A Multitude of Mighty Fortresses: One Song, Two Meters

One thing a person might ask if they looked closely at most hymns in the Lutheran Service Book is "What are all those numbers at the bottom of the page?"

There are two different sets of numbers, one for each version of the hymn.

• 87 87 55 56 7 (Rhythmic)
• 87 87 66 66 7 (Isorhythmic)

Each number refers to the number of syllables in each line of the hymn.

A MIGH-TY FOR -TRESS IS OUR GOD  (8 syllables)
A TRUST-Y SHIELD AND WEAP-ON (7 syllables - rhythmic)
or
A BUL-WARK NEV-ER FAIL-ING (7 syllables - isorhythmic)

Things get a little sticky a few lines down, as the number of syllables differs from rhythmic to isorhythmic.

Rhythmic:

THE OLD E-VIL FOE (5 syllables)
NOW MEANS DEAD-LY WOE (5 syllables)
DEEP GUILE AND GREAT MIGHT (5 syllables)
ARE HIS DREAD ARMS IN FIGHT (6 syllables)
ON EARTH IS NOT HIS E-QUAL (7 syllables)

Isorhythmic:
FOR STILL OUR AN-CIENT FOE (6 syllables)
DOTH SEEK TO WORK US WOE (6 syllables)
HIS POW'R AND CRAFT ARE GREAT (6 syllables)
AND, ARMED WITH CRU-EL HATE, (6 syllables)
ON EARTH IS NOT HIS E-QUAL. (7 syllables)

Both tunes are recognizable as "A Mighty Fortress" yet the texts are not exactly interchangeable.  In this version of Hans Leo Hassler's setting, they used an isorhythmic text with the rhythmic tune.



The video uses a different translation.  It will help to have those words for the sake of discussion.  This was not easy to track down.  It is a newer translation by Omar Westendorf.

A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Protecting us with staff and rod,

And power all prevailing.

What if the nations rage

And surging seas rampage;

What though the mountains fall,

The Lord is God of all;

The Lord of hosts is with us.

You can hear them "double down" near the end of lines six and seven.  In the rhythmic tune, these lines are all half notes (each note is held for two counts).  In this version, the second last half note is changed to two quarter notes.

Perhaps a visual will help.  The capital letters represent beats with a spoken syllable, the small letters represent beats with a non-spoken syllable.  The text from

Rhythmic text from LSB:

ONE  two  ONE  two  ONE  two  ONE  two  ONE  two

Now       means     dead -    ly        woe 
Deep      guile     and       great     might

Isorhythmic text (Hassler recording):

ONE  two  ONE  two  ONE  two  ONE  TWO  ONE  two

And       surg  -   ing       SEAS RAM- PAGE
What      though    the       MOUN-TAINS FALL

As much as the isorhythmic text's capital letters (SEAS RAMPAGE and MOUNTAINS FALL) and bold TWO beat stand out, you can hear that extra syllable in the recording.

So we have multiple translations, two meters, and two versions of the same tune.  Yet the differences make it difficult to switch tunes and translations around.

Now, this all feels wordy to me.  I welcome comments that will help simplify things.

Next in the series, translating the first verse.

From Cyberstones: Preaching Law to the Choir

As I am not an ordained minister of the Word, I will be linking to other blogs written by experienced pastors.

Rev. David Peterson is the pastor of Redeemer, Fort Wayne.  His Cyberstones blog post, Preaching Law to the Choir, got my attention simply from the title, of course!  It talks about the appropriate preaching of the law to a congregation.

The law needs to convict the listeners of their sins as opposed to getting them to agree that the behavior is wrong.

Our pride gets in the way as usual.  Rev. Peterson notes that old-time Reformation Services included preaching against the pope.  Since none of the people present were the pope, preaching the law in this manner does not convict the listeners of their own sin.

Peterson writes:

We preach the Law not to condemn the absent, but to condemn sin and sinners, to teach sinners the hard and humility work of examining themselves, of confessing the pitiful lies we've told and our self-absorption, our thousand pretend ways meant to fool ourselves and our neighbors into thinking we are better than we are, to confront what is really in us and who we really are, not as a way of nagging us to better behavior or to make us feel superior to other people, but to show us how great and selfless Christ's rescue is.

How beautiful, that even though our sinful nature tells us we are doing fine, the Law comes around and convicts us that we are not, the the Gospel kicks in and even though we do not deserve it Christ's forgiveness, bought for us on the cross, is offered.

The Law of God is good and wise

And sets His will before our eyes,

Shows us the way of righteousness,

And dooms to death when we transgress.

The Gospel shows the Father's grace,

Who sent His Son to save our race,

Proclaims how Jesus lived and died

That we might thus be justified.

- LSB 579 and 580

Shouldn't we stand? LSB 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives

This evening I was asked to play LSB 602, "The Gifts Christ Freely Gives" in a worship setting.  In previous hymnals, the pastor or organist (or both) would decide on the trinitarian nature of the final stanza, then the organist would play an interlude, and the congregation would stand.

With the introduction of Lutheran Service Book, though, the trinitarian final verses have triangles next to them, which takes out some of the guesswork.

The structure of the hymn is this:

• Stanza 1: Gifts are for the Church
• Stanza 2: Gifts in Baptism
• Stanza 3: Gifts in Absolution
• Stanza 4: Gifts in God's Word
• Stanza 5: Gifts in the Eucharist
• Stanza 6: Glory, praise and thanks to the triune God

The author of the text is Kantor Richard Resch of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  It would seem that he intended for the final verse to be trinitarian/doxological in nature.  Yet there is no triangle next to the last stanza.

Had we been using HS98, LW or TLH, I would have gone ahead and played the interlude and if the congregation observed this tradition, they would stand.  However, there was no triangle.  I am wondering if the hymnal committee specified the three-in-one names be detailed as "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" instead of simply "triune God."

Back when Hymnal Supplement 98 was in use, I once cued the trinitarian stanza for "Now Greet the Swiftly Changing Year."  I was told that this was not a stanza in which we would stand because it was prayer-like in nature and not praise-like in nature.  But alas, in LSB this stanza got the the triangle and "The Gifts" did not.

Lets discuss this here first, then I will attempt to contact a member of the hymnal committee or perhaps even Kantor Resch.

"Finger" "Quotes"

Are you one of those people who lift their fingers in the air to show they are "quoting" "something"?

Habitual quotation marks are apparently not just for casual conversation, but there are also plenty of "written" "examples" of this humorous hand gesture.

Over at Jottings and Such, the blog of author Julie Stiegemeyer, you will find this post on The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.

Those of you with young children might know of Julie's board book series, Things I [See/Hear/Do] in Church.  Check out all of CPH.org's offerings by putting "stiegemeyer" in the search box, and choosing "books" in the dropdown menu.

She also has writings for a more general children's audience.  My favorite is Gobble, Gobble, CRASH.

From the Wittenberg Trail

Not everything on the Wittenberg Trail is centered on Lutheranism.

One blog post over there dealt with common misspellings and misuse of the English Language.  Since the Trail is a private site and registration is required, I cannot bring the entire post here.  I can bring my own comments, though!

Make no mistake, I type full sentences in my emails and on my blog.  I make every effort to spell things properly.  The Firefox browser leaves an orange line under words that are misspelled when you are typing in it.  Back when I taught music, I used to say, "Spelling counts in music class because spelling counts in life!"

That being said, I couldn't resist leaving a comment similar to this:

Your definately onto something hear. I no alot of people who has know clue about there usage of the English language. Irregardless, these issues are not two hard too get ahold of. I think Im loosing my mind.

If you are a member of the Trail, you can find the original post with my original comment here.  I tweaked the one above to include more errors. :)

Welcome Wittenburg Trail Readers

I posted a link to this blog over on the Wittenberg Trail, a social networking site for Lutherans.

I want to welcome any readers who found the blog because of my post on the Trail.

I am new to the Trail, and even newer to blogging, so this is all quite an adventure!

Who knows, maybe I will warm up to Facebook eventually.  This Facebook thing is just a trend, right?  You know, like radio, television, internet, etc.?  It probably won't last.  ;)

Time Out #34: Comments now available!

Join the angelic discussion over at LutheranTimeOut.org.  I posted comments over there on the featured hymn, I Walk in Danger all the Way.  My focus was on verse 4:

I walk with angels all the way,
They shield me and befriend me;
All Satan’s power is held at bay
When heavenly hosts attend me;
They are my sure defense,
All fear and sorrow, hence!
Unharmed by foes, do what they may,
I walk with angels all the way.

Also, if you haven't listened to the podcast, get out your personal copy of LSB and follow along with Hymn 716.  Don't have a personal copy?  You need one!  Buy it here, or contact your local Christian bookstore.

Why will you need one?  Assuming I get my act together, I plan to do a series on "Singing through LSB in One Year."  It's hard to sing along without a hymnal.  Look for this to start on the First Sunday of Advent.  That will be November 29 this year.