#343: My Song is Love Unknown
Jan. 23rd, 2021 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lutheranhymnsThe music was written by John Ireland. There are actually a lot of John Irelands--I associate the name with the 1800s bishop of St. Paul, Minnesota (he was born in Ireland, which helps), but this is someone else. The text is by Samuel Crossman, which maybe isn't quite as good a "nominative determinism" example as Ken Bible, but it's close!
When I was relatively young my children's choir did an anthem arrangement of this that I really enjoyed. In retrospect, that one did "minor for the first two verses, then major for the last verse, not just Picardy thirds but in several places," for a very neat melodic affect.
The text was written in the 1600s, and the anthem/maybe some other arrangements edited it to be a little more modern-sounding. Not even in a sexist way, just a "less archaic" way. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost of the rich rhyme scheme. Here are some of the lines from the modern version:
"Oh, who am I that for my sake
My lord should come to Earth and die?"
"He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow
But people turned away, and none the Christ would know."
"Here might I stay and sing my song of love divine!
No grief nor love, oh Savior, was e'er like thine."
Here they are in the original:
"Oh, who am I that for my sake
My lord should take frail flesh and die?"
"He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow;
The world that was his own would not its Savior know."
"Here might I stay and sing--no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine."
The first couple lines are 6666, with every short phrase rhyming. The second half is 448 (or 4444), with the internal rhyme ABBA, so there's a rhyme every four syllables! And the whole thing is six verses, not just three! This is some extremely impressive rhyme density, but if you only see a modernized version, you might miss it. (Although some of the words really only rhyme in 1600s pronunciation, like home/tomb. And there are repeats. So less impressive. But still more impressive than first glance.)
...And while I was trying to figure out what the modernized rhyme scheme was, I realized that if I have enough Google-fu to find that, I probably also have enough Google-fu to find the cool melody. So don't just take my word for it, search for Carolyn Jennings' "My Song is Love Unknown" on Youtube!
When I was relatively young my children's choir did an anthem arrangement of this that I really enjoyed. In retrospect, that one did "minor for the first two verses, then major for the last verse, not just Picardy thirds but in several places," for a very neat melodic affect.
The text was written in the 1600s, and the anthem/maybe some other arrangements edited it to be a little more modern-sounding. Not even in a sexist way, just a "less archaic" way. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost of the rich rhyme scheme. Here are some of the lines from the modern version:
"Oh, who am I that for my sake
My lord should come to Earth and die?"
"He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow
But people turned away, and none the Christ would know."
"Here might I stay and sing my song of love divine!
No grief nor love, oh Savior, was e'er like thine."
Here they are in the original:
"Oh, who am I that for my sake
My lord should take frail flesh and die?"
"He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow;
The world that was his own would not its Savior know."
"Here might I stay and sing--no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine."
The first couple lines are 6666, with every short phrase rhyming. The second half is 448 (or 4444), with the internal rhyme ABBA, so there's a rhyme every four syllables! And the whole thing is six verses, not just three! This is some extremely impressive rhyme density, but if you only see a modernized version, you might miss it. (Although some of the words really only rhyme in 1600s pronunciation, like home/tomb. And there are repeats. So less impressive. But still more impressive than first glance.)
...And while I was trying to figure out what the modernized rhyme scheme was, I realized that if I have enough Google-fu to find that, I probably also have enough Google-fu to find the cool melody. So don't just take my word for it, search for Carolyn Jennings' "My Song is Love Unknown" on Youtube!
