April 13, 2014 - Palm Sunday

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 Music:
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna – J. Wayne Kerr


Like "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" , this text is based on Christ's triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. However, "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" focuses more on the children's role in that event. The text was written by Jeannette Threlfall (1821-1880) in an "idle moment" (as she says she wrote all of her hymns, all others of which have been forgotten). Undoubtedly, Threlfall had Mark 11 in mind when she wrote this text, but she also alludes to Jesus' welcoming of the children in Mark 10:13-16.   Threlfall's life was extremely difficult: she was orphaned at an early age, and two serious accidents caused her to be an invalid for life. But she bore her misfortune with grace and fortitude and maintained a ministry to many people who came in contact with her. Threlfall wrote devotional verse, which was published anonymously in various periodicals and later collected in Woodsorrel, or Leaves from a Retired Home (1856) and Sunshine and Shadow (1873), which included "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna."
    
     Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang;
     through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang.
     To Jesus, who had blessed them, close folded to his breast,
     the children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.


J. Wayne Kerr (b. 1958) holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Arkansas (Little Rock) and a Masters in Music Theory from the University of Central Arkansas. Wayne has served as music teacher in elementary and middle school levels as well as music director in congregations in Arkansas and Texas.  Presently he serves as Kantor for West Portal Lutheran Church and School, San Francisco, CA, where he directs a multifaceted music program that includes seven handbell choirs, school orchestra, three children’s vocal choirs, adult choir, and general classroom music in the parish school. Serving also as parish organist, Wayne is composer-in-residence, providing new compositions for all choirs. He is a widely published composer of handbell, organ , and choral music.

 

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß – J. S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.  He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.  Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity.  His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century.  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven,  Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music.  Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony".  He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time.

The Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") is a collection of 46 chorale preludes for organ, which form the first of Bach's masterpieces with a mature compositional style in marked contrast to his previous compositions for the instrument.  Each of them treats a known Lutheran chorale with a motivic accompaniment.  Bach explored a wide diversity of forms in the Orgelbüchlein.  As stated by Albert Schweitzer: “Here Bach has realized the ideal of the chorale prelude.  The method is the most simple imaginable and at the same time the most perfect.  Nowhere is the Dürer-like character of his musical style so evident as in these small chorale preludes.  Simply by the precision and the characteristic quality of each line of the contrapuntal motive he expresses all that has to be said, and so makes clear the relation of the music to the text whose title it bears.”

"O Mensch" is one of the most celebrated of Bach's chorale preludes.  Bach ornamented the simple melody, in twelve phrases reflecting the twelve lines of the opening verse, with an elaborate coloratura.  The ornamentation, although employing conventional musical figures, is highly original and inventive.  While the melody in the upper voice is hidden by coloratura over a wide range, the two inner voices are simple and imitative above the continuo-style bass.  Bach varies the texture and coloring of the accompaniment for each line of what is one of the longest melodies in the collection.  Bach’s characteristic use of tone-painting is clear.  In the penultimate line, accompanying the words "ein schwere Bürd" (the heavy burden of our sins), the inner parts intensify with the upper voice rising to a climax on the highest note in the prelude.  The closing phrase, with its mounting chromatic bass accompanying the bare unadorned melody to end in an unexpected modulation to major, gives a sense of hope anticipating the resurrection.

Sebald Heyden (1499-1561) was a German musicologist, cantor, theologian, hymn-writer and religious poet.  He is perhaps best known for his De arte canendi ("On the Art of Singing", 1540) which is considered to have had a major impact on scholarship and the teaching of singing to young boys.  Heyden developed a great reputation as a scholar, devoted to studies and writing on education, theology, and music.   It has been speculated that Heyden was the world's first true musicologist.

Below is the text of the hymn by Sebald Heyden with the English translation of Catherine Winkworth.

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross, darum Christus seins Vaters Schoss verliess und kam auf Erden. Von einer Jungfrau rein und zart für uns er hier geboren war: er wollt der Mittler werden. Den Toten er das Leben gab, und legt dabei all Krankheit ab! Bis sich die Zeit herdrange daß er für uns geopfert würd trug unser Sünd ein schwere Bürd wohl an dem Kreuze lange.

O man, thy grievous sin bemoan, For which Christ left His Father's throne, From highest heaven descending. Of Virgin pure and undefiled He here was born, our Saviour mild, For sin to make atonement. The dead He raised to life again. The sick He freed from grief and pain. Until the time appointed That He for us should give His Blood, Should bear our sins' o'erwhelming load, The shameful Cross enduring.

 

In the Cross of Christ I Glory – David Cherwein

Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) was a distinguished scholar, ranked by some as one of the great minds of his day in the English-speaking world. Among his gifts was his ability as a linguist, publishing translations of poetry from such varied languages as Russian, Batavian, Spanish, Polish, Serbian, Bohemian, Magyar, Czech and Hungarian. Bowring was also a social progressive, advocating free trade, parliamentary reform, education for all and prison reforms, according to hymnologist Albert Bailey. Few hymn writers have been as involved in politics. Knighted in 1854, Bowring helped develop commercial relationships on behalf of Great Britain, traveling to France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Syria and Siam (now Thailand). Bowring also was twice a member of Parliament, a consul at Canton (in charge of trade in China) and a governor of Hong Kong. He was evidently relieved of his duties in Hong Kong because he “was full of conceit and without any very clear idea of political principles on a large scale.” After retirement in 1860, his public service continued as a commissioner to Italy and other diplomatic posts in Europe and Hawaii.

Despite a demanding political and diplomatic career, Bowring maintained an active avocation as a translator of poetry, composer of original poems and writer of essays on political and religious themes. Mr. Bailey notes that the “hymns that have lived were all written when he was about 30 years old, when his poetic interests were uppermost, and the idealism of youth made him the champion of the downtrodden and the underprivileged.”   “In the cross of Christ I glory” (1825) was composed while the author was in his early thirties. Appearing in Hymns by John Bowring (1825), the theme and language suggests a much more mature poet.  Galatians 6:14 provides the basis for this hymn: “Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”

In the cross of Christ I glory,
towering o’er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story
gathers round its head sublime.

 David Cherwien (b. 1957)  is currently serving as Director of Music at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, and in 2002 was appointed Music Director for the National Lutheran Choir, also based in the Twin Cities. He has also held full time parish music positions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin.  He completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance, and the Master of Arts degree in Theory and Composition, both from the University of Minnesota. His undergraduate work was in organ performance and music education at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, where he was honored as distinguished alumni in the fall of 2000.

    

About the Hymns:

All Glory, Laud, and Honor

Theodulf of Orleans (760-821) was originally from Spain. Muslim conquests of Iberia drove him to leave, and he was brought to France by Charlemagne. In addition to serving as a kind of poet laureate, he was a scholar, church reformer, secretary of education, theological advisor to the king.  His writings included sermons and theological treatises on baptism and the Holy Spirit. He opposed the use of icons and revised the text of the Bible. He became Bishop of Orleans about 785, and soon afterwards also Abbot of Fleury. After Charlemagne died, Louis the Pious accused Theodulf of joining Bernard of Italy (a royal nephew) in a conspiracy against the throne. Theodulf protested his innocence, but in 818, he was deposed from his influential posts and imprisoned at Angers, where he died in 821.  While imprisoned, he wrote the words to the Latin hymn "Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit Rex Christe, Redemptor " or "All Glory, Laud and Honor To thee Redeemer King."  More than a thousand years later, an English translation of his hymn remains a favorite for Palm Sunday.

Tell Me the Stories of Jesus

 William Henry Parker (1845-1929) was an English businessman who taught Sunday school at Chelsea Street Baptist Church in Nottingham.  Early in life, he had written verses and this led him to compose hymns for use in Sunday School.  Thinking of the children in his classes who were always asking him to “tell us another story”, he wrote this text in 1885.  The melody was added when a publisher ran a contest to find an appropriate tune for it. 

         

  

Rejoice, the Lord is King

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley.  As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly amazing how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumors of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift.  The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.


“Rejoice, the Lord is King” was first published in John Wesley's Moral and Sacred Poems (1744) and is currently found in 484 hymnals.  The text rejoices in the kingship of Christ whose rule extends "o'er earth and heaven". All will bow the knee to Christ when he returns in glory to judge "the living and dead". The refrain line based on Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice,” is the keynote of the entire text.