The Sunday Hymn: O Perfect Love

In the summer we will repeat some articles from the series The Midweek Song. This was first published on March 20, 2019.

SOME hymns have taken a detour to their current destination. One of them is the wedding favorite O Perfect Love.

The text was written by Dorothy Blomfield in 1883. She came from a church family – her father was rector of the historic St Andrew’s Undershaft in the City of London (now known as a rare example of a church to have survived both the Great Fire of London and the Blitz; see details here ) and her grandfather was the Bishop of London. She wrote poetry, her best-known work being God’s gardenThe fourth verse is sometimes seen on sundials and garden plaques:

The kiss of the sun for forgiveness,
The song of the birds for joy,
In a garden one is closer to God’s heart
Then anywhere in the world.

You can read the entire poem here.

Dorothy and her sister, who was about to be married, visited a house called Pull Wyke near Windermere. A group of young people sang the song O Strength and StayDorothy Blomfield’s sister heard this and although the text, which you can read here, written by St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397) and translated by the Reverend John Ellerton (1826-1893), did not appeal to her (it refers to ‘a holy deathbed’), the music did.

Dorothy later wrote: ‘It was Sunday evening and we were enjoying a time of hymn singing. One song we all particularly appreciated was O Strength and Staythe melody that was a favorite of my sister. When we finished singing this song, someone remarked, “What a pity that the words of this beautiful song are not suitable for a wedding!” My sister turned to me and challenged me, “What is the use of a sister who writes poetry if she cannot write new words for a favorite melody? I would like to use the melody for my wedding.” I picked up a hymn book and said, “If no one bothers me, I will go to the library and see what I can do.” Within 15 minutes I was back with the group reading the words I had written down. Writing the words was no effort at all after I had first gotten the idea of ​​the dual aspect of perfect union, love and life. I feel that God helped me to write this song.

O Strength and Stay is performed here by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The tune that Dorothy’s sister loved (and so did I) was called Strength and Endurancewas written by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876), an English clergyman and hymn writer. He was responsible for many great hymn tunes, including Melita (Eternal Father Strong to Save) Nicea (Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty) And Dominus Register Me (The King of Love My Shepherd Is).

O Perfect Love was probably first printed in 1884. For two or three years it was sung at many weddings in London and then it began to find its way into songbooks, its first appearance being in the Supplement to Hymns old and modern from 1889.

Tthat year, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Louise (pictured here) chose it for her Buckingham Palace wedding to the Duke of Fife. Ironically, the princess loved the Blomfield words but was not so keen on the Dykes tune.

The composer chosen for the task of writing a new one was Joseph Barnby. He was born in York in 1838, the son of organist Thomas Barnby. At the age of seven, Joseph joined the choir of York Minster, and at twelve became organist and choirmaster. At sixteen, he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1871, he was appointed successor to the French composer Charles Gounod, conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, in which role he orchestrated daily concerts at the Albert Hall. He became director of the Guildhall School of Music in 1892 and was knighted that same year. He died in 1896.

He gave the name Sandringham to the melody he wrote for the royal wedding, and this melody is still used today.

At the age of 40, after caring for her elderly parents for many years, Dorothy Blomfield married an actor, Gerald Gurney, in 1897, and her married name is the one shown above O Perfect Love And God’s garden. In 1904 Gurney was ordained in the Church of England and the couple lived for a time in Plymouth. In 1919 they both converted to Catholicism, much to the shock of friends and relatives. They spent their last years in Denbigh Road, Notting Hill. Dorothy Gurney died in 1932, aged 74, without ever having received a penny in royalties for her world-famous hymn. Her husband died in 1939, aged 77.

A side effect of writing this column—I’m not sure I’d call it a benefit—is that the melody of the weekly hymn gets jammed into my brain, only to be dislodged by the next one. This happened a few weeks ago when I wrote about We rest on Youthe hymn sung by five American missionaries before they left on their ill-fated expedition into the jungles of Ecuador in 1955. The melody was by Sibelius Finlandia Hymn, which is the usual melody. But one morning that week I woke up with the words perfectly clear in my head to a different melody. After much concentration I remembered that the mysterious melody was Sandringham for O Perfect LoveI checked with my friend Helen Oliver and she confirmed that this was indeed the tune we sang to at Christ Church Beckenham. We rest on YouIt was the favorite tune of the organist, the wonderfully named Christian Strover, who is still very much alive at the age of 86.July 2024: Christian Strover passed away in 2020 at the age of 88 and you can read an obituary here . A wonderful man.) At the risk of sacrilege, I think Sandringham is better suited for We rest on You Then the Finlandia Hymnand it does not require the last two lines of the verses to be repeated. If you want to try it, here are the words of We rest on You.

Anyway, here are some performances of O Perfect Love (Here you can see the lyrics.) The first is by the Scottish Festival Singers.

This is from a brass band, The Royal Air Force Association President’s Band (very nice, despite the funny illustration).

Here is the incomparable George Beverly Shea.

And this is my favorite, from the Romanian ensemble Baietii din Brasov (The Boys from Brasov).

Finally, the Edward Elgar Archive holds the composer’s manuscript of a four-part composition by O Perfect LoveIt bears the name Alice Stuart-Wortley and the date June 22, 1914.

Mrs Stuart-Wortley was the daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais and it seems that the married Elgar was in love with her. He called her his ‘windflower’. She had tried to write a new melody for O Perfect Love for a cousin’s wedding and asked Elgar for help. It is not known how much of the manuscript is her work and how much is Elgar’s. On 16 July Elgar wrote to her: ‘I am so glad the hymn tune went well. I am sure no one can help loving it – perhaps not so much as I.’

Here it is performed by the choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, as part of a project by pop musician Manfred Mann to record a collection of Elgar hymns he discovered when buying some manuscripts at auction.

I don’t think it ever became popular as this is the only recording I can find of it.