse ends with the lines "Fruitful branches in Your vineyard / Till eternal life we gain."  "Eternal" is sung with a melisma (C D F F), musically giving a sense of that duration.

The first four lines of the sixth verse (sung to the above notation twice through) are:

Christ, the Alpha and Omega,
Christ, the firstborn from the dead,
Christ, the life and resurrection,
Christ, the Church's glorious head

"Alpha," "firstborn," and "head" are all sung to the tonic note (F), and this musical sense of primacy and importance matches the meanings of these words.

"Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings"

Many months ago, one of the hymns I sang in church was "Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings," sung to the tune "Holy Manna."  I noticed some connections between this tune and the text.

The third phrase of the text is sung to this musical phrase:

In the first verse, the text here is "For Your mercies never ending" (which I think should be "never-ending"), and in the second verse, the text is "As we tend that endless treasure."  Both "never-ending" and "endless treasure" are sung with melismas (the string of eighth notes in the second measure), and because these words are stretched over these extra syllables, there's a musical sense of that extended period of time.

Similarly, there's a melisma for "unnumbered" in the refrain ("Lord, we pray that we, Your people / Who Your gifts unnumbered claim...").  Here's the music for just the second line:

Because "unnumbered" is sung with an extra syllable, there's a musical sense of the abundance of God's gifts.