Feb. 9, 2104

Each week, you may find information here about the organ music and hymns in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas.  Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org.  It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.  

About the Organ & Handbell Music:

Be Still My Soul – Cynthia Dobrinski    (Jubilation Ringers)

Little is known about the author of this hymn.  Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel was born in 1697.  The date of her death is unknown.  Some hymnologists suggest that she may have become a Lutheran nun.  We know her as the author of "Stille, mein Wille; dein Jesus hilft siegen" published in a collection entitled Neue Sammlung geistlicher Lieder (A new collection of spiritual songs) in 1752.  This text appears at the time of German pietism, similar in spirit in many regards to the Wesleyan revival in England of the same era.  Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) led the German pietistic movement.  Though not a hymn writer himself, he inspired a revival in German hymnody characterized by faithfulness to Scripture, personal experience, and deep emotional expression.  Katharina von Schlegel is thought to be the leading female hymn writer of this period.

The hymn comes to us via a translation by Jane L. Borthwick (1813-1897), a member of the Free Church of Scotland.  Borthwick was second only to Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) in bringing the riches of German hymn heritage to the English language.  Her translation included five of the original six stanzas, appearing in Hymns from the Land of Luther, second series (1855).  The melody comes from the symphonic tone poem “Finlandia, Op. 26”,  by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957).  David Evans (1874-1948), a Welsh organist-choirmaster, matched the translation with the tune for the Revised Church Hymnary  (1927). It was brought to the United States when it was used in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. for The Hymnal (1933).

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Cynthia Dobrinski (b. 1950) received her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth. A Fulbright Scholar, she studied organ and harpsichord at Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik, Cologne, and organ performance at Northwestern University. She taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for 15 years.  She has written over 175 pieces for handbells and led over 350 workshops and festivals internationally.  Her creative compositional techniques have made her the leading handbell arranger and composer in the country.

Chorale Fantasia on “O God Our Help” – Hubert H. Parry

“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past” is a hymn by Isaac Watts which paraphrases Psalm 90. It originally consisted of nine stanzas. In present usage, however, the hymn is usually limited to stanzas one, two, three, five, seven and nine. In 1738, John Wesley in his hymnal, Psalms and Hymns, changed the first line of the text from "Our God" to "O God." Both Watts' wording and Wesley's rewording remain in current use.  The hymn was originally part of The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, published by Watts in 1719. In this book he paraphrased in Christian verse the entire psalter with the exception of twelve Psalms which he felt were unsuited for Christian usage.

The hymn tune "St. Anne" to which the text is most often sung was composed by William Croft in 1708 whilst he was the organist of the church of St Anne, Soho.  It first appeared anonymously in the Supplement to the New Version of the Psalms, 6th edition in 1708. It was originally intended to be used with a version of Psalm 62. It was not until sometime later when set to Watts' text that the tune gained recognition.

The complete nine verses are as follows:

Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust, Return, ye sons of men: 

All nations rose from earth at first, And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood, With all their lives and cares,

Are carried downwards by the flood, And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever rolling stream, Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand Pleased with the morning light;

The flowers beneath the mower’s hand Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while life shall last, And our eternal home.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.  Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer, he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad", and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations.

After early attempts to work in insurance, at his father's behest, Parry became affiliated with George Grove, first as a contributor to Grove's massive Dictionary of Music and Musicians in the 1870s and 80s, and then in 1883, as professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music, of which Grove was the first head. In 1895, Parry succeeded Grove as head of the College, remaining in the post for the rest of his life.  He wrote several books about music and music history, the best-known of which is probably his 1909 study of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Both in his lifetime and afterwards, Parry's reputation and critical standing have varied. His academic duties were considerable, and prevented him from devoting all his energies to composition, but some contemporaries such as Charles Villiers Stanford rated him as the finest English composer since Henry Purcell; others, such as Frederick Delius, did not. Parry's influence on later composers, by contrast, is widely recognised. Edward Elgar learned much of his craft from Parry's articles in Grove's Dictionary, and among those who studied under Parry at the Royal College were Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge and John Ireland.

All Hail the Power – R. M. Stults

Edward Perronet (1726-1792) was born in England, the grandson of a French immigrant. His father, Vincent, was a clergyman in the Church of England and a close friend and associate of John and Charles Wesley. Though Edward had planned to follow his father into Anglican ministry, the influence of the Wesleys prevailed, and he became a traveling Methodist preacher.  “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” was written by Perronet while he served as a missionary in India and first appeared in the November, 1779 issue of the Gospel Magazine

The hymn is often called the "National Anthem of Christendom”.  The best-known tunes used for the hymn are "Coronation" (Oliver Holden, 1793),  "Miles Lane" (William Shrubsole, 1779), and "Diadem" (James Ellor, 1838).  Stults uses both the “Coronation” and “Miles Lane” tunes in his setting.

All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.

Robert Morrison Stults (1861-1933) wrote many songs, both popular and sacred, instrumental works, film music, choral works using his own name and various pseudonymns.  However, other than dates of birth and death (which are under some debate), no biographical information has been found by the libraries which have catalogued his works.

About the Hymns:

How Great Thou Art

"How Great Thou Art" is a based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885.  “O Store Gud” (O Great God) is a paraphrase of Psalm 8 and has nine verses.  It was sung in the underground church in Sweden in the late 1800s when the Baptists and Mission Friends were persecuted.  Boberg himself gave the following information about his inspiration for this hymn:

It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring;; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere.  It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning.  We had to hurry to shelter.  But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared.  When I came home I opened my window toward the sea.  There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of “When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest”.  That evening, I wrote the song, “O Store Gud”.

Boberg first published "O Store Gud" in the “Mönsterås Tidningen” (Mönsterås News) on 13 March 1886.The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888.   It was soon published in additional hymn collections and was translated into German and Russian.

British Methodist missionary Stuart Wesley Keene Hine (1899-1989)  heard the Russian translation of the German version of the song while on an evangelistic mission to the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, near the Polish border, in 1931. Upon hearing it, Hine was inspired to create his English paraphrase known as “How Great Thou Art".   According to Michael Ireland, "Hine and his wife, Edith, learned the Russian translation, and started using it in their evangelistic services.  Hine also started re-writing some of the verses --- and writing new verses (all in Russian) --- as events inspired him."  Hine finalized his English translation in 1949

When the Billy Graham team went to London in 1954 for the Harringay Crusade, they were given a pamphlet containing Hine's work.  They worked closely with Hine to prepare the song for use in their campaigns. They sang it in the 1955 Toronto campaign, but it didn't really catch on until they took it to the Madison Square Garden in 1957. According to Cliff Barrows (Dr. Graham's longtime associate), they sang it one hundred times during that campaign because the people wouldn't let them stop.   

George Beverly Shea's recording of the beloved hymn ranks number 204 on the top recordings of the 20th century according to the Recording Industry Association of America.  It was voted the United Kingdom's favourite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise.^[2] "How Great Thou Art" was ranked second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Today's Christian magazine in 2001.

Evangelist Billy Graham indicated: “The reason I like 'How Great Thou Art' is because it glorifies God. It turns Christian’s eyes toward God, rather than upon themselves. I use it as often as possible because it is such a God-honoring song.”

More in-depth information on the history of this great hymn can be found at: http://www.ask.com/wiki/How_Great_Thou_Art?o=2801&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is among the most treasured and widely recognized African American spirituals.  It was placed in the National Archives by the Library of Congress and identified as one of the “Songs of the Century” by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.  It was first recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1909.  But while the spiritual’s music and lyrics are widely known, the song’s history is a bit cloudy. According to many accounts, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was one of the spirituals born from the experience of slaves in the first decades of the 19th century.  Composed by unknown slaves over time and passed orally from community to community, the song allegedly voiced slaves’ hopes that ultimately they would find comfort in a heavenly home. 

Yet some music historians have added another layer to this account of the song’s origins.  They have argued that “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was one of the spirituals that conveyed a secret meaning to slaves.  Slave spirituals did a lot more than offer a promise of eventual redemption; they also offered specific strategies needed to escape.  For example, “Wade in the Water” taught runaway slaves how to throw off the bloodhounds sent to track them down.  “Follow the Drinking Gourd” provided slaves with an elaborate coded map that would lead them to the North and freedom: the refrain told them to keep their eye on the Big Dipper (the drinking gourd) as the stars marking the edge of its cup pointed to Polaris, the North Star.   According to these historians, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was another in this collection of coded spirituals.  In fact, according to some, it was one of Harriet Tubman’s favorites.  The heroic conductor on the Underground Railroad made her own escape to freedom in 1849.  She returned south the next year to lead her sister and her two children north.  Over the next ten years, she made another 18 trips into slave states and escorted an estimated 300 slaves to freedom.  Legend has it that slaves sang “Swing low sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home” to announce that Tubman or another “conductor” would be arriving soon to lead them to freedom.

While Tubman’s heroics were real, not everyone is convinced that the spiritual played a part in her adventures.  In fact, most music historians now believe that the song’s writer is not even unknown.  The composer, “Uncle Wallis” Willis, was a slave in Mississippi before the Civil War.  But his owner was not your typical Southern planter—Britt Willis was a Choctaw Indian.  Britt Willis was among the Choctaws forced to move west, and he took his slaves, including Wallis, with him.  In the Oklahoma Territory, Britt succeeded in rebuilding his life on a large plantation near Doaksville, and it is quite possible that Wallis wrote “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” while living as a slave there.  Ironically, though, the song circulated first among young Choctaw boys, not among slaves.  Britt hired Wallis out to the Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boys’ school, and this song was one of several that that Wallis sang to entertain the students.  In fact, according to some accounts, the song was not widely circulated among African Americans until after the Civil War, when the superintendent of the Spencer Academy, Alexander Reid, shared the song with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

The song’s power may lie in that it was born in the convergence of two great tragedies within American history: the horrors of African slavery and the injustice of Native American removal. Its prayer that someday the singers would find a resting place could as easily speak to one mistreated people as the other.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

A native of the small Kentucky town of Franklin, Thomas Obediah Chisholm (1866-1960) was born in a log cabin. He lacked formal education. Nevertheless, he became a teacher at age sixteen and the associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the “Franklin Advocate”, at age twenty-one.  Though he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville, Kentucky, due to ill health.  He wrote more than 1200 poems, 800 of which were published. They often appeared in religious periodicals such as the “Sunday School Times”, “Moody Monthly”, and “Alliance Weekly”. Many of these were set to music.

Chisholm had sent a number of his poems to the Rev. William H. Runyan (1870-1957), a musician with the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago.  Runyan wrote of the hymn: "This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered prayer.  It was written in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and was first published in my private song pamphlets."  A phrase in Lamentations 3:22-23 provides a basis for the refrain: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."  

George Beverly Shea (1909-2013), the famous Canadian-born singer of the Billy Graham Crusades, introduced this hymn to those attending the evangelistic meetings in Great Britain in 1954.  It immediately became a favorite.  This hymn appeared in many evangelical hymnals and song collections, but was not chosen for an official Methodist hymnal until The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), even though the author was a Methodist.  It was a very popular hymn of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church and had been included in their hymnals.

According to Carlton Young, "Great is thy faithfulness" was second only to "In the garden" as the most requested hymn for inclusion in The United Methodist Hymnal. A survey conducted in 2000 by Dean McIntyre, Director of Music Resources, General Board of Discipleship, revealed that "Great is thy faithfulness" remains one of the favorite hymns among United Methodists.