By the Welsh National Opera, with Gareth Jones
Yesterday I posted Alleluiah, Sing to Jesus, and Elder Mike found it hauntingly familiar but couldn’t place it. When I told him the melody goes with several different hymns, he asked me what they were. I didn’t know, offhand, so I’ve looked it up.
“Hyfrydol” is a Welsh melody; the word means “delightful” or “pleasant” in Welsh. I love to play it on my harmonica, and churches all over the world have adopted it as a setting for some of their favorite hymns.
Here are seven hymns [source: Wikipedia] that use the Hyfrydol melody:
Alleluiah, Sing to Jesus; Love Divine, All Loves Excelling and Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (these two with lyrics by Charles Wesley); I Will Sing the Wondrous Story; Our Great Savior; I Will Sing of My Redeemer; and In Humility, Our Savior
I have no idea how many different hymnals these appear in. It has every chance of seeming familiar to lots and lots of Christians of all denominations.
And one thing’s sure–you can’t beat a Welsh choir.
I love this hymn tune! And, as a beginner church pianist, it’s so great that I can play it for so many hymns. 😅
Learn it once, and you’ve learned seven hymns!
And it sounds really sweet on my harmonica.
Thanks, brother. I wanted to do a search for the other hymns, but I had no idea how to start. I had never heard of the Hyfrydol melody before. However, I now understand why that melody was so familiar to me. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” used that melody, and is in the Lutheran Hymnal I sang from. And I have probably heard that wonderful Welsh melody used in other places, such as “background” music, and other hymns you have mentioned.
It’s even been used for one or two secular songs, too.