"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

Recently, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 10 February.  The hymn was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (LSB #425, sung to the tune "Hamburg"), and I noticed a few features in it.

The second line of the third verse is "Sorrow and love flow mingled down!" sung to this musical phrase:

"Flow" is sung with a melisma (A G), giving something of a sense of movement, and since this pair of notes descends, there's even a bit of the sense of the "down" from the end of the line.

In the fourth verse, the text here is "That ["the whole realm of nature"] were a tribute far too small."  Here, "too" is sung with a melisma (E F), provided a sense of degree.

The fourth verse ends with the lines "Love so amazing, so divine, / Demands my soul, my life, my all!"  The first of these two lines is sung to this phrase:

"Amazing" and "divine" are both sung with melismas (G A G A and A G A, respectively), and these articulations provide a sense of degree for those "so"s.

LSB #425, 426 "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Galatians 6:14, Philippians 3:8

Galatians 6:14:  "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Philippians 3:8:  "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ..."

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The text is public domain:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a tribute far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!

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The Biblical sources for this hymn are clear-cut.  Philippians 3:8, specifically "I count everything as loss," is in the first verse, rendered as "My richest gain I count but loss."

The first part of Galatians 6:14 is paraphrased in the first two lines of the hymn's second verse: "Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast / Save in the death of Christ, my God."

"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"

This is my final post about hymn features I noticed during the Good Friday service way back in April.

The Lutheran Service Book provides two melodies for "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (#425 is "Hamburg," and #426 is "Rockingham Old").  When it's sung to "Rockingham Old," the line "Sorrow and love flow mingled down!" in the third verse is sung to a descending musical phrase:

There's a descent in the text, and it's paired with a descent in the tune.  Two of the words in the phrase ("mingled down") are pronounced with extra syllables, which seems to emphasize the "down-ness" even further.