Since childhood I have been intrigued by the hymn, ‘God is love, his the care’. My question is why does this tune have such a powerful haunting sound to it? I’m sure I’m responding to something that is more than just a personal reaction. Although I like music, and can bash out stuff on the piano, I don’t have the specific musical intelligence / terminology to be able to analyse the structure in this way.
I know it sung in Latin - see below (found on the internet)
"*It was written by English Anglican priest, author and social-justice advocate Percy Dearmer (1867-1936). *
With meter 6.6.6.6.6 with refrain, it is almost always set to PERSONENT HODIE, a tune from the 16th century published in Pies Cantiones (1582). These dates means that both the lyrics and tune are now in the public domain."
I expect it’s something to do with the driving repetitive beat which is why it works so well with the Latin version. Despite the rather fancy Holst arrangement, in fact it’s incredibly easy to sing the tune and remember it.
Thanks for asking - brings back fond memories of the Christmases of my youth. 
Another driving beat - again with repeats.
Thank you so much for this. I will respond more fully in a little while.
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That is the tune that I meant. It was a mainstay in th school hall at my junior school, thus holding a space in one of the really important arenas of my personal soundscape. The version that you sent is in places fancier than I want it to be, but I’m glad that the tumbling notes are still there at the start (Miss Gooky used to gloriously sound them out as chords on the piano). I was pleased to find that the birth of the hymn had some historical date attached to it, as that adds to the mental jig-saw puzzle a little bit. I think that the tune has some really telling, subtle twists, particularly at the ends of some lines.
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I’ve only ever sung it as personent hodie - learnt as a tiny child and belted out every Christmas since 
, I love it.
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And I only knew it as ‘God is love, His the care.’ I’d never heard of ‘Personent Hodie’, and had no idea that it had links with Christmas. However, I am following this up by some internet research - starting with the usual easy-entry searches on Wikipedia and YouTube. Many interesting discoveries - the mysterious haunt of the tune is at least partly explained to me by the fact that it has mediaeval origins. However, the thing which most versions of ‘Personent Hodie’ seem not to have is the distinct regular seven or eight note descent at the start .
That really surprises me. It’s one of the best bits as it leads everyone so well into the hymn/carol and it’s certainly what I remember from school/church.
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You’re right. I looked at the music: none of the phrases ends on the tonic (the note that is the name of the key). That gives it a lot of momentum, because our Western ears expect resolution to the tonic*. And in the hymn, there’s the unforgettable way the introduction doesn’t take a whole number of bars - so, even when you know the tune, you feel like you need to keep your wits about you.
*In Right Next Time, Gerry Rafferty returns to the tonic twice in the verse, at the end of each two-line phrase (on “understand” and “right next time”). You get a feeling of a sort of completion when he does it. But there is still the ta-ta-ta ta-ta-ta feel of some of the words, like a speeded-up version of the hymn.
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I think that phrase ‘keep your wits about you’ is a key idea as to why this tune can be intriguing. Without wanting to get too deeply lodged into pseud’s corner, I can’t decide whether it’s a tune that is complex masking as simple, or the other way around.
I have listened to the Gerry Rafferty piece twice, but I cannot find any similarity to the other piece.
Not intended to be similar - I was merely citing it as an example of music that has a driving beat.
That’s taken me back to primary school, I can still remember most of the hymn alongside Stand up stand up for Jesus, and Morning has broken.
It’s in the Aeolian mode and some phrases do finish on the tonic.
The various modes existed before Western music settled on the present system.
I’d forgotten that its being modal was a possibility. But that wouldn’t have affected Holst in making his arrangement, would it? (That’s not a rhetorical question: I don’t know enough music theory to know.)
However, all the references I have seen suggest it’s Dorian, rather than Aeolian.
Generally the notion of the tonic (as we in the modern West use it, being the first note of the scale of notes comprising a key) doesn’t transfer very well to modes. If I understand you correctly, and if we agree to view the tune as modal (and Dorian), then some phrases do indeed end on the second (or sixth, in fact!) degree of the key - but none on the tonic of the key.
I hope that makes sense.
Sorry, I didn’t listen carefully enough. Yes, it’s the Dorian mode. If you take, as I do, the first note as the “tonic”, you will hear that phrases 4 and 5 both end on this note.
It’s not unusual for tunes to have phrases not ending on the tonic, e.g. “Yesterday” doesn’t have any, except " …now I long for yesterday." (If you leave off the extension)
We were at cross-purposes, I see.
Most musicians use the term “tonic” to denote the first note of the scale based on the key of a piece of music: see Tonic (music) - Wikipedia)
Each of the modes has a different first note, of course, but only the Ionian’s first note is the tonic.
But it’s not a “key”, it’s a mode, and the melody starts on the first (starting) note of the mode, and the 4th and 5th phrases end on it.
The Dorian mode is similar to a minor “key”. The setting by Holst is to all intents and purposes in F minor. The melody starts on an F and the the 4th and 5th phrases end on an F.