Traditional Irish Melody (SLANE)
Biography
SLANE is a traditional Irish melody whose individual composer is unknown. Patrick Weston Joyce printed the air in Old Irish Folk Music and Songs in 1909 under the title With My Love on the Road; related forms were also associated with Irish folk material such as The Banks of the Bann. The melody therefore belonged to folk tradition before it became attached to an English-language hymn.
For the Church Hymnal with Accompanying Tunes of the Church of Ireland in 1919, Leopold McClintock Lloyd Dix adapted the melody, paired it with Eleanor Hull’s versification, and the tune was named SLANE. The name recalls Slane in County Meath and the traditional story of Saint Patrick lighting an Easter fire there in defiance of King Lóegaire. That story explains the hymn-tune name; it does not establish the origin of the medieval prayer itself.
David Evans produced another influential harmonization for the Church Hymnary in 1927, and that form helped shape later British and North American use. The underlying traditional melody is public domain, while modern harmonizations, descants, accompaniments, and arrangements may have separate copyrights.
For the Church Hymnal with Accompanying Tunes of the Church of Ireland in 1919, Leopold McClintock Lloyd Dix adapted the melody, paired it with Eleanor Hull’s versification, and the tune was named SLANE. The name recalls Slane in County Meath and the traditional story of Saint Patrick lighting an Easter fire there in defiance of King Lóegaire. That story explains the hymn-tune name; it does not establish the origin of the medieval prayer itself.
David Evans produced another influential harmonization for the Church Hymnary in 1927, and that form helped shape later British and North American use. The underlying traditional melody is public domain, while modern harmonizations, descants, accompaniments, and arrangements may have separate copyrights.
Hymns by Traditional Irish Melody (SLANE)
Be Thou My Vision
Role: Composer