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The metric numbers simply refer to the number of syllables in a line, and the number of lines in a stanza. 77.77.77 = six lines of seven syllables apiece. Whereas "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee," a.k.a the big theme of Beethoven's 9th symphony, is 87.87.87.87, or eight lines per stanza, alternating eight and seven syllables per line:
Joyful, joyful, we adore thee
God of Glory, Lord of Love:
Hearts unfold like flow'rs before thee,
Op'ning to the Sun above!
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
drive the dark of doubt away:
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!
In classic hymnody, the words and music were almost always written separately. There's a sort of standard canon of tunes from various sources, usually indexed by meter: when a lyricist would devise a set of words, he would sometimes have a specific tune in mind, and sometimes not. That's why some hymns will be listed with two or more different tunes, and many, many tunes have more than one set of lyrics. I can think of three songs offhand that use the Beethoven's 9th (HYMN TO JOY 87.87.87.87, as you'll find it in the hymnal.
The metrical numbers are also (theoretically) interchangeable: that is, if you've got a particular text that you want the congregation to sing, but they don't know the tune well, you can have them sing that text to another tune in the same meter. Say, for instance, you want to use the hymn "Alleluia, Alleluia, Let the Holy Anthem Rise" at Easter--but the tune (HOLY ANTHEM 87.87.87.87) skips around too much for your congregation to follow. They are familiar with HYMN TO JOY, though, so you substitute these words...
Alleluia! Alleuia!
Let the Holy An-them rise
And the choirs of Heaven chant it
in the temple of the skies!
Let the mountains skip wi-hith gladness
And the-huh joyful valleys ring
With hosannas in the highest
To our Saviour annnnnnnnnnd our King!
It's not a perfect fit, as you can see; but it increases the number of texts available to you if you've got a congregation of limited ability or a choir without much rehearsal time.
So what I'm sayin' is, you could sing "God of Concrete" to same tune as "For the Beauty of the Earth" (DIX)--or to any other 77.77.77 tune--and still be in the fine old tradition.
This was all totally alien to me when I started doing church music seriously, five years ago: now it's second nature. When I hear an old familiar hymn, I tend to think of it by the tune name rather than the title. |
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