Usually associated with the Irish folk song O Danny Boy, this popular melody, known around the world, is given a sensitive treatment by Lt-Colonel Norman Bearcroft, who uses the full range of brass band colour and texture for which he is known.
In Salvation Army circles, the words most often associated with this melody were written by the later Lt-Commissioner Arch R. Wiggins. Published with three verses in The Musical Salvationist in October 1972, only the third verse is generally sung today:
- If on my soul a tace of sin remaineth,
- If on my hands a stain my yet be seen;
- If one dark thought a weary mind retaineth,
- O wash me, Lord till every part be clean.
- For I would live that men may see thyself in me,
- I would in faith ascend thy holy hill,
- And with my thoughts in tune with thy divinity,
- Would learn how best to do thy holy will.
- The Londonderry Air
- Irish Traditional - arr. Norman Bearcroft
- Level: Moderately difficult
- Sample Score
