Wherever Love Is: Braxted 84 84 88

A while ago I asked for metrical English translations or paraphrases of Ubi Caritas, which is such a lovely text and one rather under-used in modern hymnody.

One of the texts written as a result of that request was the following by TJA Thurman:

1. As friendship fills our meeting-place,
Jesus is here;
He dwells in every friend’s embrace,
Each smile sincere,
Rejoicing in the love we share.
Wherever love is, God is there.

2. As friendship fills our meeting-place
Jesus brings peace.
Divisions heal, and by his grace
Arguments cease.
Forgiven friends are one in prayer:
Wherever love is, God is there.

3. As friendship fills our meeting-place,
Jesus our friend
Will smile to see us face to face,
World without end,
And hold us in his loving care:
Wherever love is, God is there.

This is excellent, simple without being boring, and inherently singable. So of course I set it as a hymn. It’s called “Braxted” because I was cycling not too far from there when I thought I really ought to get around to setting Ubi Caritas; there are more settings on the way, but this is the first I have completed.

Here are some robot clarinets singing it:

Here is the score:
Wherever Love Is — Braxted 84 84 88

Here is the score with the text underlaid between verses:
Wherever Love Is — Braxted 84 84 88 — underlaid

It is also available, as always, on the Choral Public Domain Library under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. The link might not work until tomorrow unless you already have a CPDL contributor login.

Thanks so much to the 22 supporters who funded me composing this music. If you’re not already one of them, you can contribute and help me keep sharing music like this at my Patreon page.