This is a legacy post from October 29th, 2007

Love divine, all loves excelling

I led with 'Love divine' for the first time on Sunday. Another rather overdue addition to my repertoire of hymns!

I haven't used it before mainly because every version of guitar chords I've seen for Rowlands' 'Blaenwern' tune has been too complicated to arrange for a contemporary band. But the second verse fitted so well with the theme for our evening meeting this week that I had to find a way.

The first obstacle to overcome was the key. 'Love divine' is usually pitched in G, which means the tune rises to the E above middle C in the sixth and seventh lines. My rule of thumb for pitching melodies for congregational singing is no higher than the D above middle C (and ideally no lower than the C an octave below).

I transposed down to F, which does mean starting down at that lower C but the melody quickly rises and it's much happier for a congregation in the higher parts.

The next challenge was simplifying the chords enough for a contemporary guitar arrangement. I'm not usually keen on oversimplifying chord charts but in this instance it's the difference between playing it or not.

I've come up with a version that changes chord once at the beginning of each bar. It certainly loses some of the harmonic detail but there's no alternative if the simple lilt of the piece is not to be lost in endless chord changes. (The piano, bass and melody instruments can compensate for what the guitar arrangement loses.)

Lyrically, the hymn is beautiful. The only note I'll add to that is on the question of 'Christian perfection' in the second verse. The hymn seems to espouse Wesley's controversial doctrine if the line is left as "take away our bent to sinning" and it is often therefore changed to "take away our love of sinning". Lyrically I prefer the second version so that's what I went with.