I Have Loved You

Thoughts on I Have Loved You 

Another contemporary composer I deeply respect is Michael Joncas.  However, I have never liked his melodic setting to “I Have Loved You” and felt more was needed to be said in the verses. I set the text of the refrain to a different melody and changed the verses entirely.  What I have composed here begins, instrumentally, with my setting of “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have called you. You are mine.” The verse is: “Lord, make known your ways [repeated three times in three different keys.] Teach me your paths.) Then the refrain is repeated with the flute playing the melody.  In the variations that follow, the flute interrupts the piano by repeatedly singing “I have loved you” and “I have called you” and “You are mine” at different times.

Richard Smith