No. 212 Holy War, Swp 170
For mode see note below
I’ve listed in the holy war,
Content to suffer soldier’s fare,
Natural key Chorus
And we’ll all shout for joy,
And we’ll give God the glory,
And I hope to join the army by and by.
I’ve fought through many a battle sore,
And I must fight through many more;
And we’ll etc.
I take my breastplate, sword and shield,
And boldly march into the field.
The banner o’er my head is love,
I draw my rations from above.
The world, the flesh and Satan too
Unite and strive what they can do.
On thee, O Lord, I humbly call,
Uphold me, or my soul must fall.
I’ve listed and I mean to fight,
Till all my foes are put to flight.
And when the victory I have won,
I’ll give the praise to God alone.
Come, fellow-Christians, join with me,
Come, face the foe and never flee.
The heavenly battle is begun,
Come, take the field and win the crown.
With listing orders I have come;
Come rich, come poor, come old or young.
Here’s grace’s bounty Christ has given,
And glorious crowns laid up in heaven.
But if you will not list and fight,
You’ll sink into eternal night.
The tune as it stands is heptatonic dorian. And that is probably a correct notation. The interesting thing is the device employed to legitimize the dorian raised sixth, namely, the device of modulation. The writer of the tune, knowing presumably nothing about the old modes, set his first melodic phrase in g-major with a semi-cadence on two of the scale. All went well because the f-sharp of that key was not represented. But in the second part of the tune the actual f-natural appeared; and the only way he saw of handling it was to change the signature to a “natural key chorus” as he specifically calls it. And the final note in the tune agreed with the key which he took to be a-minor.