GILIGAN'S ISLAND

THE COLLECTED POETRY OF EMILY DICKINSON

ERHALT UNS, HERR: it's used for every other hymn during Lent

Ummm, ERHALT UNS HERR is not C.M. (86. 86 iambic), but L.M. (88. 88 iambic).

MJO, that is a wonderful tune which I like very much, but I just didn't know if it would pass muster for the criteria cited by the OP.

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There's a fantastic tune in CBWIII put with The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns.

CBWIII doesn't identify it, but the old CBWIII website referred to it as MOUNT ATHOS.

Anyone have any information on this tune?

MJM, I referred to that tune as MORNING SONG.

G probably has her answers, so I thought I'd ask, as a non-composer, whether there are special challenges to writing in the different meters?

RICHMOND or NEWMAN

... I thought I'd ask, as a non-composer, whether there are special challenges to writing in the different meters?

Yes and no, Kathy. But there may be similar issues for a hymn text author such as yourself.

Personally, I find myself motivated by specific hymn texts that grab my attention, and reading such a text over and over will sometimes provide the impetus for composing a new tune (as opposed to harmonizing an old tune). Rarely (for me), singing such a text to an extant hymn tune will help in the quest for a new tune ... this is in opposition to what I perceive as a technique used by hymn text authors such as yourself (I vaguel;y recall that you sometimes say you "hear" a text that you've written to a particular tune).

To cite an example: Iambic meters (eg. L.M. or C.M.), of course, imply a pick-up to the downbeat that can be somewhat relaxed, say, by giving the first syllable two beats so that the stressed second syllable falls on the third beat in common time, or by setting the text in triple time so that the first three syllables (on beats 1,2,3 of the first measure) become a lead-in to the stress on the downbeat of the second measure that coincides with the stress on the fourth syllable. Often, the particular way the iambic meter is handled by the text will suggest one of these alternatives, whichever way best fits the often encountered weakening of the iambic structure at the beginning of the line in some texts (something which Kathy has pointed out in the past).

With other stress patterns (eg. trochaic) and meters (eg. 77. 77..., or 87. 87..., or 76. 76..., 98. 98..., 11 11. 11 5, etc.) there are similar issues. And there are considerations when composing a doubled meter (such as C.M.D. or L.M.D.) for eight line texts that are different from the composition of shorter meters for, say, four or six line texts.

I should add that at times I will find myself experimenting (usually humming or singing) with some sort of extemporized faux-chant to a text that interests me, perhaps as a warm-up to trying to find way of setting the text metrically. Occasionally this will lead to a plainchant setting of the text instead of (or in addition to) a metrical setting.

Obviously, the point that I'm trying to make is that I don't just wake up one day and say to myself, "I think I'll compose a Long Meter hymn today." ... and, after coffee, think, "No, I'd better compose a 76. 76. D tune instead." For me, it is almost invariably the case that the text leads to the music.

MJM, I referred to that tune as MORNING SONG.

No. You didn't.

Different tune.

Just actually opened CBWIII. They list it as "CM, Greek traditional melody. Harmonization 1990 Fred K Graham"

TALLIS' ORDINAL