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#424: Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones
Feb. 21st, 2020 10:24 pmThis is the same hymn tune, "Lasst Uns Erfreuen," as #367 (and two more). So when you sort by hymn tune name, they are all together.
The weird thing comes when you sort by meter. In 367, there were six unique-ish lines besides the trailing alleluias, so it was "888 888 and alleluias." This, however, has even more trailing alleluias, so it's "888 88." Which means it gets a second entry in the "sort by meter" index. There will be another text to this melody with even more alleluias in the middle, which would be "8888," except "8888" is abbreviated to "LM" for "Long Meter," obviously. So three entries for one song!
The lyrics are about various types of angels and saints. Catholicism in particular extrapolates loosely from some Biblical phrases about "dominions" and "thrones" and makes a whole hierarchy of angels and their special abilities based on that. Protestants are more likely to go "that's...probably a metaphor???" Mary also gets a verse to herself, which is also a Catholic thing.
--
Meanwhile, I've attempted to put my money where my mouth is and write my own hymn for an ongoing contest. I can use a public-domain melody (and harmony), so I've been asking myself, "why yes indeed, the alto part is very boring, it's simple quarter notes even when the sopranos are doing something else...how do I get that to look nice in the software." Sounds like I'm not the only one who's frustrated at the difference between hymnal style and software for recording the "stems" of notes.
The weird thing comes when you sort by meter. In 367, there were six unique-ish lines besides the trailing alleluias, so it was "888 888 and alleluias." This, however, has even more trailing alleluias, so it's "888 88." Which means it gets a second entry in the "sort by meter" index. There will be another text to this melody with even more alleluias in the middle, which would be "8888," except "8888" is abbreviated to "LM" for "Long Meter," obviously. So three entries for one song!
The lyrics are about various types of angels and saints. Catholicism in particular extrapolates loosely from some Biblical phrases about "dominions" and "thrones" and makes a whole hierarchy of angels and their special abilities based on that. Protestants are more likely to go "that's...probably a metaphor???" Mary also gets a verse to herself, which is also a Catholic thing.
--
Meanwhile, I've attempted to put my money where my mouth is and write my own hymn for an ongoing contest. I can use a public-domain melody (and harmony), so I've been asking myself, "why yes indeed, the alto part is very boring, it's simple quarter notes even when the sopranos are doing something else...how do I get that to look nice in the software." Sounds like I'm not the only one who's frustrated at the difference between hymnal style and software for recording the "stems" of notes.
