28 December 2009

Alternate tune for "All Glory, Laud, and Honor"

Below is my tentative proposal for an alternate melody for the palmarum processional All Glory Laud and Honor (transl. of the "Gloria, laus, et honor"), mainly to avoid stealing a tune from another hymn (i.e. Herberger's "Farewell I Gladly Bid Thee"), mutilating it to fit it into another hymn, and possibly renaming something like it St. Theodulph after casting said blessed saint's tune to the wind. I have attempted to turn the original tune into a more congregational style tune, preserving the same structure of refrain and verse. Retaining the lyric's translation as-is should assist congregations in learning it with the new (old) tune. Following my tune I include an example of how a similiar thing was done long ago for the German vernacular version. I am no musician, so I welcome corrections and suggestions. Since it is used for the processional, it might be better to make it rhythmic as below.


Work in progress version:


Here is the music for the old German vernacular version. Note that the melody is somewhat expanded. The verses here (Israel es tu Rex) use what appears to be another melody from that in Liber Usualis.


4 comments:

Tapani Simojoki said...

Interesting. One suggestion: changing the second and fourth notes of the final line (the verse) to half-notes, to maintain the same rhythm as in the refrain.

Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...

Thanks for your suggestion Tapani. Should I also make the 6th note a triple slur and the 7th note a half-note, thus echoing the 3rd bar of the refrain?

Tapani Simojoki said...

I like the triple slur. I would still vote for the half-note on the second syllable, rather than the g-a slur. Also, the original slur on the second syllable of the refrain (a-g f, rather than a g-f) is, in my view, preferable, since it better brings out the rhythm of the English text.

Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...

Thanks for the comment, or improvement, rather. I've put the latest version up in place of the last "work in progress" version.