STUTISU NĪ ENNĀTMAVĒ, Kannada Words: D. Thiruvengadiah (1882-1968), Melody: Indian traditional (19th century) - 1st tune. This video has been recorded during an evening prayer at the KTC Chappel Mangalore in 2010. The optical aspect has been almost neglected. The focus had been on the music and how this Kiirtana would be performed with the traditional accompaniment of harmonium and tabla set, accomplished by conga drums and tamburine. The video was primarily taken to enable the author to write a music sheet in staff notation thereafter. Here you can watch and listen to the original English hymn, Thiruvengadiah translated into Kannada language - and poetry! youtube.com/watch?v=4d9RJMOP9Tw Did you notice that John Goss, who composed this wonderful piece of music, is quoting the first line of the much older German hymn "Lobet den Herren, alle die ihn ehren" by Paul Gerhardt and Johann Crüger? But if you compare this recording from KTC Chapel, Mangalore with that from St. Paul's Cathedral, London not only the raga (tune) is different, also the tala (meter) differs a lot. Did you try to count the beats in each bar in the 1st and 2nd tune for STUTISU NII ENNAATMAVEE already? If not, you should do now. See you again in a few moments. … Welcome again. Its not too easy for Western listeners, am I right? You have to count up to 7, which is quite common in South Indian Church music. The meter is 7/8. You don't believe? Just listen and count again. If you are interested in the English original Hymn, its author and composer, here you will find more information: cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/r/a/praisems.htm. Here you get even more detailed information about this hymn: songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/praise-my-soul-the-king-of-heaven Here you'll find a German version of this hymn: kirchenkreis-eschwege.de/scripts/angebote/1244/233343?layout=4&back=%2Fscripts%2Fangebote%2F1244%3Flayout%3D3 . The German words are not at all a translation of Lyte's famous lyrics: The English words have substituted by the text of another old German hymn: "Lobe den Herren, o meine Seele" by Johann Daniel Herrnschmidt (1675-1723), who had written this poem 1714 in Halle. If you want to sing the German words to John Goss' tune, you have to repeat the last melody line to have enough space for the Halleluja it the end. If you try to sing "Lobe den Herren, o meine Seele" while listening to the video taken at St. Paul's Cathedral you will soon discover what I would call the “Cinderella-Effect”: The shoe is little too small for the wrong princess ... An additional MIDI file, which is provides the needed repetition, can also be found at the above shown URL. - It is also possible to sing 004 STUTISU NII ENNAATMAVEE with Lyte's original words - as well as with the substituted German "Lobe den Herren, o meine Seele". Try! Finally: This so called '1st tune' for the 1st time occurs in staff notation in a 'KIIRTANEGALU' entitled manuscript, begun but unfortunately not finished by Rev. Benjamin L. Rice. The original from about 1898 is kept at KTC archive in Mangalore. D. Thiruvengadiah or anybody else replaced John Goss' 'English' hymn tune by this far more ‘Indian’ Kiirtana tune, but nevertheless in quite a number of Indian churches and congregations Goss' hymn tune can be heard with Indian words. In the CSI diocese of East Kerala for example a translation of Lyte's lyrics into Malayalam with Goss' tune is in use, - and there hardly nobody would know the two beautiful Kannada Kiirtanegalu presented here on VIMEO.
