Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Encyclopedia
"Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" is a Christian
hymn
by Charles Wesley
with a theme of 'Christian perfection."
Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley's finest:
"justly famous and beloved, better known than almost any other hymn of Charles Wesley."
Judging by its distribution, it is also among his most successful:
by the end of the 19th century, it is found in 15 of the 17 hymn books consulted
by the authors of Lyric Studies.
. On a larger scale, it is found almost
universally in general collections of the past century, including not only
Methodist and Anglican hymn books and commercial and ecumenical collections, but also
hymnals associated with Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Lutheran,
Congregationalist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic traditions, among others;
specifically, it appears in 1,328 of the
North American hymnals indexed by the online Dictionary of North American Hymnology, comparable to
Newton
's "Amazing Grace" (1,036), Wesley
's "O for a Thousand Tongues" (1,249),
and Watts
' "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (1,483), though still well short
of Toplady's "Rock of Ages" (2,139) or Wesley
's own "Jesu, Lover of my Soul" (2,164).
It first appeared in Wesley's Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have Redemption (Bristol, 1747), apparently intended as a Christianization of the song "Fairest Isle" sung by Venus
in Act 5 of John Dryden
's operatic play King Arthur
(1691), on which Wesley's first stanza is modelled.
Wesley wrote:
Dryden had written:
In Dryden's song, the goddess of love chooses the Isle of Britain over her native Cyprus
; in Wesley's hymn divine love itself is asked to choose the human heart as its residence over its native heaven.
The last lines of the hymn are likewise adapted from existing material. Wesley's final lines,
evidently derive from (and improve on) Addison
's opening lines from his "Hymn on Gratitude to the Deity"
It has been suggested that Wesley's words were written specifically for the tune by Purcell
to which Dryden's song had been set, and to which the hymn's words themselves were later set (under the tune name "Westminster") by John Wesley
in his Sacred Melody, the "annex" to his Select Hymns with tunes annext (1761 et seq.).
Like many hymns, Love Divine is loosely Trinitarian in organization: Christ is invoked in the first stanza as the expression of divine love; the Holy Spirit in the second stanza as the agent of sanctification; the Father in the third stanza as the source of life; and the Trinity (presumably) in the final stanza as the joint Creator of the New Creation. Like many hymns, too, this one is a tissue of Biblical quotations, including "Alpha and Omega" (st. 2) as an epithet of Christ, from Revelation 21:6; the casting of crowns before God's throne (st. 4), from Revelation 4:10; the promise that Christians shall be "changed from glory into glory" (st. 2 and 4), from 2 Corinthians 3:18; as well as other, more general allusions.
(1760 and 1767), Conyers (1772), and Toplady (1776); in hymn books associated with
Whitefield
(1767, 1800) and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection (1780, and 1800); and in Methodist hymn books slightly outside the mainstream (the Select Hymns of 1783; Spence's Pocket Hymn Books of the early nineteenth century; and the American "Wesleyan" Methodist hymn books).
A second, abridged version (with the second stanza omitted), appeared as early as 1778 in Hymns and Psalms for the Service of Fitz-Roy Chapel (London, 1778), then in the Wesleyan "Large Hymn Book" of 1780, and thence in many others, chiefly British and predominantly Anglican, but including also many later official Methodist hymn books. A sample
collation of 85 hymn books containing some version of this hymn suggests that the abridged version
appears in roughly 25% of Protestant hymn books; the full four-stanza version in most of the remainder.
advance a distinctively Wesleyan "Perfectionist" account of the Christian
life, i.e. those that suggest that one can be completely cleansed
of sin
in this life, by means of a "second blessing" whereby committed and sanctified Christians
rest wholly in God and may be said to share the holiness of Christ himself.
Many—certainly including those of a more Calvinist persuasion, and even perhaps
Wesley's brother John
, found this idea troublesome.
Even some fairly innocuous lines ("Let us all thy Life receive," stanza 3)
were probably read as suspiciously Perfectionist, hence the common alteration to "Let
us all thy Grace receive."
The same is probably true of other oft-changed lines. Most of the more enduring alterations occurred in one or another of
the hymn books that together constituted the fledgling ecumenical
Evangelical hymnody that emerged in the decades around 1770, partly
from the Calvinist wing of the Church of England, partly from Calvinistic
Methodists and their circle; preeminently among them the collections of Martin Madan (1760 and many subsequent editions), his
imitator Richard Conyers (1772); the more overtly Calvinistic Anglican
Augustus Toplady; the hymn books of erstwhile Wesley ally, George Whitefield; and those associated with the Countess of Huntingdon's chapels (and their later incarnation as "The Countess of Huntingdon's Connection").
Madan in particular is known for his influential hymn tinkering:
"Madan's knack in reconstructing the work of other hands
made his book a permanent influence both for good
and evil. A number of familiar hymns still bear the marks
of his editorial revision."
It was doubtless on theological grounds that the line
"Finish then thy New Creation," (stanza 4) was often
replaced by "Carry on thy (or 'the') new creation," the
latter suggesting an ongoing process of sanctification rather than
its achievement; and "Let us see thy great Salvation / Perfectly restor'd in Thee,"
frequently changed to "...our whole salvation / secured by Thee"), a formulation which also
resolves some ambiguous referents. Wesley's original probably meant (in
crude paraphrase) "let us experience the great salvation that you
provide, so that we will be perfected by participation in you";
unease with the ambiguity, and probably also with the theology, led
to revised language that if less striking was felt to be clearer
and more orthodox. Both of these changes were introduced by Augustus Toplady's
collection of 1776, followed by the Countess of Huntingdon's collections (e.g. that
of 1780 and 1800).
"Pure and sinless let us be" (stanza 4) was toned
down, or at least made less absolute, by alteration to "Pure and holy,"
(Toplady 1776 again, followed again by the Countess of Huntingdon 1780 and 1800)
and similar substitutes, especiallly the very common "Pure, unspotted"
(Madan, Conyers, and Whitefield)
and "Pure and spotless" (John Wesley's Select Hymns for ... all denominations,
5th ed. (1774) through 9th ed. (1783), followed by his "Large Hymn Book"
(1780), and the Methodist "Pocket Hymn Books.")
The second stanza, when it was not omitted altogether, offered,
and continues to offer, two
stumbling-blocks for theologically sensitive Christians: line 4 asks
"Let us find that Second Rest"; and line 5, "Take away our Power of
sinning." The phrase "Second Rest," to those for whom it was not
simply obscure, would seem an explicit reference to Wesleyan "Second Blessing"
theology; and the request to be stripped even of the ability to sin
doubtless seemed to many unrealistic at best and blasphemous or immoral at worst,
as appearing to "be a prayer to take away our free moral agency."
"Second Rest" is very generally replaced, usually by "thy
promised rest"; or, later, by "the promis'd rest; and "the Power of Sinning" by "the love of sinning"
(probably introduced by Maddan 1767, followed by other representatives of
the evangelical hymnody); or "our bent of (or 'to') sinning" (originally and still chiefly in Methodist collections).
the first half of the second stanza with the first half
of the third (omitting the remainder of each);
another that omits the third stanza, as well as introducing some aesthetic changes that tend toward the bland;
and yet another that omits the fourth.
Abbreviated Unitarian and Universalist versions of the
hymn are typical of those traditions
in the radical alterations they make, replacing most references to
Christ and all references to Trinitarian orthodoxy, as well as anything else they regarded as offensive to a
universal and rational religion; typical too in that they (therefore?)
drop "Charles Wesley" as the author in favor of "anonymous." In one American Universalist
version from 1841 the four-stanza Trinitarian hymn to Christ and his Spirit
is transformed into a two-stanza paean to God narrowly addressed as "Father";
in another, widely but mistakenly attributed to Yorkshire Baptist John Fawcett
under the title "Praise to Thee, Thou Great Creator," "Love Divine" serves as a source for a cento, or
pastiche, combined with the
final stanza of Fawcett's genuine hymn, "Lo! the bright
and rosy morning" (1782), this combination
appearing apparently for the first time in
the Exeter Unitarian Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Social and Private Worship (1812).
More recent times have in general been more respectful of Wesley's
original, with the exception of those collections that by policy
eschew the second-person singular, replacing "thee" and "thou"
with "you" and sometimes introducing other changes in order
to maintain meter and rhyme.
Another exception is the two-stanza adaptation by Carroll Thomas Andrews (1969) that has
been reprinted in several Roman Catholic hymn books set to the tune 'Hyfrydol.' Of the sixteen lines in Andrews' version, only
three come directly from Wesley's hymn, and another four or five perhaps owe something to the original,
but the theme and force of the original are wholly lost.
(1815–1882; from
Christian Heart Songs, 1870); and to the stately Welsh tunes "Hyfrydol
" by Rowland Hugh Prichard (1811–1887);
"Blaenwern
" by William Penfro Rowlands
(1860–1937); and "Moriah"; the latter two especially in Great Britain.
One of several tunes known, inevitably, as "Love Divine," that by Sir John Stainer
, appeared with the hymn first
in the 1889 Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern and has persisted into several
modern British collections; Airedale, by Sir C. V. Stanford, appeared in the 1924 edition
of Hymns A & M but seems confined there, as does Bithynia (by S. Webbe, 1740–1816; from Webbe's Collection,
1792) in several Methodist collections. There has also been at least one modern
attempt to revive the hymn's original tune, "Westminster."
Other settings include
Most interesting of these perhaps are the settings to German tunes
adopted by the two American Lutheran hymn books.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
by Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
with a theme of 'Christian perfection."
Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley's finest:
"justly famous and beloved, better known than almost any other hymn of Charles Wesley."
Judging by its distribution, it is also among his most successful:
by the end of the 19th century, it is found in 15 of the 17 hymn books consulted
by the authors of Lyric Studies.
. On a larger scale, it is found almost
universally in general collections of the past century, including not only
Methodist and Anglican hymn books and commercial and ecumenical collections, but also
hymnals associated with Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Lutheran,
Congregationalist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic traditions, among others;
specifically, it appears in 1,328 of the
North American hymnals indexed by the online Dictionary of North American Hymnology, comparable to
Newton
John Newton
John Henry Newton was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career on the sea at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of...
's "Amazing Grace" (1,036), Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
's "O for a Thousand Tongues" (1,249),
and Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
' "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (1,483), though still well short
of Toplady's "Rock of Ages" (2,139) or Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
's own "Jesu, Lover of my Soul" (2,164).
It first appeared in Wesley's Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have Redemption (Bristol, 1747), apparently intended as a Christianization of the song "Fairest Isle" sung by Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
in Act 5 of John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
's operatic play King Arthur
King Arthur (opera)
King Arthur or, The British Worthy , is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and alibretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691....
(1691), on which Wesley's first stanza is modelled.
Wesley wrote:
-
- Love Divine, all Loves excelling,
- Joy of Heaven to Earth come down,
- Fix in us thy humble Dwelling,
- All thy faithful Mercies crown;
Dryden had written:
-
- Fairest Isle, all Isles Excelling,
- Seat of Pleasures, and of Loves;
- Venus here, will chuse her Dwelling,
- And forsake her Cyprian Groves.
In Dryden's song, the goddess of love chooses the Isle of Britain over her native Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
; in Wesley's hymn divine love itself is asked to choose the human heart as its residence over its native heaven.
The last lines of the hymn are likewise adapted from existing material. Wesley's final lines,
-
- Till we cast our Crowns before Thee,
- Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise!
evidently derive from (and improve on) Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
's opening lines from his "Hymn on Gratitude to the Deity"
-
- When all thy mercies, O my God,
- My rising soul surveys;
- Transported with the view, I'm lost
- In wonder, love, and praise.
It has been suggested that Wesley's words were written specifically for the tune by Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
to which Dryden's song had been set, and to which the hymn's words themselves were later set (under the tune name "Westminster") by John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
in his Sacred Melody, the "annex" to his Select Hymns with tunes annext (1761 et seq.).
Like many hymns, Love Divine is loosely Trinitarian in organization: Christ is invoked in the first stanza as the expression of divine love; the Holy Spirit in the second stanza as the agent of sanctification; the Father in the third stanza as the source of life; and the Trinity (presumably) in the final stanza as the joint Creator of the New Creation. Like many hymns, too, this one is a tissue of Biblical quotations, including "Alpha and Omega" (st. 2) as an epithet of Christ, from Revelation 21:6; the casting of crowns before God's throne (st. 4), from Revelation 4:10; the promise that Christians shall be "changed from glory into glory" (st. 2 and 4), from 2 Corinthians 3:18; as well as other, more general allusions.
Textual history
At its first appearance, the hymn was in four stanzas of eight lines (8.7.8.7.D), and this four-stanza version remains in common and current use to the present day, being taken up as early as 1760 in Anglican collections such as those by MadanMartin Madan
Martin Madan was an English barrister, clergyman and writer, known for controversial views on marriage expressed in his book Thelyphthora.-Life:...
(1760 and 1767), Conyers (1772), and Toplady (1776); in hymn books associated with
Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
(1767, 1800) and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection (1780, and 1800); and in Methodist hymn books slightly outside the mainstream (the Select Hymns of 1783; Spence's Pocket Hymn Books of the early nineteenth century; and the American "Wesleyan" Methodist hymn books).
A second, abridged version (with the second stanza omitted), appeared as early as 1778 in Hymns and Psalms for the Service of Fitz-Roy Chapel (London, 1778), then in the Wesleyan "Large Hymn Book" of 1780, and thence in many others, chiefly British and predominantly Anglican, but including also many later official Methodist hymn books. A sample
collation of 85 hymn books containing some version of this hymn suggests that the abridged version
appears in roughly 25% of Protestant hymn books; the full four-stanza version in most of the remainder.
Theologically-motivated alterations
The omission of the second stanza is consistent with several other loci of textual variation in the hymn in this respect: the passages which are most subject to change tend for the most part to be those thatadvance a distinctively Wesleyan "Perfectionist" account of the Christian
life, i.e. those that suggest that one can be completely cleansed
Christian perfection
Christian perfection, also known as perfect love; heart purity; the baptism of the Holy Spirit; the fullness of the blessing; Christian holiness; the second blessing; and entire sanctification, is a Christian doctrine which holds that the heart of the regenerant Christian may attain a state of...
of sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
in this life, by means of a "second blessing" whereby committed and sanctified Christians
rest wholly in God and may be said to share the holiness of Christ himself.
Many—certainly including those of a more Calvinist persuasion, and even perhaps
Wesley's brother John
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, found this idea troublesome.
Even some fairly innocuous lines ("Let us all thy Life receive," stanza 3)
were probably read as suspiciously Perfectionist, hence the common alteration to "Let
us all thy Grace receive."
The same is probably true of other oft-changed lines. Most of the more enduring alterations occurred in one or another of
the hymn books that together constituted the fledgling ecumenical
Evangelical hymnody that emerged in the decades around 1770, partly
from the Calvinist wing of the Church of England, partly from Calvinistic
Methodists and their circle; preeminently among them the collections of Martin Madan (1760 and many subsequent editions), his
imitator Richard Conyers (1772); the more overtly Calvinistic Anglican
Augustus Toplady; the hymn books of erstwhile Wesley ally, George Whitefield; and those associated with the Countess of Huntingdon's chapels (and their later incarnation as "The Countess of Huntingdon's Connection").
Madan in particular is known for his influential hymn tinkering:
"Madan's knack in reconstructing the work of other hands
made his book a permanent influence both for good
and evil. A number of familiar hymns still bear the marks
of his editorial revision."
It was doubtless on theological grounds that the line
"Finish then thy New Creation," (stanza 4) was often
replaced by "Carry on thy (or 'the') new creation," the
latter suggesting an ongoing process of sanctification rather than
its achievement; and "Let us see thy great Salvation / Perfectly restor'd in Thee,"
frequently changed to "...our whole salvation / secured by Thee"), a formulation which also
resolves some ambiguous referents. Wesley's original probably meant (in
crude paraphrase) "let us experience the great salvation that you
provide, so that we will be perfected by participation in you";
unease with the ambiguity, and probably also with the theology, led
to revised language that if less striking was felt to be clearer
and more orthodox. Both of these changes were introduced by Augustus Toplady's
collection of 1776, followed by the Countess of Huntingdon's collections (e.g. that
of 1780 and 1800).
"Pure and sinless let us be" (stanza 4) was toned
down, or at least made less absolute, by alteration to "Pure and holy,"
(Toplady 1776 again, followed again by the Countess of Huntingdon 1780 and 1800)
and similar substitutes, especiallly the very common "Pure, unspotted"
(Madan, Conyers, and Whitefield)
and "Pure and spotless" (John Wesley's Select Hymns for ... all denominations,
5th ed. (1774) through 9th ed. (1783), followed by his "Large Hymn Book"
(1780), and the Methodist "Pocket Hymn Books.")
The second stanza, when it was not omitted altogether, offered,
and continues to offer, two
stumbling-blocks for theologically sensitive Christians: line 4 asks
"Let us find that Second Rest"; and line 5, "Take away our Power of
sinning." The phrase "Second Rest," to those for whom it was not
simply obscure, would seem an explicit reference to Wesleyan "Second Blessing"
theology; and the request to be stripped even of the ability to sin
doubtless seemed to many unrealistic at best and blasphemous or immoral at worst,
as appearing to "be a prayer to take away our free moral agency."
Upon the two doubtful lines in the centre of this stanza, that refined
critic, Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, has remarked:-- 'Mr. Wesley says
second rest, because an imperfect believer enjoys a first, inferior
rest; if he did no, he would be no believer.' And of the line, 'Take
away the power of sinning,' he asks, 'Is this expression not too strong?
Would it not be better to soften it by saying, "Take away the love of
sinning?" [or the bent of the mind towards sin.] Can God take away
from us our power of sinning without taking away our power of free
obedience?'
"Second Rest" is very generally replaced, usually by "thy
promised rest"; or, later, by "the promis'd rest; and "the Power of Sinning" by "the love of sinning"
(probably introduced by Maddan 1767, followed by other representatives of
the evangelical hymnody); or "our bent of (or 'to') sinning" (originally and still chiefly in Methodist collections).
Abridged versions
Aside from the Wesleys' own abridgement, other abridged versions include include one that combinesthe first half of the second stanza with the first half
of the third (omitting the remainder of each);
another that omits the third stanza, as well as introducing some aesthetic changes that tend toward the bland;
and yet another that omits the fourth.
Abbreviated Unitarian and Universalist versions of the
hymn are typical of those traditions
in the radical alterations they make, replacing most references to
Christ and all references to Trinitarian orthodoxy, as well as anything else they regarded as offensive to a
universal and rational religion; typical too in that they (therefore?)
drop "Charles Wesley" as the author in favor of "anonymous." In one American Universalist
version from 1841 the four-stanza Trinitarian hymn to Christ and his Spirit
is transformed into a two-stanza paean to God narrowly addressed as "Father";
in another, widely but mistakenly attributed to Yorkshire Baptist John Fawcett
under the title "Praise to Thee, Thou Great Creator," "Love Divine" serves as a source for a cento, or
pastiche, combined with the
final stanza of Fawcett's genuine hymn, "Lo! the bright
and rosy morning" (1782), this combination
appearing apparently for the first time in
the Exeter Unitarian Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Social and Private Worship (1812).
-
- Father! Source of all compassion!
- Pure, unbounded grace is thine:
- Hail, the God of our salvation!
- Praise him for his love divine!
-
- . . . .
-
- Joyfully on earth adore him,
- Till in heaven our song we raise:
- There [var. Then] enraptur'd fall before him,
- Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
More recent times have in general been more respectful of Wesley's
original, with the exception of those collections that by policy
eschew the second-person singular, replacing "thee" and "thou"
with "you" and sometimes introducing other changes in order
to maintain meter and rhyme.
Another exception is the two-stanza adaptation by Carroll Thomas Andrews (1969) that has
been reprinted in several Roman Catholic hymn books set to the tune 'Hyfrydol.' Of the sixteen lines in Andrews' version, only
three come directly from Wesley's hymn, and another four or five perhaps owe something to the original,
but the theme and force of the original are wholly lost.
Musical settings
In current use, the hymn seems to be set most often to the tune "Beecher" by John ZundelJohn Zundel
John Zundel was an organist, composer, arranger, and pedagogue. Zundel was perhaps best known for his hymn tune, "Beecher."Zundel was born in Württemberg, Germany and emigrated to New York City in 1847...
(1815–1882; from
Christian Heart Songs, 1870); and to the stately Welsh tunes "Hyfrydol
Hyfrydol
Hyfrydol is a Welsh hymn tune which appears in a number of Christian hymnals in various arrangements. Composed by Rowland Prichard in 1844, it was originally published in the composer's handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion...
" by Rowland Hugh Prichard (1811–1887);
"Blaenwern
Blaenwern
Blaenwern is a Welsh Christian hymn tune composed by William Penfro Rowlands , during the Welsh revival of 1904-1905. 'Blaenwern' was first published in Henry H. Jones' Cân a Moliant ....
" by William Penfro Rowlands
William Penfro Rowlands
William Penfro Rowlands was a Welsh schoolteacher and composer.Rowlands was born at Llys y Frân, Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire . Probably his best-known composition is the hymn-tune "Blaenwern", composed in 1905. As well as being a church musician, Rowlands also taught in several schools...
(1860–1937); and "Moriah"; the latter two especially in Great Britain.
One of several tunes known, inevitably, as "Love Divine," that by Sir John Stainer
John Stainer
Sir John Stainer was an English composer and organist whose music, though not generally much performed today , was very popular during his lifetime...
, appeared with the hymn first
in the 1889 Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern and has persisted into several
modern British collections; Airedale, by Sir C. V. Stanford, appeared in the 1924 edition
of Hymns A & M but seems confined there, as does Bithynia (by S. Webbe, 1740–1816; from Webbe's Collection,
1792) in several Methodist collections. There has also been at least one modern
attempt to revive the hymn's original tune, "Westminster."
Other settings include
- "Love Divine" George Le Jeune, 1887
- "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" William Lloyd WebberWilliam Lloyd WebberWilliam Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an English organist and composer.-Life and career:Lloyd Webber was born in London...
, 1964, (Music Sales) - "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" Howard GoodallHoward Goodall210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
, 2000 - "Lugano" (adapted from a melody in Catholic Hymn Tunes, 1849)
- "Exile" (English traditional melody, harm. Martin Shaw)
- "O Gesegnetes Regieren" (from Gnadauer Choralbuch)
- "Falfield" (by Arthur Sullivan)
- "Autumn" (Spanish melody, from Marechio) or the "substantially similar" "Jaynes."
- "Tabernacle" (unidentified)
- "O du liebe" (Musikalischer Christenschatz, Basel, 1745)
- "In Babilone" (Dutch trad. melody, harm. by Winfred Douglas, 1918)
- "Ingatestone" (unidentified)
- "Vienna" (unidentified)
- "Jay"
- "Otto" (H.B. Oliphant)
- "Little" (attributed to an "Old Melody")
- "Bethany" (Henry Smart)
- "Lux Eoi" (Arthur Sullivan)
Most interesting of these perhaps are the settings to German tunes
adopted by the two American Lutheran hymn books.