"Come, Thou Almighty King"

I've written about small features in "Come, Thou Almighty King" twice before, but I found an-other one a couple months ago.  Near the end of the third verse, there are the lines "Thou, who almighty art, / Now rule in ev'ry heart," sung to these musical phrases from the tune "Italian Hymn":

The phrase "ev'ry heart" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A G F), giving a sense of number.

"Come, Thou Almighty King"

Registration:

Upper:  74 8745 325

Lower:  00 6543 322

Pedal:  55

Played with the "mellow" drawbar organ sound on my Hammond SKX, with the Hammond XPK-130G pedals

"Shepherd of Tender Youth"

The first line of the fourth verse of "Shepherd of Tender Youth" is "O ever be our guide," sung to this phrase from the tune "Italian Hymn":

"Be" is sung with a melisma (G F), musically giving a sense of the duration of "ever."

"Italian Hymn" (TLH #239)

"Italian Hymn" (TLH #227)

"Come, Thou Almighty King"

About a year ago, I wrote a post on "Come, Thou Almighty King."  A few days after posting that, I transcribed the hymn and noticed an-other small feature.

The last verse begins with the lines "To Thee, great One in Three, / Eternal praises be."  The second of those two lines is sung to this phrase (the tune is "Italian Hymn"):

"Praises" is sung with a melisma (Bb C Bb A), and because it's drawn out, there's a sense of those praises' being "eternal."

"Come, Thou Almighty King"

Last year, I noticed a small feature in "Come, Thou Almighty King."  The last two lines of the second verse are "And let Thy righteousness / On us descend," sung to these phrases from the tune "Italian Hymn":

"On us descend" is sung to a descending phrase, musically giving a picture of the text.

"God, Whose Almighty Word"

I'm still (slowly) working through my back-log of hymn features to write about.  I don't remember the context for this one, but what I noticed about "God, Whose Almighty Word" (Lutheran Worship #317) is fitting for this week, since Sunday was Trinity Sunday.

The tune for the hymn is "Italian Hymn," and this is the second phrase:

In the fourth verse, the text here is "Glorious Trinity," and "Trinity" is sung with a melisma.  The first syllable is sung to three notes, which - to some degree - represents the Trinity.  There are three notes for one syllable, in a similar manner to how the Trinity is "three distinct persons in one divine being" (to quote Luther's Small Catechism).

I'm a bit out of my depth with the theology, though, hence the "to some degree" and "similar."  I don't think this is a perfect representation, but it's something of an illustration.

"Italian Hymn"

I don't have much to say about this besides that it's a good example of how the Lutheran Worship arrangements are often more musically adventurous than the Lutheran Service Book arrangements.  As usual, this is one verse of one (LW 471) and one verse of the other (LSB 864).