1. Most dearly beloved, and best of all friends,
Good Ministry, Elders, whose love never ends,
And kind loving brethren and sisters, farewell;
Your love and your kindness no mortal can tell.
2. We thank and we bless you for all your kind care,
Still wishing an int’rest in your tender pray’r.
So kindly, so dearly, so lovely, farewell;
So lovely, so dearly, so kindly, farewell.
Text
Author: Unknown (possibly from a Shaker hymn?)
Meter: 11s
Hesperian Harp: n/a (included in Song in the Night, p. 40)
Music
Instrumentation: originally MOD format using sampled Piano sounds
Time: 1:55
At the time this song was discovered, I had a number of collections of photocopied songs from old hymn books that I was going through, so I can’t remember for certain which one it came from, but I think it was from a collection of Shaker hymns.
The music arrangement was created in a MOD program on an Atari computer, using sampled piano sounds. I converted it to MP3. It has a beautiful haunting, modal tune that matches the words very nicely.
