This one is to some words by Kit Smart:
Where is this stupendous stranger?
Gentle shepherd now, advise.
Lead me to my Master’s manger,
show me where my Savior lies.
O Most Mighty! O Most Holy!
Far beyond the seraph’s thought,
art thou then so weak and lowly
as unheeded prophets taught?O the magnitude of meekness!
Worth from worth immortal sprung;
O the strength of infant weakness,
if eternal is so young!
God all bounteous, all creative,
whom no ills from good dissuade,
is incarnate, and a native
of the very world he made.
AcWriMo 4 — Milley — MIDI robots
AcWriMo 4 — Milley — PDF
In some ways this isn’t terribly successful: the melody has a range of an octave plus a fourth, which is pushing things. There are only two verses, which makes a new tune harder to learn. But I don’t think the tune itself is that difficult, and with a bit of care and thought a congregation could learn it: if they can handle Lyngham at a fair clip, with its five-note melismas and staggered entries, they ought to be able to do this.
It would work well, perhaps, as a tenor-led West Gallery item. I might just write some symphonies and try that, but that is perhaps beyond the scope of AcWriMo.