My song is love unknown (John Ireland): Bradford Cathedral 1997 (Alan Horsey)

From the 1997 “Maundy Service” from Bradford Cathedral, broadcast on 27 March by Yorkshire Television, in the presence of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. With the choir of Bradford Cathedral and the choristers of the Chapel Royal, directed by Alan Horsey.

“My song is love unknown” was written by Samuel Crossman in 1664. The tune is “Love unknown”, written by John Ireland in 1918.

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 man made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But oh, 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 way
Hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

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.

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.