My Song Is Love Unknown
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SKU: S0.670495
Composed by John Ireland. Arranged by Paul Thurmond. Christian,Contemporary Christian,Sacred,Praise & Worship,General Worship. 4 pages. Published by Paul Thurmond (S0.670495).Tune: LOVE UNKNOWN
Use: Prelude, Offertory, Communion
This is such a beautiful melody. It was written in 1918 by John Ireland, an English composer. Over lunch one day, Ireland’s friend Geoffrey Shaw asked him to write a new melody to the text My Song Is Love Unknown. Ireland wrote the tune during that lunch.
The text, from 1664, is by Samuel Crossman, and is just as wonderful as the melody. Here are the first and last of the seven stanzas:
My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?
Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend,
In Whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.
I only found out about this hymn a few years ago, and now I program it at church every chance I get. My perception is that it’s a bit of a hidden gem. It deserves to be better known.
My setting of the piece has two sections. The first is a simple trio, with soprano, alto, and bass parts. The second has a more active left hand accompaniment, with a very clear melody in the right hand.
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