"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (TLH #95)

Because this is a shorter tune, I went through it three times.

"Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord"

Last year and the year before, I noticed a few features in "Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord," sung to the tune "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland."  Here's the first musical phrase:

The first line of the second verse is "What the fathers most desired," and the first line of the third verse is "Abram's promised great reward."  "Most" and "great" are both sung with a melisma (A G), musically giving something of a sense of degree.

This same musical phrase is repeated at the end of the hymn, and there are some significant melismas in the text there too.  The last line of the third verse is "Truly came, as long foretold," and the last line of the fourth verse is "Which is Your eternally."  "Long" (A G) and "eternally" (Bb A G A G) are both sung with melismas for a sense of duration.

"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland"

This summer I bought an alto recorder.  I haven't done much with it yet, so I thought I'd try recording a hymn tune with it.  Since it's Advent now, I did "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland," the tune to which "Savior of the Nations, Come" is sung.  This is also the tune I started with when I began re-learning how to read music seven years ago.

I followed the arrangement in The Lutheran Hymnal (in which "Savior of the Nations, Come" is #95).  The higher two voices are on soprano recorder; the lowest is on alto.

"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (TLH #91)

"Savior of the Nations, Come"

Now that it's Advent again, I can continue writing posts about features I noticed in Advent hymns last year.

In "Savior of the Nations, Come," the first line of the fifth verse is "God the Father was His source," sung to this phrase (from the tune "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland"):

"God" and "source" are both sung to a G notes, the tonic note of the tune (in G minor), so there's a mirroring between God as the "source" and the tonic note (the foundation) of the key.

The third line of the fifth verse is "Into hell His road went down," and - musically reflecting this going "down" - the melody (generally) descends:

The last line of the eighth verse (the last verse of the hymn) ends the doxology with "Now and through eternity," sung to this musical phrase (which is the same as the first phrase):

"Eternity" is sung with a melisma (Bb A G A G), and since the word is stretched out, there's something of a sense of that long period of time.

"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland"

The arrangements in LW and LSB are in different keys (F major and Bb major, respectively), so I couldn't combine them.  This is just twice through the LSB arrangement.