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Everlasting Lines C.M.D.

By Jesse P. Karlsberg

Key
G minor
Type
Fuging tune
Time signature
4
4
Composed
2018
Text
Frances Maria Cowper, 1792

Description

I wrote this song in response to a challenge posted to the "New Harmony" group on Facebook to write a song with extensive repetition of a single note. I immediately thought of these two stanzas from a hymn by Frances Maria Cowper, which I also set in my 2009 tune "Everlasting" and the idea of employing repeated notes as word painting in relation to the text. I came up with this treatment a few days later.


Text

Wise, just, and righteous are thy ways;
In all thy works I trace
The pledge of everlasting love,
The beam of sov'reign grace

Engrav'd as on eternal brass,
The sacred promise shines;
Nor can the pow'rs of Hell erase
Those everlasting lines.