Update: For sheet music or to adopt this orphan tune, head over to gregscheer.com.
In our third installment of hymn tunes for Isaac Watts texts, we encounter a 6.6.8.D text based on Psalm 93. The text implied to me music that was somewhere between regal and rustic–something that would be at home in a cathedral or a Sacred Harp sing.
Here’s what I wrote: MP3
This is an unusual hymn tune that is a little more difficult than most, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite. I love how the melody slides from an E minor/pentatonic into a G minor/pentatonic scale in the second phrase. The harmonies, too, sneak off half way through, sprint in all directions, then slip back home in the last two measures. All this crazy stuff is going on, but the song is surprisingly singable–both the melody and the inner voices.
