He Touched Me

There are several ways of judging the quality of a hymn and a hymn writer, some based on personal opinion; others on a number of different objective factors. At a recent hymn festival, as I was accompanying and leading the congregation in singing the Gaither hymn, "He Touched Me," I became aware of a number of melodic, textual, and structural features for the first time that led me to a new appreciation of this gospel hymn. Here are some of my observations. Number the measures of the hymn for easy reference.

  1. The overall structure is 32 bars in four equal 8-bar phrases in ABCD form. Hymns are often composed in multiples of 8-bar phrases, most often 16 or 32 bars.
  2. The verse begins with the "shackled" motive (m.1), consisting of a descending then ascending step-wise motion of a dotted quarter and three eighth notes. The "shackled" motive also opens the second half of the first phrase (m.5), while it or a variant of it (m.9, 13) serves as the opening motive of each half-phrase (m. 1, 5, 9, 13), helping to give the verse a coherent and balanced structure.
  3. The second motive (m.2-3), "heavy burden," actually paints the text with a stressed (or heavier) half note that drops, falls, or sighs down into a quarter note ("heavy") with a lifting or rising on "burden." With only a slightly different melodic structure, the opening two motives are repeated (m.5-8), with the same "heavy burden" motive also used to paint the rather burdensome text of "guilt and shame." Many hymns use this parallel musical structure, but one indication of a well-composed hymn is when the parallel musical structure extends to similar qualities of text at the same time ("heavy burden" and "guilt and shame").
  4. As the text becomes more positive ("then the hand of Jesus"), the "shackled" motive changes, brightens, with a rise in pitch up to D, also making use of the brightest note of the chord, the third. It actually transforms the mood of that entire theme.
  5. The newly transformed "shackled" culminates in a new motive -- the "touched me" motive -- consisting of a quarter-half note rhythm (or an extended tie) of a descending third interval. Each time the words "touched me" appear, they are accompanied by this combination of rhythmic and melodic pattern (m.11, 19, 29) and a slightly larger interval of a descending fourth (m.17) to begin the refrain.
  6. The verse concludes (m.13-14) with a thoroughly transformed version of the opening "shackled" motive with the now more positive, promising and hopeful text, "now I am no longer the same." It is an ingenious musical depiction of what happens in the text: the touch of Jesus can lift us out of our shackled burdens and change or transform us.
  7. M.17's "he touched me" is quickly repeated at m.19, but it is made more urgent or more important by the use of the emotional intensifier "O" (m.18). Even the result of Jesus' touch ("the joy that floods my soul," m.22) is made more important and intense with the use of a second "O" (m.21).
  8. Just as "now I am no longer the same" (m.13-15) is a positive transformation of the "shackled" theme, so is "joy that floods my soul" (m.22-23). At every opportunity, the opening "shackled" and "neath a load of guilt and shame" motives are joyously transformed in the refrain as a result of the "touched me" motive.
  9. A new contrasting theme is introduced (m.25-28) consisting of a gradually rising melody, introducing tension as it rises and builds to the D (m.28, "know"). I have frequently observed that singers, soloists, and congregations, will alter the preceding "I" (m.27) by augmenting the C to a C-sharp, making it even more intense and hence, fulfilled in the resolution of the following D.
  10. The rising tension of m.25-28 is partially resolved on the subdominant harmony of "know" with the brightness of the third in the melody, although it is an incomplete resolution. It remains unfulfilled until one final statement of "he touched me" and its musical motive (m.28-29) and the resulting final statement of the transformed "shackled" theme (m.30-32) on the phrase "and made me whole." The emotional peak of the hymn -- the musical and textual climax -- all comes together in m.28, with a release of the tension and a resolution of the diminished and secondary dominant harmonies in that last phrase, finally ending in the last measure with "made me whole."

Is it merely coincidence that these musical, textual, and emotional features and relationships come together simultaneously? Is it a pleasant but unplanned serendipity that just occurs? It is an accident that Gaither exploits the same human emotional tension and release of the "sighing" motive on "heavy burden" as is exploited by Monteverdi, Bach, Wagner, and so many others? Absolutely not! Such things do not happen by accident. Bill Gaither has shown a mastery of these techniques in hymn after hymn and song after song. He knew exactly what he was doing when he put all of this together in 1963 in this, his first big, popular hit.

This rather technical description of these elements of mostly melody, rhythm, and text in "He Touched Me" is, of course, peculiar to this hymn. You can't name them here and then try to apply them to another hymn, or intentionally reproduce these technical accomplishments as you compose a new hymn. Nor can these techniques completely account for the wide popularity of this hymn among United Methodists and others, although certainly they help to contribute to that popularity. How these elements come together is a unique phenomenon of this hymn, the time, place, and circumstances in which it was composed as well as sung, and the unique genius of Bill Gaither.

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