"Rex gloriae"

A couple months ago, I was looking through some of the hymn tunes that I'd transposed to different keys, and I had a realization about "Rex gloriae."  The title seems to come from Psalm 24:7-10:

7 Lift up your heads, O gates!  And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  8 Who is the King of glory?  The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!  9 Lift up your heads, O gates!  And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  10 Who is this King of glory?  The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!

In the Latin Vulgate, these verses are:

7 levate portae capita vestra et elevamini ianuae sempiternae et ingrediatur rex gloriae 8 quis est iste rex gloriae Dominus fortis et potens Dominus fortis in proelio 9 levate portae capita vestra et erigite ianuae sempiternae et ingrediatur rex gloriae 10 quis est iste rex gloriae Dominus exercituum ipse est rex gloriae

The phrase "King of glory" ("rex gloriae") occurs multiple times in this passage.

"Rex Gloriae" (TLH #218)

I transposed this from Ab major to G major.  The Amen cadence fell beneath the range of guitar in standard tuning, though, so I played those notes an octave higher.

"See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph"

A number of years ago, I wrote a post about some of the ascending musical phrases in "See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph."  While looking over the hymn more recently (but still a couple years ago), I found a slightly more significant feature to note:  there's a cross inscription in the last phrase of "Rex gloriae," the tune to which the hymn is sung.

In the second verse, the text here is "He by death has crushed His foes."  The cross inscription in the tune illustrates by what sort of death Christ has "crushed His foes."

"See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph"

During the Ascension Day service a few months ago, I found a lot of musical/textual connections in hymns about the Ascension.  Appropriately, in "See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph" (sung to the tune "Rex gloriae" ["The King of Glory" in Latin]), there are phrases about ascending and lifting sung to this ascending phrase (which is both the first and seventh musical phrase):

Phrases in the hymn that mention ascending or lifting and that are sung to this phrase include "See, the Lord ascends in triumph," "And the portals high are lifted," "While He lifts His hands in blessing," "He our Enoch, is translated" (the next line is "To His everlasting home"), "He has raised our human nature," and "By our mighty Lord's ascension."

About a week and a half after I sang this hymn in church, I transcribed the text, and I noticed something else.  The third verse ends with the lines "He our Enoch, is translated / To His everlasting home," the second half of which is sung to this phrase:

The "home" in the text is sung to a G note, and since the hymn is in G major, this is the tonic note, the "musical home" of the tune.