What's in Te Laudamus?—Part 4

My survey of the contents of Te Laudamus (TL) continues. The hymns are over. The next section, headed by Luther's "Christian Questions & Answers" (in preparation for the Sacrament) and a Cranach painting of the Last Supper, is the Divine Service. Not three settings. Not five. Not eleven (cf. ELW). One setting, the Healey Willan one (here starting on p. 324). No surprise if you know Dean Reuning, among the editors, whom I've personally heard play this Mass setting at a swift tempo. I gather he's a proponent of it. The service opens with a corporate confession and absolution, essentially as taken from TLH's pp. 5 and 15 or LSB's Divine Service 3. The Service of the Word begins with six Gregorian chant settings of the Gloria Patri ("Glory be to the Father and to the Son," etc.), both in the modern-language "and will be forever" and the traditional "world without end" form. Different tones are assigned to different seasons of the church year, starting for some reason with Trinity I-IX. I guess they're given in order of the numerical designation of each tone. So, look first, then leap.

On the next two pages, you get a choice between a threefold and a ninefold Kyrie ("Lord have mercy upon us," etc.), each with a written-out organ intonation and (again) a choice between singing it in Greek or in English. A two-plus-page setting of the Goria in Excelsis ("Glory be to God on high," etc.) begins with that first phrase pointed for the celebrant to chant. The chant notes for the Saluation and the "Let us pray" and "Amen" bookending the Collect for the Day are very simple—Gs all the way across. The "This is the Word of the Lord" / "Thanks be to God" responses at the end of the first two readings are also quite simple and familiar to Lutheran liturgy watchers. Lessons, graduals, Alleluia verses or tracts are indicated with references to the propers, which (I rejoice to see, after 20 years of enduring LSB) are actually in the pew book, within the page range 368-461. Again there are five different chant tones designated for the Alleluias depending on season. Gospel acclamations are also chanted to very simple musical cues.

Moving on to p. 334, we find the Nicene Creed given as the presumptive creed for the service, which in turn indicates a presumption of weekly communion. The alternative option, in red rubrics (if you'll forgive the tautology), is to sing the Creed to Willan's setting of the plainsong melody back in hymn 236. Certain phrases of the Creed ("and was incarnate..." and "is worshiped and glorified") are italicized, suggesting, I think, that you bow your head during those bits, and the sign of the cross is suggested at "life of the world to come."

After the hymn of the day and the sermon, the service suggests singing the offertory ("Create in me a clean heart") either immediately after the sermon or while offerings are being brought forward. The prayer of the church indicates the responses "Let us pray to the Lord" / "Lord have mercy" after each bid, concluding (p. 336) with a paragraph-long eucharistic prayer. Then the Service of the Sacrament commences with the Preface, all chanted, with the pastor taking rather familiar notes and the congregation responding with phrases a bit more elaborate than I am accustomed to playing out of TLH, LW or LSB. The "It is truly meet, right, and salutary" bit indicates that the Proper Preface be inserted, again, from the propers later in the book. Then you get Willan's quite attractive setting of the Sanctus ("Holy, holy, holy"). The Lord's Prayer is started by the pastor saying "Our Father" and all joining in from there; the traditional text all Protestants used to be able to say in unison until updated-language hymnals started splintering us into innumerable sects. A page reference is also given for an option to chant the Lord's Prayer, toward the end of the book.

"The Words of Christ's Testament (Verba)" follow, fully pointed for chant according to the instructions Luther notated in his liturgical writings. It's followed by the "Pax Domini" ("The peace of the Lord ..." / "Amen"), the Agnus Dei ("O Christ, Thou Lamb of God") and the distribution of the Sacrament, then the Nunc Dimittis ("Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant," etc.), the chanted post-communion thanksgiving, two choices of collect and Amen, concluding salutation ("The Lord be with you" / "And with thy spirit"), Benedicamus ("Bless we the Lord" / "Thanks be to God") and Benedicition ("The Lord bless you ...") with threefold Amen. So, basically, it's point-by-point exactly like the Communion liturgy in TLH, LW's Divine Service 1, LSB's DS 3 and so on, only with different melodies thanks to Willan.

Then you get a woodcut. And a new section, The Propers, headed by a painting of St. Alcuin of York, apropos of I know not what. And some notes (p. 348) on the organization of the propers and chanting instructions. I think families and congregations thinking about starting to use this book will be well served by starting here and attentively going over these notes and instructions. And then, one service at a time from the First Sunday in Advent, some of them subheaded by their Latin names such as "Ad Te Levavi" for Advent 1. Each set of propers has a specifically notated chant tone for the Introit, Gradual and Alleluia, and also gives the full Collect for the Day, lists the lessons and gives hymn choices for each day.

It's a one-year lectionary series, of course. Here are some interesting signposts along the way. Epiphany is given as Jan. 6, then the First Sunday After the Epiphany follows with the gospel lesson from Luke 2, the Boy Jesus in the temple; then propers for the Baptism of our Lord, with no preference toward it vs. the previous propers. I guess you can pick between them, or even use both in separate services. For the Fourth and Fifth Sundays After Epiphany, Introits, Graduals and Alleluias are indicated "as for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany." Also, The Presentation of our Lord and the Purification of Mary (Feb. 2) is interpolated after Epiphany 4. Epiphany 6 is identified as Transfiguration with a rubric saying it's customary to use these propers on the last Sunday after Epiphany except when there is only one such Sunday. Then you get the Pre-Lent Sundays—Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima—which folks accustomed to a three-year lectionary may have forgotten about amid longer Epiphany seasons and later Transfiguration Sundays. Then Ash Wednesday, the Sundays in Lent with their Latin titles, the Annunciation (March 25) interpolated after Lent 4, propers for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday as well as a Holy Saturday specifically desingated for the Office of Matins. This includes a long canticle, the Song of Hezekiah from Isaiah 38, and a reference to the Litany later in the book. Easter services include propers for Easter Dawn, Easter Day, Easter Evenng/Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday, before continuing with Sundays After Easter by number and Latin subtitle. Ascension comes after the fifth of these six Sundays.

Pentecost gets its old-fashioned name, Whitsunday back, followed by propers for Pentecost Evening/Whitsun Monday, Whitsun Tuesday and the Feast of Holy Trinity, and then it's Sundays after Trinity numbered from one to five. Next we get the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), SS Peter & Paul (June 29), and the Visitation (July 2) before the numbered Sundays resume with 6-18. The next interruption is for St. Michael and All Angels (Sept. 29), then Trinity 19-23, then the Reformation (Oct. 31), All Saints' Day (Nov. 1), then Trinity 24 ff. with 25-27 subtitled as the third-last, second-last and last Sunday of the church year. Propers conclude with a day of national thanksgiving, followed by a table of Psalms for Sundays, weekdays and principal feasts (pp. 461f) and a tiny woodcut of David at prayer.

The next major section of the book, then, is Matins, opening with a full-page painting of the Annunciation. The book credits the setting of this morning prayer office to a 1589 prayer book by Matthäus Ludecus, with organ intonations, unaccompanied chanting by the liturgist and harmonized responses for the congregation. The Alleluia after the Gloria Patri can be replaced by a "Praise to You, O Christ" dealie from Septuagesima to Passiontide. Proper invitatories (the antiphon framing the Venite/Psalm 95) are actually laid out on the page under the chant tone. It's a Gregorian tone, don't you know, sung responsorially between the liturgist and the congregation. Chanting continues with, for example, responsories for different seasons, set to more elaborate music than in LSB (another challenge you'll have to carefully prepare your congregation to get over), with seasonal options going on for several pages. After the sermon comes Luther's paraphrase of the Te Deum, actually the first thing I am truly thrilled to see (as opposed to just generally pleased) because no Missouri Synod hymnbook, outside of a 1970s worship supplement, has ever included Luther's Te Deum ("Lord God, Thy praise we sing") and this has frustrated me since time out of mind. As an alternative, there's also a chant setting of the Benedictus (Song of Zechariah). The office continues with a chanted Kyrie, spoken Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed (with the option to chant them on the pitch G), collects, versicle, the concluding Collect for Grace, Benedicamus and Benediction ("The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ..."). As an appendix, the Matins office concludes with Willan's setting of the Te Deum, a through-composed piece that goes on for eight pages; similar modern settings can be found in LW and LSB.

Vespers (the evening prayer office, again per Ludecus) begins on p. 490 with the Bidding Prayer, traditionally prayed on Good Friday, followed by a painting of Noah's Ark from what looks like an illuminated manuscript. It's similar to Matins but without the Venite or anything in place of it. The canticle is a choice of the Magnificat (Song of Mary) or the Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon), set to Gregorian tones with full harmony. After this service comes the Litany on p. 505, pointed to be sung responsorially. And the last page before the Appendix is another color picture, David tuning his harp.

Appendices: p. 518 is an "ektenia" prayer of the church. Pages 519-521 give us the proper prefaces for Communion, with space at the end for a depiction and explanation of the Luther rose. Page 522 presents handbell settings for the chant tones used with the propers. The next two pages provide modern and traditional accompaniments for the Gloria Patri chants set to all those tones. Then there are two pages of copyrights and acknowledgements in fine print, and a note from the publisher.

Indices: p. 528 starts an index of composers, authors and translators, alphabetical by last name. Page 530 is an index of artists and artwork. Page 531 is a hymn-of-the-day index. Hymn tunes are indexed alphabetically on pp. 532-33, then hymn titles on pp. 533-35, and finally historic collects and prayers at the bottom of p. 535 and that, dear reader, is the book.

Question answered. New question: What shall we do with this book? More than any other hymnal I have reviewed so far – including ELDoNA's book as well as the Reclaim project – I'd be keen to see congregations, Protes'tant Conference or not, give serious consideration to using this book. I'm not necessarily admonishing anyone to pitch out the hymnal they're currently using and replace it with this. But it would at least serve well alongside the other book, used in alternation with it or as a supplement to it. Families who are seriously into hymns and liturgy, and I know several of them so don't tell me there's no such thing, should get enough copies of this book for everybody in the household and use it for home devotions. Private persons who are away from family, say, on a secular campus or even at a sectarian school whose campus chapel has gone flaky, should take this book into their closet with them and maybe, if they can interest someone in joining them, start a pirate chapel in a dorm lounge, a stairwell, a student union, a dining room, a collaborative learning space or a practice room in the music department. Get some music learners working on the hymns, the Healey Willan Mass and Luther's Te Deum. Try it out, introduce it with care, talk about it and then decide.

Meanwhile, if your congregation is using Reclaim, or Evangelical Lutheran Worship and its supplements, or Christian Worship: A Hymnal, or This Far by Faith, or the Ambassador Hymnal, for a few examples, and asking them to look at this book as a possible supplement if not replacement gets you ejected from fellowship, so be it. Shake the dust off your feet and start your own church around this book, perhaps with an additional resource like ELH or LSB. Or if the same premise holds but the result is they're interested and your suggestion takes hold, work patiently toward the day when those other books can be loaded into a rollaway recycling container and, you know. Rolled away. † The peace of the Lord be with you.

EDIT: I've discussed this with a fellow pastor and taken his comments into consideration and I'll grant him this: If a pastor decides to plant his flag on this hill, he will die on it. Your ministry won't survive without much putting more weight in the balances of hymn selection on what modern congregations are accustomed to singing. So I want to underscore once again that I would only advocate using this hymnal as a supplement to another hymnal and introducing the musically challenging, rhythmic chorales and chant music gradually and with great care. My friend is of the opinion that this book and its type of thing are mostly of value as historical documents. Except that he would love to find a way to introduce the Willan Mass to his congregation. I won't identify him any further except to hint that his church body's primary hymnal already has the Luther Te Deum in it.

Echoes in the Night

Yesterday afternoon, I took a trip down the highway to the nearest town where I could catch a matinee of Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling. It's a documentary about the over 25-year agony of Jerry and Patty Wetterling of St. Joseph, Minn., whose 11-year-old son was kidnapped off his bicycle on Oct. 22, 1989 and never seen again. And also the guy down the road who was the prime suspect for all those years, mainly because he was a bit of an oddball and lived with his parents, whose driveway ended about where Jacob was last seen. And also a guy named Jared, a.k.a. "The Cold Springs boy," who in January of that same year was abducted and sexually assaulted by a stranger who was long suspected, and eventually proved, to be the same guy who snatched Jacob. And about an investigative blogger named Joy, who was the first to spot a link between Jared's case and a series of attacks on young teenaged boys in the nearby town of Paynesville, where Jared and his family had coincidentally moved after his ordeal. And to a lesser degree, the journalists and law enforcement people connected with the case, and a classmate of Jacob's who ended up making a career of educating children and communities about child sex abuse.

Eventually – though already over a decade ago – an Annandale, Minnesota resident named Danny Heinrich confessed to snatching, raping and shooting Jacob, and led authorities to where he hid the boy's remains. He got 20 years for a single count of possessing child pornography, and was never even charged with his attacks on Jacob, Jared or the other boys – though the documentary does go on to show Jared being awarded a large but uncollectable sum of money for the harm Heinrich did him.

Even as a solved case, the story leaves you with an uneasy feeling, as no doubt it should. The Wetterlings didn't really want justice; they just wanted to know where their son was, and cutting a deal with his killer was the price of getting that – even at the expense of justice for Jared. You can't walk out of this movie feeling good. And I, for one, cried as quietly as I could through a great deal of it.

I'm not feeling like delivering a Scenes That Made It For Me list for this film. It was good, but not something that filled me with joy. It was, in a word, heartbreaking. It brought back memories of a case that affected my then (when I was a teen myself) and now home state (again, after years away from Minnesota). Memories like a mom going spare in the convenience store where I worked, senior year in high school, because her son – coincidentally also named Jacob – had disappeared while she was shopping. Only after the police showed up was the child found, sitting in the backseat of his mom's car, waiting for her to come out of the store. And of course the smiling face of the sweet, happy kid in the photo that was circulated, year after year, while the search for him went on. My youngest brother, also named Jacob, who at the time of Jacob Wetterling's disappearance was only 3 years old, would later grow to look a bit like him. From the beginning, I had a vivid intuition of the thoughts and feelings his family members were going through, and now I can roughly guess what kind of man he would look like at the cusp of middle age. He'll never get to grow up or grow old, however, because as Patty said, he remained alive for them only until they learned that he had died the day he was taken.

I can tell you about some bits of this movie that destroyed me, however. The suspect down the road saying he considered suicide but didn't want the authorities to conclude that he did it and close the case. Jerry Wetterling declaring he was done talking to the media after 50 tipsters "turned him in" as a suspect in his own son's disappearance, based on the brave face he put on for his family's benefit. Patty describing how depressed she became until she thought about her son, curled up and hopeless, and forced herself to "get up." Jared's fury when the prosecutors represented him as having agreed to Heinrich's plea deal, when he had done no such thing. Patty's disillusionment when, after successfully campaigning for state and later federal laws establishing a sex offender registry, the results proved to be harmful in their own disturbing way (e.g. 10-year-olds being labeled for life as sex offenders after being caught "playing doctor"). Or again, what it cost Jared throughout his life to be unable to let go of what had happened to him when he was 13 years old; even his first wife (at the point where their marriage broke) telling him they were never going to catch the guy so he should move on. I wanted to write a line of dialog for him, something like, "My experience melted me down and poured me into a mold, and this is what it made me." And Patty's message seems to be that you can end child sex abuse and other violent crimes if you teach children early enough to respect other people. But I couldn't escape the thought, "Oh Lord, people suck."

The fact that they got the guy is a little satisfying. The fact that he never legally answered for most of what he did, and the people he really harmed, is deeply unsatisfying. And the way the film ends with home video of Jacob Wetterling describing himself only weeks before his death is everything about this movie, emotionally. Which is mostly – and I repeat – devastating.

DCC The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1

Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah et al
Recommended Ages: 15+

I'm not even sure how to list the author credits on this one. The front cover lists Matt Dinniman, Laurel Pursuit, Tevagah and Aethon in that order, but in the same font, style and size, like equal contributors. But I'm not sure they're all human persons. Based on an inside credits page, Aethon seems to be a publishing company and Laurel Pursuit is a webtoon studio (i.e. a team of artists), while Tevagah seems to be a writer from Australia. And of course, the graphic novel credits Dinniman as "creator," as this manga-style production is based substantially on the first few chapters of his novel, Dungeon Crawler Carl. I guess this book is more or less a bound volume of chapters skimmed off the top of a webtoon, and if it suffers from anything it's a page format that makes some of the lettering (particularly of in-game dialog boxes) eye-strainingly small. I spent a frustrating amount of time holding this book up to a strong source of light and squinting to read bits of it, unhelped by low-contrast color choices.

As for the story, I've already reviewed that. Vol. 1 gets through only the first "13 chapters" of the webtoon, which I reckon is somewhere around a third of the first book in Dinniman's series, based on the fact that Vols. 2 and 3 exist. Since it's only been a few weeks since I read the book, my recall is fairly fresh but as always imperfect. I have no complaints about how the story is depicted. The characters, especially of Carl and his feline partner, Princess Donut, are portrayed in a fun way. The design is energetic and attractive, delivering the dramatic impact of the book in a visual form. I would definitely recommend reading the novel first, though, because then your idea of what Carl, Donut and everything around them look like will be your own. As an interpretation, however, I think it works well.

What else is there to say, except read the book as your main course and, if you like it, have this graphic novel for dessert? Apparently there's an audiobook of it narrated by Jeff Hays, who is also going to voice Donut in an upcoming TV series based on the books, co-written by Christopher Yost of Cowboy Bebop fame. I don't know how far along it is in development, but Hays is the only cast member listed so far on imdb. It could be years before we see anything come of it. So, for now, hit the books, baby! With eyeball lasers and the whole biz!

What's in Te Laudamus?—Part 3

Further to Part 1 and Part 2, we resume our survey of the hymns in Te Laudamus (TL, and other abbreviations previously used continue to apply) with Hymn 295.

Praise & Thanksgiving hymns, 295-303, begin with the usual color painting, this one depicting David leading a celestial orchestra with a harp, and a historic collect for Thanksgiving.

• "I will sing my Maker's praises" is by Gerhardt, set to Johann Schop's chorale, SOLLT ICH MEINEM GOTT. Its 12 stanzas sprawl across four pages, with 6-12 on the second spread lying under the bare melody.
• "All ye who on this earth do dwell," again by Gerhardt, is translated by Alfred Ramsey and set to Crüger's tune NUN DANKET ALL (see also "Come, let us join our cheerful songs").
• "Thou whose glory none can see" by Franzmann is set to Reuning's tune ST. BARBARA, which I take it he named after his dear wife. It's a very serious tune in a traditional style.
• "My soul, now bless thy Maker" by Johann Gramann, translation Winkworth with a supplemental stanza by Carver, is set to its own chorale, NUN LOB, MEIN SEEL.
• "Now thank we all our God" by Martin Rinckart, translation Winkworth, is set to Crüger's tune NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT.
• "O fearful place" by Franzmann is set to Ralph Vaughan Willimas' ironically named tune SINE NOMINE ("For all the saints"). TL subsections it "Church Anniversary."
• "The Lord hath helped me hitherto," by Ämelie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, translation Crull, is set to Nikolaus Decius' tune ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH ("All glory be to God on high"). I've missed this hymn with its "henceforths" and "hithertos" since TLH; though a different translation of it was in LW as "God brought me to this time and place." LSB dropped it entirely. It was a hymn I made good use of when I was a pastor, so it's nice to see it on the return. Ish. A woodcut of Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see and hear Jesus follows it.
• "O Lord, I sing with lips and heart" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, is set to Praetorius' IN BETHLEHEM EIN KINDELEIN, which I think is new to me, with the bare melody repeated over stanzas 7-12 on the facing page.
• "Rejoice, my heart, be glad and sing" by Gerhardt, again via Kelly, is set to the chorale ICH SINGE DIR. A note at the top of both it and the previous hymn explains that they were originally one, 16-stanza hymn.

Morning hymns, 304-313, begin with a Cranach-the-Elder painting of the creation of the world, from the 1534 edition of Luther's Bible, and Luther's morning prayer from the Small Catehcism.

• "Awake, my heart, be singing" by Gerhardt is translated partly by Carver and partly by Kelly and set to Crüger's tune NUN LASST UNS GOTT ("Now let us come before Him"). Stanzas 6-10 lie under a repeat of the melody on the second side of the spread.
• "God, who madest earth and heaven," words and melody (GOTT DES HIMMELS) by Heinrich Albert, is translated by Winkworth.
• "I thank Thee, Lord, for keeping" by Johann Kolross, translation Carver, is set to the rhythmic chorale LOB GOTT GETROST a.k.a. ICH DANK DIR, LIEBER HERRE.
• "My inmost heart now raises" is by Georg Nigidius, a.k.a. Niege, translation Winkworth except one stanza by Cronenwett, with "alt." everywhere. The tune is AUS MEINES HERZENS GRUNDE.
• "O Splendor of God's glory bright" by St. Ambrose is a two-tune celebration, with Nikolaus Herman's tune O HEILIGE DREIFALTIGKEIT ("O blessed Holy Trinity") on the left, alternating with the exceptionally lovely plainsong SPLENDOR PATERNAE GLORIAE on the right. And as always, the whole hymn many be sung to either tune. I'm thrilled to see it uncut after LSB abridged it, having once gone to the trouble of memorizing all nine stanzas.
• "Praise God, the day is here at last" by Selnecker, translation carver, is set to OLD HUNDREDTH (cf. "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow"). The stanzas are split into what appears to be a two-tune celebration, but actually both tunes are OLD HUNDREDTH, only the one on the right side of the spread has the melody in the tenor line and a descant on top, courtesy of John Dowland.
• "The wingeld herald of the day" by Prudentius, translation Neale, is in fact a two-tune celebration with Crüger's tune LOB SEI DEM ALLMÄCHTIGEN GOTT ("Great God, a blessing from your throne" in LBW; "O Paschal Feast, what joy is thine" in Service Book and Hymnal). On the right is the plainsong CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM ("Creator of the starry height").
• "While yet the morn is breaking" is by Johannes Mühlmann, translation mainly Winkworth, set to Bartholomäus Gesius' tune GEDULT, DIE SOLLN WIR HABEN (paired with this hymn in TLH and the preceeding Ev. Lutheran Hymn-Book).
• "O heavenly Word, eternal light," subsectioned "Advent," is translated from Latin by Neale and set to the chorale ACH BLEIB BEI UNS ("Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide"). The entire hymn is repeated on the facing page with the plainchant VERBUM SUPERNUM PRODIENS ("O saving Victim, openng wide" in SBH), as either an alternate tune or (the end-note suggests) some kind of celebration; though no attempt has been made to divide the stanzas between the two, in this case.
• "The radiant sun shines in the skies" is by Herman, set to Vulpius' tune DIE HELLE SONN LEUCHT, which LBW and LW used with "God loved the world so that He gave."

Evening hymns, 314-322, bring us a painting of the supper at Emmaus and Luther's evening prayer. Then:

• "My soul doth magnify the Lord," a versification of the magnificat translated by J.T. Mueller, is set to Gibbons' SONG 34 (used with this hymn in LW).
• "The sun's last beam of light is gone" by Herman is set to Vulpius' HINUNTER IST DER SONNEN SCHEIN, seen earlier in the book.
• "I thank Thee, God, whose loving way" by Heermann, translation Carver, is set to HEUT TRIUMPHIERET, also seen earlier. The melody line is repeated on the third page over stanzas 6-10.
• "Creator of the stars of night," translation Neale from the Latin, is set to CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM and subsectioned "Advent."
• "Now rest beneath night's shadow," Gerhardt via Winkworth, is set to Heinrich Isaac's O WELT, ICH MUSS DICH LASSEN, a.k.a. INNSBRUCK (ich muss dich lassen).
• "O Christ, who art the light and day," translated by William John Copeland, is set to its own tune, CHRISTE, DER DU BIST TAG UND LICHT, traced back to a 7th century Latin hymn. Stanzas 6-7 are laid under the melody on the facing page, and the entire hymn is repeated on the next spread with the alternate tune CHRISTE, QUI LUX ES ET DIES, evidently a more ornate, closer-to-the-original-plainsong version of the first tune. So again, either a celebration or an alternate-tune situation.
• "O God, be with us" is mostly by Petrus Herbert, translation Winkworth, set to Petrus Nigidius' tune DIE NACHT IST KOMMEN, which I thought was one of the harder tunes in TLH. But there are a lot of rhythmic chorales in this book, so it'll be good practice.
• "Sink not yet, my soul, to slumber" is by Johann Rist, translation Winkworth, set to the isometric version of Schop's WERDE MUNTER (as in "Jesu, Joy of man's desiring"). The book heroically squeezes all 11 stanzas onto a single, two-page spread.
• Hymn 322 is an interesting case: two translations of the same hymn, placed side by side as a potential celebration. On the left is Luther's "Thou who art Three in unity," from St. Ambrose's Latin, translation Massie, set to the chorale DER DU BIST DREI IN EINIGKEIT. On the right is Neale's version of Ambrose, set to the former's apparent plainsong parent, O LUX BEATA TRINITAS. Personally, I like the choice between the two translations, but I'm not sure why I would make a congregation learn O LUX when DER DU BIST is right there.

And that, chickens, is it for the hymns in TL. Next time we'll tackle the remainder of the book, mainly liturgy. Less of it than you might imagine! But on that, more to come.

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Carl's Doomsday Scenario
by Matt Dinniman
Recommended Ages: 15+

In this first sequel to Dungeon Crawler Carl, a man and his cat continue to become a galactic social media sensation as they struggle to survive a live, planetwide Dungeons & Dragons campaign with little more than their wits, Princess Donut's charisma and Carl's increasingly effective punching, kicking and stomping skills. Now they're on Level 3 (of potentially 18 – but nobody has ever gotten past Level 13). They get to choose a species and class. Donut chooses cat and former child star; Carl's choices are more surprising. I'll let you find out about his species, but I'll hint that his class involves rapidly developing bomb-making skills. By the end, you'll know why this book has the title it does. It's gonna be a big deal later on, without a doubt.

So, Level 3. It's one of the levels divisible by three, don't ya know. As such, it's an installment in a scripted fantasy known as the Overcity, which prominently features a lot of elves and skyfolk (winged creatures who lord it over everybody else). It's also a place where quests happen to you, whether you want them or not. Carl and Donut get caught up in one almost immediately – a story about a circus that became a hellscape when the Overcity fell into shadow. How they get out of that isn't what's important right now; though the outcome gives them some leverage in the entertainment universe. It's their next quest that really blows up, figuratively and literally. We're talking a Kobayashi Maru scenario for a couple of crawlers. It's almost as if the evil corporation behind the game is afraid of their success and wants to kill them off before they get too big. But a whole bunch of other crawlers get swept up in it, and before it's over, cosmic alliances may be broken, shots are fired (not only within the dungeon) and an entire civilization teeters on the brink of economic collapse. Good times.

Carl is still that "I won't let them break me" guy we all know and love – especially the foot-fetishist AI controlling the game, as evidenced by the fact that he never makes any progress toward getting shoes or pants. Donut is still the wisecracking puddy-tat who can swing in a heartbeat between cuddling and killing, purring and hissing. She also shoots rockets out of her eyes, and commands the loyalty of a rapidly growing velociraptor. Their party grows by yet another member in this book, but this gift from a fellow member of the dungeon crawl's Top 10 leaderboard could have a dagger hidden in it, if you know what I mean. It's a stage in their adventure where they gear up for levels yet to come, learn a lot and, intentionally or otherwise, make more powerful enemies than ever before. And there's still lots of levels for them to get through if they want to survive. It's nonstop scary, thrilling, laugh-out-loud fun.

It looks like there are going to be at least 10 books in this series, though only eight have been released so far. A master of LitRPG, Dinniman is also the author of such "apocalyptic fun" as Kaiju, The Grinding and Operation Bounce House.

Coyote vs. Acme

I've taken my sweet time blogging about it, but I actually saw Coyote vs. Acme on its opening day, last Friday. Of course I did. Because I've been dying to see it since the news broke that Warner Brothers tried to bury it, for tax reasons, and Ketchup Entertainment coughed up big bucks to unbury it. Rumors that it was shelved because it was a bad movie, or wouldn't make money, have now been laid to rest: it's done rather well, even compared to other Looney Tunes theatrical features. In its opening weekend, it scored a second- or third-place box office behind the unstoppable Spider-Man: Brand New Day (which even I saw, and enjoyed) and maybe also Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey (which I didn't). Locally, it was up against Spidey as well as The Dog Stars this week – another movie I'm supposed to enjoy but that I have no interest in seeing. It has also gotten pretty spiffy scores on Rotten Tomatoes. So, by general consent, not a terrible movie and not a commercial failure, either. How much of its success does it owe to its (pun intended) underdog narrative? I dunno. But let me tell you what I personally thought about it.

I thought the movie blended live action and animation beautifully, with lots of Looney Tunes legacy characters appearing in roles big and small, and flesh-and-blood actors encountering them in a convincing way. You stop looking for artifacts of eye contact not quite happening and kind of forget that there was no actual coyote on set for Will Forte or Lana Condor, as Wile E. Coyote's lawyer and his niece/intern/conscience respectively, to interact with. Also, the original voice actors behind the many animated characters are gone, but the movie's voice cast (mostly Eric Bauza) did an almost perfect job of recreating the characters. The cast also features good work by John Cena, Luis Guzmán and others. I have no complaints about the production values. As for the story, it blended zaniness that did, actually, make me laugh out loud, and some tenderness that got me a little choked up.

It's a send-up of the fact that Wile E. Coyote's efforts to catch the Road Runner are never helped, and always disastrously hindered, by an endless series of gadgets he orders from the Acme Corporation. Based (loosely, I think) on a New Yorker article in the form of a facetious legal brief in the coyote's multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the company, it delves into such Saturday morning cartoon-adjacent topics as inhumane treatment of product testing subjects, shady coverups by "too big to fail" businesses, judicial and Congressional corruption (Cena: "I don't pay you to laugh, Senator!") and certain personal injury lawyers who have given up on real ambition (to say nothing of dedication to their clients) and content themselves with nibbling the crumbs of small-time litigation. It has a client who speaks only in a limited number of painted signs, who noisily builds Rube Goldberg machines in his motel room and who is quietly plotting the downfall of the Road Runner throughout his journey through the legal system.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Obviously (lump in throat) when the Road Runner shows up in court. (2) A paint can plus a brush equals a railroad tunnel ... if you ever watched Warner Bros. cartoons, I think you can guess where this scene is headed. (3) Visiting Daffy Duck in the lunatic asylum, where he assumes Will Forte is there to pose pantsless for a painting. Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!

What's in Te Laudamus?—Part 2

I resume my survey of what's in the new Protes'tant Conference hymnal at hymn 217 of 322 (mostly ignoring the numbers, however). I hoped to get through the hymn department in this go, but human frailty prevented it. Let's see if I manage it next time. I'll immediately resume using abbreviations introduced in the previous installment, so be on your toes.

Easter hymns, 216-227, are prefaced by a painting of Jesus' resurrection and another Dietrich collect.

• "Christ the Lord is risen again" is by Michael Weisse, translated by Winkworth and set to a chorale that TL identifies as CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN ("Christ is arisen"), though it borrows some characteristics from the closely related chorale that TLH identifies as CHRISTUS IST ERSTANDEN. Kind of a mash-up of the two, really, including an Alleluia refrain.
• "Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands" is Luther's Easter hymn, translation Massie, set to Luther's chorale adaptation of a plainsong titled CHRIST LAG IN TODESBANDEN. I'm going to stop mentioning the times a collect is added at the end of a hymn to fill unused page space, as after this hymn.
• "The day hath dawned" by Nikolaus Herman, translation by Russell and others (including Carver), is set to Herman's own tune, ERSCHIENEN IST in its third appearance so far in the book.
• "Awake, my heart, with gladness" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, comes with Crüger's scrumptious tune AUF, AUF MEIN HERZ, proper to this hymn.
• "Today in triumph Christ arose" by Kaspar Stolshagen, set to its prper chorale, HEUT TRIUMPHIERET and followed by a resurrection woodcut.
• "Like the golden sun ascending" by Thomas Kingo, translated from Danish by George A.T. Rygh, is set to the rhythmic version of Johann Schop's WERDE MUNTER ("Speak, O Lord, Thy servant heareth").
• John of Damascus' "The day of resurrection," translation Neale, comes to us attached to Walter's HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN (not VERLANGEN), previously seen in the Advent section. The woodcut after it depicts Jesus in the garden admonishing Mary Magdalene, "Touch Me not."
• "Welcome, happy morning" by Fortunatus, translated by John Ellerton, is set to the chorale SEI DU MIR GEGRÜSSET, as in TLH. Some may know this hymn in an alternate translation, set to Ralph Vaughan Williams' tune SALVA FESTA DIES ("Hail thee, festival day"). Well, funny I should mention it, because ...
• "Welcome, festal morning!" is Carver's translation of the same hymn, starting with two refrains (A and B) at the bottom of the second page of "Welcome, happy morning" and continuing for another two pages with stanzas, starting with "Lo, the gracious beauty," set to the plainsong SALVA FESTA DIES. I think I have to ding TL for hiding the refrains on the previous page, out of line-of-sight from the rest of the hymn. I don't think it bodes well for its practical use as the editors intended.
• "Jesus Christ, who came to save" by Luther, translation composite, is actually a hymn I've translated myself! (Shameless self-plug) And it's set to the tune JESUS CHRISTUS, UNSER HEILAND, DER DEN TOD (not to be confused with the similarly named tune to Jan Hus' communion hymn).
• "Triumphantly, His garments gored" is by Benjamin (not Michael) Praetorius and set to the magnificent tune, O HEILAND, REISS DIE HIMMEL AUF ("O Savior, rend the heavens wide"). It features a footnote explaining the word "tows."

Ascension hymns, 228-230, begin with ...

• "Be glad, God's children round about" by Erasmus Alber, set to the author's own tune, NUN FREUT EUCH, GOTTES KINDER ALL—not to be confused with NUN FREUT EUCH (lieben Christen gmein). Only after this are the remaining hymns in the section prefaced by a color painting of Christ's ascension and another Dietrich collect.
• "We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest friend" by Selnecker, translation Loy, is set again to ERSCHIENEN IST.
• "Oh, sing with exultation" by Anders Arrebo, in Døving's translation, and set to the chorale AUS MEINES HERZENS GRUNDE ("My inmost heart now raises," etc.). An ascension woodcut follows.

Pentecost hymns, 231-235, start with ...

• "Come, Holy Spirit," a single-stanza antiphon set to the plainsong VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS, and only then comes the color painting and Dietrich collect.
• "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord," from one medieval Latin stanza and two added by Luther, is set to its own chorale KOMM, HEILIGER GEIST, HERRE GOTT.
• "Creator Spirit, heavenly dove" is one of those odd-even stanzas celebrations, with the chorale KOMM, GOTT SCHÖPFER on the left and the plainsong VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS on the right. Text from Latin by way of Luther by way of Massie. And when the tune credit says Sarum, I believe that's professional antiquarian-speak for Salisbury, England. As in, Stonehenge. But not that old.
• "Oh, enter, Lord, Thy temple" by Gerhardt, translation Winkworth, is set to Crüger's lovely tune ZEUCH EIN, and I'm delighted to see it. It was an important enough hymn, in the era of TLH, that Jan Bender included it in a book of Hymn of the Day arrangements keyed to that book; yet it's been missing from Missouri Synod hymnals ever since. Its 13 stanzas spill across four pages, however. It does cost a bit in real estate, though TL's editors made the choice of repeating the melody on the third and fourth pages.
• "Now do we pray to God, the Holy Ghost," with an anonymous German stanza expanded into four by Luther, is set to its own chorale, NUN BITTEN WIR. Essential Lutheran Pentecost material.

Trinity hymns, 236-240, return to the pattern of starting with a color painting (an altarpiece by Dürer) and a Dietrich collect.

• "I believe in one God" is a through-composed, four-page-long plainsong setting of the Nicene Creed, harmonized by Healey Willan (more from him is to come—no surprise if you've had the pleasure of hearing Reuning play Willan's setting of the Divine Service on a Sunday morning). LW had this melody as well; my vicarage congregation may have been one of the few ever to use it in worship. I love this setting, but teaching it to a congregation is a project and a half.
• "We all believe in one true God" is Luther's paraphrase of the Nicene Creed, set to the chorale WIR GLAUBEN ALL (harmony by Praetorius—and I always mean Michael unless otherwise specified). There's another footnote about optional accidentals and a long Amen, different from the one I learned for this tune.
• "God the Father, be our Stay" is again a medieval hymn filtered through Luther, by way of Massie, and set to the chorale GOTT DER VATER, WOHN UNS BEI. I applaud TL for reverting to the three-stanza version instead of the pathetic "Triune God, oh, be our Stay" option that replaced it in LW or, perhaps worse, the confusing choice between the one- and three-stanza versions offered in LSB, which forces those of us who care to instruct the congregation to skip the apparent first stanza and sing just the italicized stanzas 1, 2 and 3. Yeesh. Thanks, TL, for walking that abomination back.
• "The mystery hidden from the mind" by Gerhardt is set to the chorale ES WOLLE GOTT ("May God bestow on us His grace"). I'm a little miffed that the book passed on the opportunity to set it to EIN NEUES LIED, as in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (ELH); see a couple hymns ahead. The stanzas overflow onto a third page, complete with melody.
• "Isaiah, mighty Seer" is Luther's interpolation and paraphrase of the Sanctus, all in one long stanza that goes on for three pages. Again, a chore to teach to a congregation but worth it once accomplished!

Reformation hymns, 241-252, begin with a painting of Luther at the Diet of Worms divided across two pages, followed by a collect not specifically by Veit Dietrich, for once.

• "A mighty Fortress is our God," Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 46, is set to its own chorale, EIN FESTE BURG, rhythmic.
• "A new song I now fain would tell" is Luther's very first hymn, commemorating the faithfulness of the Reformation's first two martyrs, and set to Luther's own tune, EIN NEUES LIED (see? I said you'd see it in a bit). It goes on to 12 stanzas across four pages, with melody repeated on the second spread, followed by a page-and-a-half-long historical note related to the song that doesn't mention one thing I've learned about this hymn—it may be the tune that introduced the major key as we know it, turning a corner from medieval to modern music.
• "Lord, keep us steadfast" by Luther with stanzas added by Justus Jonas, translation Winkworth, is set to its proper chorale, ERHALT UNS, HERR.
• "O Lord, look down from heaven, behold" is Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 12, set to its own chorale, ACH GOTT VOM HIMMEL, a confident lamentation.
• "Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice" by Luther, translation Massie, is a confession of Law-Gospel belief, largely in quotation marks attributed to God the Father and the Son, and set to its proper chorale, Luther's own NUN FREUT EUCH.
• "If God had not been on our side," also by Luther and translated by Massie, is set to its own chorale, WÄR GOTT NICHT MIT UNS and followed by a woodcut of Luther.
• "O God, our Lord, Thy holy Word," source unknown, is translated partly by W. Gustave Polack and partly by Carver and set to its prper chorale, O HERRE GOTT. Its eight stanzas overflow (with melody) onto a third page.
• "In these our days so perilous," adapted by Luther from early-church Latin and translated by Massie, is a one-stanza prayer for peace elsewhere given as "Grant peace we pray in mercy, Lord," and set to its own chorale, VERLEIH UNS FRIEDEN.
• "Salvation unto us has come" by Paul Speratus, set to its own chorale ES IST DAS HEIL, is such a monumental hymn (weighing in at 14 stanzas) that its closing doxology is actually two stanzas long.
• "The mouth of fools doth God confess," Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 14, translation Massie, is set to its own chorale, ES SPRICHT DER UNWEISEN MUND. It's another rarity that I am overjoyed to see; in fact, I once translated it myself, unaware at the time of Massie's version.
• "Dear to me is the holy Maid" by Luther, translation Massie, is subsectioned "Church" in case you're wondering who this woman is. It's set to its own chorale, SIE IST MIR LIEB, and again, it's a bit of a rarity these days.
• "In peace and joy I now depart" is Luther's paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis, set to his own (attributed) tune MIT FRIED UND FREUD. Like pretty much this whole section, it's a worthy challenge to teach this hymn to a congregation if they're open to learning something truly beautiful.

End Times hymns, 252-264 (including the hymn just mentioned, which seems to be sectioned as both Reformation and End Times), proceeds with a color painting by Rubens of the baby Jesus' presentation to Simeon, and of course a Dietrich collect.

• "A pilgrim and a stranger" by Gerhardt is set to Crüger's beautiful tune WIE SOLL ICH DICH EMPFANGEN ("O Lord, how shall I meet Thee"), which has sadly been pushed out of its proper place by that old workhorse, VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN. Gerhardt's 14 stanzas, with repeated melody, spread across four pages.
• "Be glad, my heart, and fear no more" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, is set to the chorale ES IST GEWISSLICH ("The day is surely drawing near").
• "Farewell I gladly bid thee" by Valentin Herberger, translation Winkworth, is the tune from which VALET WILL ICH takes its name, and of course is set to it.
• "I walk in danger all the way" by Hans Adolph Brorson is set to the warm, tender tune DIE LIEBEN SONNE, as in TLH, LW, ELH and several other hymnals.
• "In the midst of earthly life" is Luther's araphrase of a medieval Latin antiphon with additional stanzas of his own, set to his own choralification of the original plainsong, MITTEN WIR IM LEBEN SIND.
• "Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light" by Martin Behm, translation Winkworth, goes with O JESU CHRISTE, WAHRES LICHT.
• "Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God" by Paul Eber, translation Winkworth, goes with HERR JESU CHRIST, WAHR MENSCH UND GOTT. Gorgeous!
• "Lord, Thee I love with all my heart" by Martin Schalling, translation winkworth, is set to its own chorale, HERZLICH LIEB. I can't think of this hymn without remembering a party (at Reuning's house, wouldn't you know) where I sat down to play it at the piano and soon had a roomful of pastors and seminarians gathered around, singing it throatily and with deep emotion—a memory that will move me as long as I live.
• "The day is surely drawing near" by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt, is set to its own chorale, ES IST GEWISSLICH.
• Subsectioned as Missions, "Thou, who didst bring the Gospel" by Albert Knap is set to the rousing tune IST GOTT FÜR MICH ("If God Himself be for me").
• "Wake, awake, for night is flying," the King of Chorales, is by Nicolai, translation Winkworth, and set to Nicolai's own chorale, WACHET AUF—musically quoted in Handel's famous Hallelujah chorus.
• "Day of wrath, O day of morning," attributed to Thomas de Celano and part of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, is a long sequence hymn whose 19 stanzas fill most of three pages, set to four harmonic settings by Reuning and followed by Luther's explanation of the Seventh Petition ("But deliver us from evil").

Faith-Life hymns, 265-294, include such subtopics as God's Word (265-267), ministry (268), baptism (269), communion (270-272), repentance/absolution (273), catechism (10 Commandments and Lord's Prayer, 274-276; Creed, 237; baptism, 184; communion, 207; confession, 190), the Christian home (277-278), Psalm paraphrases (279-280, with others scattered throughout the book listed by Psalm in the TOC), endurance/hope/trust (281-290), restoration/saints (291-293) and call to service (294). The prefatory painting shows Luther playing his lute and singing with his family, followed by another Dietrich collect.

• "Thy strong Word" by Martin Franzmann is set to Thomas Williams' EBENEZER.
• "You spoke Your Word of truth" by Franzmann goes with Gibbons' SONG 24, followed by a woodcut showing Christ sitting in judgment.
• "Thy Word has been our daily bread" by Franzman is set to Richard Farrant's tune FARRANT (cf. TLH's setting of "Lord, lead the way the Savior went").
• "Preach you the Word" by Franzmann continues the hit parade, set to O HEILAND, REISS DIE HIMMEL AUF.
• "Ye baptized people, one and all" by Gerhardt, with multiple translators including Jon Vieker and Carver, is set to ES IST DAS HEIL.
• "Lord Jesus Christ, in hidden ways" by Franzmann is set to Daniel Read's tune WINDHAM ("We sing the praise of Him who died" in LBW, LW and LSB, etc.)
• "O kingly Love, that faithfully" by Franzmann is a long-stanzaed hymn (three pages, just to get through it once; and there are four stanzas!) set to Richard Hillert's, I'm sorry, unsingable tune KINGLY LOVE. Not for nothing did I sweat out an alternate tune of my own. But did anyone ask me? No. (Sniff.)
• "Lord, we will remember Thee" by Franzmann is set to J. Rudolph Ahle's LIEBSTER JESU.
• "Let not such a thought e'er pain thee" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, is set to Crüger's ZION KLAGT ("Zion mourns in fear and anguish"), with brackets assisting with the rhythmic groupings across 12 stanzas and three pages.
• "Wilt thou, O man, live happily" is Luther's other hymn paraphrase of the 10 commandments, set to its own chorale, MENSCH, WILLST DU LEBEN SELIGLICH.
• When I say other, it's in distinction from "That man a godly life might live" (both translated by Massie), the longer but better known of the two hymns, set to the tune now known as IN GOTTES NAMEN FAHREN WIR.
• "Our Father, Thou in heaven above" is Luther's paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, translation Winkworth, set to its own chorale, VATER UNSER, also attributed to Luther.
• "Happy the man who feareth God" is Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 128, translation Massie, set to WO GOTT ZUM HAUS ("?O blest the house, whate'er befall").
• "Our Lord has laid His benison" by Franzmann is set to Samuel Howard's ISLEWORTH ("O God of mercy, God of might," etc.) and includes a footnote explaining the word "benison."
• "Blessed is the man that never" is Gerhardt's paraphrase of Psalm 1, translation Døving, set to WERDE MUNTER (rhythmic).
• "The Lord who rules creation" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, is a Psalm 23 paraphrase set to the chorale NUN LASST UNS GEHN, of which I have nothing intelligent to say. Its 12 stanzas overflow onto a second page, including melody.
• "Commit whatever grieves thee" by Gerhardt is set to HERZLICH ... VERLANGEN.
• "If God Himself be for me," Gerhardt by way of Massie with an assist from Kelly, is set to its own tune, IST GOTT FÜR MICH, and most uncharacteristically, stanzas 10-15 flow onto a third page without melody.
• "Weary of all trumpeting" by Franzmann is set to Hugo Distler's tune DISTLER, which sounds made for the purpose. A striking, modern tune, rather unusual for this book.
• "If thou but suffer God to guide thee" by Georg Neumark, translation Winkworth, is set to Neumark's own tune WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT.
• "What is the world to me" by Georg Michael Pfefferkorn, translation Crull, set to Ahasuerus Fritsch's (isn't that a great name?) tune WAS FRAG ICH NACH DER WELT.
• "From God shall naught divide me" by Ludwig Helmbold, translation Winkworth, goes with the chorale VON GOTT WILL ICH NICHT LASSEN, here arranged by Distler.
• "What God ordains is always good" by Samuel Rodigast goes with Severus Gastorius' (not Snape) tune WAS GOTT TUT.
• "In God, my faithful God", translated by Winkworth, goes with the chorale AUF MEINEN LIEBEN GOTT and is another one of my favoritest hymns ever. A woodcut follows it, depicting Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.
• "Why should cross and trial grive me" by Gerhardt, translation Kelly, is a precious hymn, all the more lovely for J. Georg Ebeling's tune, WARUM SOLLT ICH MICH. It's followed by another footnote defining the word "cavil" and a woodcut showing the suffering of Job.
• "What they would gain men hope to win" is actually by a living writer, Robert Christman, and is set to the Christoph Demantius tune ACH LIEBEN CHRISTEN, SEID GETROST. A Dürer woodcut of Christ before Caiaphas follows it.
• "In Thee, O Lord, I've put my trust" by Adam Reusner, translation Winkworth, is set to its own chorale, IN DICH HAB ICH GEHOFFET, with a second strain of melody squeezed onto the second page for stanzas 6-7.
• "O God, O Lord of heaven and earth" by Franzmann is set to Jan Bender's WITTENBERG NEW, a modern hymn-tune that I've taught to a church choir but that I still like to call the hardest good hymn in the hymnal (starting with LW and continuing with LSB).
• "Rise again, ye lion-hearted" is co-translated by Franzmann and Carver and set to Bernhard Klein's LÖWEN, LASST EUCH WIEDER FINDEN. A footnote acknowledges one word altered from Franzmann's original text.
• "O Thou, who on the accursed ground" by Franzmann is set to Melchior Vulpius' tune HINUNTER IST DER SONNEN SCHEIN ("The sun is set, its light is gone"), a challenging but thrilling little tune.

And there I leave you for today, with the Praise and Thanksgiving, Morning and Evening hymns still to come.