What's going on here?

Here is another of what I will call an "unconventional hymn" from The Mennonite Hymnal. Click to enlarge.

With original German words by Martin Luther and later translated to this English version, with a melody that is also from the early 16th century but harmonized some 200 years later by that master of the baroque, J.S. Bach.

At first glance I thought, hey, I've found a hymn in Dorian mode! But on looking through it more carefully, I don't think it really fits into Dorian. Of course, I was never really trained in composition for all the various modes so I could still be wrong.

All those accidentals, and especially the flatted Tis are what have cast me into doubt. It does look like the sharped Do and the use of a G in the tenor creates a dominant seventh chord in the last measure that throws it firmly into the key of D for the last note. It does have a sharped Fa that makes it a D major chord, but we can just call that a Picardy third.

In any case, I think I will have to transcribe this song into Melody Assistant so I can play it and see how it all sounds.

Check the link for the Dorian mode above for a short list of pop songs in Dorian mode. I'm sure everyone is familiar with at least two or three of them.

Oh yeah, and check out those low notes in the bass part. Not many amateur singers could pull that off, I'd guess.

What's different about this song? The answer

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In comments to the previous post I said a hint was which notes you don't see. A quick scan of this piece will reveal that there are no Fas or Tis: no half steps. This is a scale which is used in different variations all over the world for many different kinds of music. However, this is the first time I've ever seen a song in any hymnal that was written in a pentatonic scale.

As I said before, another odd thing about it is that it ends on Re, which leaves a feeling of it being unfinished to western ears (this particular song being based on a Japanese melody). But since that last post, I have come across a few other songs which appear to be in a minor key, beginning on a minor chord (La-Do-Mi) as one would expect, but ending on a chord based on Re (either Re-Fa-La or Re-Fi-La). Such endings are outside my experience and training and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is supposed to be going on.

UPDATE: Click on Here O Lord to download a simple mp3 version of this song if you want to hear what the tune sounds like.

What's different about this song?

click to enlarge

Other than that it's written in simple unison with no harmony, and other than that it begins on La and ends on Re. Details pixelized out to conceal any hints.