Hymn Highlight: "My Song is Love Unknown"

Another 'Good Friday' Passiontide Hymn Worth Knowing & Singing

The year was 1919 when English composer Geoffrey Shaw sent a request to his friend, John Ireland, mentioning a 1664 Samuel Crossman hymn text titled, “My Song is Love Unknown.” The story goes that it only took Ireland fifteen minutes to pen the tune on a scrap piece of paper that would receive the name LOVE UNKNOWN and bring the text out of its dormancy.

Here are the lyrics that Samuel Crossman penned that were published in 1664 originally:

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?

He came from his blest throne

salvation to bestow;

but men made strange, and none

the longed-for Christ would know.

But O, my Friend,

my Friend indeed,

who at my need

his life did spend!

Sometimes they strew His way,

and His sweet praises sing;

resounding all the day

hosannas to their King.

Then 'Crucify!'

is all their breath,

and for His death

they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

he gave the blind their sight.

Sweet injuries!

Yet they at these

themselves displease,

and 'gainst him rise.

They rise, and needs will have

my dear Lord made away;

a murderer they save,

the Prince of Life they slay.

Yet cheerful He

to suffering goes,

that He His foes

from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home

my Lord on earth might have;

in death, no friendly tomb

but what a stranger gave.

What may I say?

Heav'n was His home;

but mine the tomb

wherein He lay.

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.

ABOUT THE TUNE

Crossman’s text has been set to various tunes. The most familiar tune setting is John Ireland’s 1919 tune setting, titled LOVE UNKNOWN. It is interesting how John Ireland uses an altered chord at the fifth line of each stanza above to highlight the glorious reality that Jesus’s work on the cross accomplished. What should be considered by all as the greatest injustice became the most incredible mercy. This duality is most interestingly highlighted in how Ireland crafted the tune and harmonization in a way that beautifully draws the ear to this by using an unexpected musical technique.

Additionally, if you take those four syllables from each of the seven stanzas where this altered chord appears, it summarizes each of the stanzas and also the whole of Crossman’s text in a way. See for yourself. I have boldened and italicized the fifth lines above and listed them again below:

1. O who am I

2. But O, My Friend

3. Then ‘Crucify!’

4. Sweet Injuries!

5. Yet cheerful He

6. What may I say,

7. This is my friend

Take a listen for yourself from this YouTube video link:

CONCLUSION

Two weeks from today is Good Friday. It seems that Ireland’s tune setting of Crossman’s text aptly captures the duality of Good and Bad through a simple thing like how he chosed to use an altered chord in his music. And it simultaneously helps us meditate on the glorious crucifixion and resurrection. I commend this text and tune to you. Sing it during the remainder of this Passiontide, especially on Good Friday, if you can. Here’s a PDF of the hymn for you to download and sing: