What Wondrous Love is This!

Introduction

What Wondrous Love is This is a piece that’s often done during Lent and which I’ve thought about quite a bit at different times of the year. It is also a piece that has a lot of different verses and which can be done in some very different style. The version we use, Hymn #85 in the PCUSA hymnal, has just three verses, and is attributed as an American folk hymn, circa 1811. The first recorded publication is from Walker’s Southern Harmony in 1835. Our harmonization is from Cantate Domino in 1980. It’s the only hymn in our hymnal with the metric 12.9.12.12.9.

This hymn is definitely American in origin, and is one that pretty clearly came out of the Appalachians.

Lyrics

The lyrics below are from the PCUSA Hymnal:

What wondrous love is this? O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the heavy cross [dreadful bliss] for my soul, for my soul.
To bear the heavy cross for my soul!

To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I Am,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing.
While millions join the theme, I will sing!

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on!

• Some texts use a question mark at the end of the second line of the first verse. What difference does that make to you whether this is a question mark or an exclamation mark?. I never thought about it that way before preparing this lesson, and I've chosen the exclamation point for the session title.

I love the last verse in our hymnal. I can’t help but to feel exultant when I sing that verse. It’s such a promise to me and it resonates strongly with the verse of Amazing Grace that says that “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less time to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun.” Those are two of my favorite hymn promise verses.

There are a variety of other verses from other sources. Ones I’ve found, that aren’t necessarily adapted to the meter of our particular version of Wondrous Love are below. A couple add some grace notes to get all of the syllables in.

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, Beneath God’s awful frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

When I began to pray for my soul, for my soul,
When I began to pray for my soul,
When I began to pray, thus the word of God did say,
Christ is the truth and the way, for thy soul.

He shed his heavenly light in my soul, in my soul,
He shed his heavenly light in my soul,
He shed his heavenly light, to disperse the gloom of night,
Now it shines with radiance bright, in my soul.

Ye winged seraphs, fly, bear the news, bear the news,
Ye winged seraphs, fly, bear the news, Ye winged seraphs, fly, like comets through the sky, Fill vast eternity with the news.

Ye friends of Zion’s king, join in praise, join in praise,
Ye friends of Zion’s king, join in praise;
Ye friends of Zion’s king, with hearts and voices sing,
And strike each tuneful string, in his praise.

Yes, when to that bright world we arise, we arise, Yes, when to that bright world we arise.
When to that world we go, free from all pain and wo, We’ll join the happy throng, and sing on, and sing on, We’ll join the happy throng, and sing on.

He shed his heavenly light in my soul, in my soul,
He shed his heavenly light in my soul.
He shed his heavenly light, to disperse the gloom of night, Now it shines with radiance bright, in my soul.

The Music

The earliest singers of this tune were Irish and Scottish immigrants to the Appalachian mountains. In that sense, some of the more Celtic or Scottish tradition presentations of this tune are “authentic”. Some presentations of this tune are very lilting and soothing, though no less triumphant to me.

My impression is that we sing this song in in more of that soft, Celtic tradition. But this song has also been a mainstay of the Southern Gospel movement, and it is also very often done in a Sacred Harp style, which is quite different. Sacred Harp and shape note singing are part of what And there are many different presentations available between the a very lilting flute and a very driven Shape Note form.

The first one I want to start with is the Sola Gratia presentation, which is very Celtic and I think a beautiful form. This is the same group I introduced last week.

The second presentation is from Blue Highway. It’s a cappella, with a guitar/banjo intro. Stylistically it has some hints of both Southern Gospel and Sacred Harp.

The third presentation is much quieter, done by the Colorado Children’s choir.

The fourth presentation is by the BYU Women’s chorus. They start in a very lilting pure-tone form and move into a more Sacred Harp style for the second verse.

The fifth presentation is very much in the Sacred Harp form, done by Rivers of Delight. This last presentation is probably very much as Walker would have presented the piece in his Southern Harmony.

Another shape note presentation is the You Tube recording from the Southern Theological Seminary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gZkVDwJT1I4