Good morning! I trust this is a Lord’s Day full of blessings for you. Please come back tomorrow, for new Reflections on a hymn. Meantime, did you watch any of the Royal Wedding, broadcast from London, this week? While the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton is in the news, I invite you to check out the background of three traditional hymns that were used during the opulent wedding ceremony. The last, Jerusalem, is not strictly a hymn, but is an inspirational British song.
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling (to William Rowlands’ tune Blaenwern)
Jerusalem
Wordwise Hymns 
i havejust about every hymnal in america – icannot find Blaenwern. The wedding was the first i have heard Love Devine played to that tune..can you advise where i might locate it. thank you
By: ed challinor on May 27, 2011
at 8:09 am
No problem at all. The Cyber Hymnal includes it as one of the alternate tunes for What a Friend We Have in Jesus (with which it works wonderfully). When you get to the Cyber Hymnal page, just click on the PDF for the tune Blaenwern, and you can print off a copy. It’s usually pitched quite high, but I notice the Cyber Hymnal editor, Dick Adams, has lowered it (key of F) to make the melody more singable by all. The tune is better known it Britain. It’s given as an alternate tune for Love Divine (#516, pp. 1094-1095, key of G) in Common Praise, the updated version of Hymns Ancient and Modern (published by Canterbury Press, in 2000). Hope that’s a help.
By: rcottrill on May 27, 2011
at 8:47 am