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The composer's name is J. Jefferson Cleveland, which is slightly interesting because that's two different US presidents.

We also get multiple key signatures: the refrain is in D major, and then the verses are in two flats (B-flat major? G minor? It ends on A, which would be the seventh note of the B-flat scale, and then transitions back to the D major refrain).

Lyrically, we have a distinction between "holy cymbals" and "clashing cymbals." (My sister will be glad to know at least some cymbals can be holy.) The 20th-century update of Psalm 150 loses momentum, however, and turns into "Praise God because it's all right." Which is a little bit too hip for me.
Time signature is 4/4, except there's one random 2/4 measure thrown in the refrain. Key signature is a little weird; the refrain is in D major (two sharps, C and F). The verses are written the same way, ending on A, which is the fifth note of the D scale. That's fine. Except, C and F are almost never sharp in the verses--they have "natural" written in every spot but one, and that one has a (not strictly necessary) sharp sign to be like "no, this one really is F sharp." They could almost have saved on ink by just getting rid of the key signatures and naturals and just writing in that F-sharp as if it was in A minor. But then, that doesn't quite get the "feel" across either! (I go back and forth on whether there is an abstract "feel" of the key to get across in sheet music. Some days I'm strictly formalist and like "any of the ways of writing this are equivalent." Some days it's like..."I don't think the verses are actually in A minor, but I couldn't tell you what they are 'actually' in, if anything."
This is a weird case of translation by committee--488 was originally in German but translated into English (the German lyrics aren't printed here). This is a very loose translation into Spanish, that skips verse 2 of 488. Now, it's possible that this Spanish is pretty close to the original German and the English is not, but the Spanish and the English aren't too literal versions of each other, other than they're both about the miracle of bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Jesus.

This arrangement also introduces a chorus (with bass echoes!), which is in E major, while the verses are in...I'm not sure what, it has no sharps or flats and ends on the third note (E) of the scale, with a bunch of G-sharps thrown in for fun. But anyway. A lot going on here, at least tags-wise!
Text-wise, this gives us the prayer "your servants undergird," which is a great image because apparently the people of God are like skyscrapers and stuff. Also, the rhyme "labor/saber," nice.

The accidentals are weird. This is in G minor, which means it ends on a "sad" chord. However, it's specifically harmonic minor, which means the F is often sharp, like it would be in G major. This doesn't just happen in the melody, but in a lot of the harmony parts as well. (I don't know how to summarize this nicely, but it has a stereotypically "Middle Eastern" sound, and I didn't just make this up, Wikipedia agrees.) With this many accidentals you might expect the last verse to end on a Picardy third, which means "end it as if it was in major after all," for an extra "hopeful" sense, but there's nothing to indicate that.

This melody is in fact Welsh, hence the double Ls in "Llangloffan."
Oooh, spooky number. (Not really. It's complicated. Whatever it is, it's probably not spooky.)

What key is it in?

D minor? Ish? It ends on a D-minor chord, but the key signature is that of A minor/C major, so it might be one of those weird ones. (Piano players love A minor/C major, though, so they can be happy about it.)

What about the small caps?

If you look closely, in verse three "I AM" is written in small capitals, which is a typesetting convention so finicky that dreamwidth doesn't have a rich text button for it. (There probably is an HTML workaround, but I'm lazy.)

Anyway, God addresses Moses by saying "I am who I am" in a mysterious but awe-inspiring way. The Jewish scriptures usually avoid quoting that wording directly, and sort of defer to God by saying "the LORD" which is often typeset in this weird font. So that seems to be what's going on here.
What key is it in?

Unclear. Maybe G minor, but it ends on a C-minor chord, so...mode ii? Not a very common type anyway.

Is it basically just a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer?

Yes, padded out by Luther to make it sort-of scan. With one caveat, which is for a different post.

Any fun rhymes?

"rescue us"/"success to us" is weird but amusing enough to stand out. On the other hand, they were kind of phoning it in with "Forgive our sins, as we forgive/when others hurt us as we live." As opposed to all those jerks who hurt us when we're not living, we don't have to forgive them.
What key is it in?

F minor.

Is that good?

To sing, range-wise? Yeah. To play on piano, harder.

What does "minor" mean?

It has kind of a "sad" feel when you get to the last chord. Most hymns, including the ones we've seen so far, are in "major" keys, with a more vibrant resolution.

Is that fitting for this?

Yeah, pretty much, because Lent is a somber season of repentance. So a lot of the hymns are more downbeat.

Does it work textwise?

Yes and no? Mostly it's a fairly straightforward "inspire repentance"! song, but the last verse foreshadows Easter and "heaven's praise."

So how do you get around that?

Sometimes you'll see songs like this end with a "Picardy third"--the last chord will be played as a major chord, which gives it a hopeful finish despite the general minor feeling.

Don't some people think those are cheesy?

They do, but they are wrong.

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