Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: ELW 330, “Seed That in Earth Is Dying”
Text: Svein Ellingsen (1929), tr. H. T. Durnbaugh (1929)
Tune: Säklorn Som Dør I. Jorden, Harold Herresthal (1944)

Svein Elliingsen is leading hymn writer in Norway, widely translated and received in teh Hordic countries. Elliongsen. Aims for intefrity and quality, and mopst of his hymn texts pass through a time of maturation before they are published. In the extremes of wordless situations when people turn to their hymns, he wants his texts to give them the words to express their grief and their joy.

The tune takes its name from the Norwegian text. Harald Herresthal was born in Germany and grew up in Norway. He is an organist, composer and professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. As a composer he has written hymn tunes, liturgical music and small cantatas.

Musical Meditation: “St. Columba”, (The King of Love), Justin McCarthy

“The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” a text by Sir Henry William Baker, initially paired with the tune, DOMINUS REGIT ME. Because the compilers of the 1906 English Hymnal were denied permission to use this original tune, musical editor Ralph Vaughan Williams turned to a folk tune recently edited for a collection of Irish music. With some small but notable improvements, ST. COLUMBA has proven to be an equally satisfying pairing of text and tune.

Choir Anthem: “Lamb of God”, F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955)

F. Melius Christiansen was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition.

Lamb of God most holy!
Who on the cross didst suffer,
Patient still and lowly,
Thy self to scorn didst offer;
Our sins by thee were taken,
Or hope had us forsaken:
Have mercy on us, O Jesu!