This hymn is a paraphrase of the “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing” (verses 1, 2). Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885; see on SDAH 145) was the nephew of the great poet laureate William Wordsworth. He also wrote SDAH 382 and 383, “O Day of Rest and Gladness.”

GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL is one of several hymn tunes SDAH has that can be sung as a canon (see Index of Canons [or Rounds], on SDAH, P. 808). In this one, the melody is repeated in the tenor part after a two-beat delay.

From his home in West Kensington, London, England, William “Bill” Ives (Grayston is a pen name) writes: “The background to this tune is fairly simple. In 1977 I wrote a 45-minute sequence of words and music on a Whitsuntide theme entitled ‘Tongues of Fire. While the whole work has not yet appeared in print, two items from it have. One is an anthem, ‘Listen, Sweet Dove,’ and the other is this tune, GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL, so named because I was a member of the choir there from 1971 to 1976 and have many happy memories of my time there. I wanted to write a simple canon that would be as disguised as possible.”

Ives was born in England in 1948 and spent his early years as a boy chorister at Ely Cathedral. Later he went to Cambridge University as a choral exhibitioner and studied for a music degree. After some years in the teaching profession, he joined The King’s Singers as a tenor. This is an ensemble of six men who have become famous in Europe and America for their concerts of music in all styles, achieving a high standard of excellence in both a cappella and accompanied singing. They have made a score of highly esteemed recordings and have more than a thousand songs in their repertoire. At the beginning of 1986, Ives left the group in order to pursue other musical interests, mainly as composer and arranger. As a lifelong singer, most of his work has been vocal, much of it sacred, and he has a number of published works to his credit. As a choral clinician, he is involved in work at the Royal School of Church Music; in 1987 he visited Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to conduct workshops.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.