diff --git a/lo/lo_lowlevel.h b/lo/lo_lowlevel.h
index b521e96f..83d74edc 100644
--- a/lo/lo_lowlevel.h
+++ b/lo/lo_lowlevel.h
@@ -82,6 +82,31 @@ int lo_send_message(lo_address targ, const char *path, lo_message msg);
 int lo_send_message_from(lo_address targ, lo_server serv, 
      const char *path, lo_message msg);
 
+
+/**
+ * \brief Send a serialized lo_message object to target targ
+ *
+ * This is slightly more efficient than lo_send() if you want to send a lot of
+ * similar messages. The messages are constructed with the lo_message_new() and
+ * \ref lo_message_add_int32 "lo_message_add*()" functions.
+ */
+int lo_send_serialized_message(lo_address targ, char *serialized_message, const size_t length);
+
+/**
+ * \brief Send a serialized lo_message object to target targ from address of serv
+ *
+ * it's up to the caller to free serialized message.
+ *
+ * \param targ The address to send the message to
+ * \param serv The server socket to send the message from
+ *              (can be NULL to use new socket)
+ * \param serialized_message The serialized message
+ * \param serialized_data_length  length of the serialized message
+ */
+	
+int lo_send_serialized_message_from(lo_address targ, lo_server serv, 
+     char *serialized_message, const size_t serialized_data_length);
+
 /**
  * \brief Send a lo_bundle object to address targ
  *
diff --git a/src/send.c b/src/send.c
index ea74e14d..cc0a7203 100644
--- a/src/send.c
+++ b/src/send.c
@@ -576,6 +576,27 @@ int lo_send_message_from(lo_address a, lo_server from, const char *path,
     return ret;
 }
 
+int lo_send_serialized_message(lo_address a, char *serialized_data, const size_t length)
+{
+    return lo_send_serialized_message_from(a, NULL, serialized_data, length);
+}
+
+int lo_send_serialized_message_from(lo_address a, lo_server from, char *serialized_data, const size_t serialized_data_length)
+{
+
+    // Send the message
+    int ret = send_data(a, from, serialized_data, serialized_data_length);
+
+    // For TCP, retry once if it failed.  The first try will return
+    // error if the connection was closed, so the second try will
+    // attempt to re-open the connection.
+    if (ret == -1 && a->protocol == LO_TCP)
+        ret = send_data(a, from, serialized_data, data_len);
+
+    // it's up to the caller to free serialized message
+ 
+    return ret;
+}
 
 int lo_send_bundle(lo_address a, lo_bundle b)
 {