Greater Love Hath No Man

Many waters cannot quench love, 
neither can the floods drown it. 
Love is strong as death. 
Greater love hath no man than this, 
that a man lay down his life for his friends. 

Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the tree, 
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. 

Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, 
that ye should shew forth the praises 
of him who hath called you out of darkness 
into his marvellous light. 

I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service. 

(Canticles 8, St John 15, I Peter 2, I Corinthians 6; Romans 12)

John Ireland was born in Cheshire in 1879. He studied with Stanford at the Royal College of Music and later returned as Professor (where his pupils included the young Benjamin Britten). He was among a group of talented young composers who collectively regenerated the English musical scene in the early years of the twentieth century, making an important contribution as teacher and model for future generations.  Ireland died in 1962. 

Greater love hath no man is a setting of a selection of texts from the New Testament. The work opens with a short organ introduction (the staccato pedal notes depicting drops of water), which leads into the opening theme sung by the tenors. The theme is then harmonized by full choir over the pedal's staccato droplet. More movement and urgency lift the choir to the first climax, love is strong as death, sung in bold unison over fanfare chords on the organ. Now, unaccompanied, the choir breaks out into harmony, gradually dying down into the next solo passage. 

In contrast to the turbulent opening, the music of the next section is flowing and romantic, but is soon transformed into a passage of celebration in which the choir sings a sequence of fanfares and the organ answers antiphonally on a trumpet stop. After a dramatic but inconclusive chord on the organ, the final quiet passage centers on the reiteration of the word holy, gradually subsiding into the tranquility of the organ strings. 

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