Francis Jackson: Meditation on Love Unknown for organ.

For Christians of various denominations, the Palm Sunday liturgy begins with the Blessing of the Palms and a festive procession into the church, physically re-enacting Christ's entry into Jerusalem; yet, once inside, the atmosphere shifts toward the sombre reality of the Cross. This transition is marked by the dramatic chanting of the Passion Narrative, where the congregation takes on the voice of the crowd, moving from shouting "Hosanna" to "Crucify him." The day is defined by this tension with the red vestments representing both royalty and sacrifice and the blessed palm crosses serve as a year-long devotional reminder that the path to the Resurrection is inseparable from the suffering of Holy Week.

Samuel Crossman (1623-1684) was an English clergyman and hymn writer, best known for the poem "My Song Is Love Unknown." Born in Suffolk, he studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, obtaining a Bachelor of Divinity. His early career was marked by religious shifts; he initially served both Anglican and Puritan congregations but was expelled from the Church of England subsequent to the 1662 Act of Uniformity.

During this period of exile, Crossman published The Young Man’s Meditation (1664), which contained his most famous hymns. He eventually conformed to the established church, was re-ordained in 1665, and served as a Royal Chaplain. His career culminated in his appointment as the Dean of Bristol Cathedral in 1683; he died just weeks into the following year and was buried in the cathedral’s south aisle. While his poetry was overlooked during his lifetime, "My Song is Love Unknown" gained immense popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly when paired with John Ireland's 1919 tune, Love Unknown.  

My song is love unknown,

my saviour's love for me;

love to the loveless shown

that they might lovely be:

but who am I, that for my sake

my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from heaven's throne

salvation to bestow;

but they refused, and none

the longed-for Christ would know:

this is my friend, my friend indeed,

who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they crowd His way

and His sweet praises sing,

resounding all the day

hosannas to their king:

then 'crucify' is all their breath,

and for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what has my Lord done

to cause this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

and gave the blind their sight:

what injuries! Yet these are why

the Lord most high so cruelly dies.

They rise and they must have

my dear Lord done away;

a murderer they save,

the prince of life they slay!

Yet willingly, to shame he goes

that He His foes, from this, might free.

Here might I stay and sing

of him my soul adores;

never was love, dear King,

never was grief like yours!

This is my friend in whose sweet praise

I all my days could gladly spend.

The hymn describes how Jesus showed love even when people turned against him. It highlights the gap between his kindness and the way he was rejected by the world. By the end, the writer promises to be a faithful follower, expressing surprise that a "friend" would go through such suffering to help people who did not love him back.

There is a frequent misconception regarding the origins of John Ireland’s most famous hymn tune, "Love Unknown," specifically concerning who prompted its creation and the timeline of its birth. While Martin Shaw is widely remembered as the music editor of the influential 1925 volume Songs of Praise, it was his brother, Geoffrey Shaw, who played the pivotal role in the tune's inception. The legendary "scrap of paper" incident, described in a Daily Telegraph (5 April 1950) letter from a certain Donald Ford, recounts how Ireland composed the melody in fifteen minutes during a lunch with Geoffrey Shaw. While this story is frequently associated with the 1925 publication of Songs of Praise, the tune’s appearance in the 1920 Public School Hymn Book proves the meeting occurred before that publication. Since Geoffrey Shaw served as the editor for that earlier volume, the lunch described in the Telegraph must have taken place around 1919. This five-year discrepancy confirms that the tune was a product of the post-war period rather than the mid-twenties and credits the correct Shaw brother with its commission.

Dr Francis Jackson was a towering figure in English cathedral music. A former chorister at York Minster under Edward Bairstow, he returned there after wartime service and eventually succeeded his former teacher as Master of Music, a post he held from 1946 to 1982. Much of his long career was devoted to composition, particularly for organ and choir. Living to the remarkable age of 104, he remained a steadfast advocate of the Anglican musical tradition until the very end of his life.

Francis Jackson’s "Meditation on Love Unknown" is a reflection on John Ireland’s hymn tune. Published in The Oxford Book of Lent and Easter Organ Music (2013), it is a gently contemplative work that eschews Jackson’s more harmonically adventurous style. Ireland’s well-loved melody is woven into the fabric of the piece, creating a bittersweet, and hauntingly beautiful mood. Little in this piece engages with the darker lyrics of Crossman’s hymn in which the poet reflects on the crowd's fickle adulation and their eventual shouts of "Crucify." Despite this over the years it has become a staple voluntary for Passiontide and Holy Week.

Listen to Francis Jackson’s "Meditation on Love Unknown" on YouTube, here. Recorded on 8 March 2021, during the Covid-19 lockdown, by James Turner on the Casavant/Walker Technical/Peragallo hybrid organ of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Armonk, New York.