What Wondrous Love is This?

I love music, and I love Jesus and I love how God gave us song to praise Him with!

I first heard the beautiful hymn What Wondrous Love is This on one of Oysterband's recent recordings, The Oxford Girl and Other Stories, and instantly fell in love with the stark contrast between the joyful lyrics and the haunting modal harmonies. I decided to find out more about the origins of this song and came across two beautiful versions on You Tube (my favorite resource, lol).

The first one I found is a very informal "session" filmed on an Irish clifftop several years ago. I LOVE THIS~ like a little taste of what Heavenly jam sessions will be like:)



I have no information about who these people are, or anything else but would be happy to post it here, so if anyone knows please get in touch with me! The mandolin the young man is playing is an old Gibson A style, probably from around 1915-1920- it is very similar to the one I own (and fairly rare, so a cool coincidence;)

Some of the comments on the above video lead me to explore the Appalachian roots of the song. From the Hymnopedia site I discovered that it was originally published in both a Methodist and a Baptist hymnal in 1811, and the author is unknown. From the page entitled Hymns:What wondrous love is this O my soul O my soul , I was interested to learn that the hymn was also included in several Sacred Harp hymnals in the mid 1800's.

Sacred Harp, or shape note singing is an Appalachian a capella style of group singing that was designed to allow even untrained singers participate in choral harmony. I first heard about it when a friend and I were in Cades Cove TN and got to actually participate in a sing at one of the historic pioneer churches there. We sang Amazing Grace and other songs with a group of powerful voices in one of the places I had loved since I was young- talk about goosebumps! Sacred Harp singing is still practiced by many traditional singers, and sings and conventions happen all around the country every year. Here is a video of What Wondrous Love is This being sung at one such event last year in Minnesota:



This version is much closer to the Oysterband version and I LOVE the harmonies! There are a lot of different variations of the lyrics, but here are some of my favorite verses:

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 dreadful curse,
For my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse, for my soul.

When I was sinking down,
Sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down,
Beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown,
For my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown, for my soul.

Ye winged seraphs, fly!
Bear the news! bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly! bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly! bear the news,
Like comets through the sky,
Fill vast eternity
With the news, with the news,
Fill vast eternity with the news!

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,
Unto 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 we're free,
We'll sing on, we'll sing on,
And when from death we're free, we'll sing on;
And when from death we're free,
We'll sing, and joyful be,
And through eternity
We'll sing on, we'll sing on,
And through eternity we'll sing on.

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.

Thanks for following along my little musical praise journey this morning...What are your favorite hymns or praise songs? Feel free to share in the comments and maybe I will include one of yours in another exploration one day:)