Hymn #591: This Is My Song | First Congregational Church

Lloyd Stone (1912-1993) wrote this text in 1934 during the brief period of international peace that was shattered by the start of World War II. It was published in Sing a Tune (1934). Georgia Harkness wrote a third stanza at the request of the Wesleyan Service Guild, and the hymn became a favorite in the Methodist Church.

Lloyd Stone was born in Coalinga, California, on June 29, 1912, and educated at the University of Southern California. In 1936 he moved to Hawaii and taught in public schools and at the University of Hawaii. Stone has written ten books of poetry as well as books for children.

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) wrote the tone poem FINLANDIA, his most famous composition and the basis for this tune, in 1899. First performed in Helsinki, it received such a favorable response that the occupying Russian government refused to permit its performance.

Jean Sibelius, Finland’s greatest composer, based much of his music on national myths and folk tales which instilled intense patriotic feelings in the Finnish people. Sibelius stopped composing in 1929 at age sixty-four, refusing to follow the trends of modern musical composition.