September 28, 2014

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:

Meditation on “Amazing Grace” – Frederick Swann

"Amazing Grace" was written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton (1725–1807).  With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

Newton wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by his recalcitrant insubordination. He was drafted into the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel so severely that he called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion. However, he continued his slave trading career until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring altogether and began studying Christian theology.

Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. "Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It was first printed in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns, but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States however, "Amazing Grace" was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. It has been associated with more than 20 melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

Shout, shout for glory,
Shout, shout aloud for glory;
Brother, sister, mourner,
All shout glory hallelujah.

Frederick Swann was born in West Virginia in 1931. The son of Methodist bishop Theodore M. Swann, he began taking piano lessons as a 5-year old from the organist at Braddock Street United Methodist Church in Winchester, Virginia, where his father was pastor 1937–1943. He told an interviewer in later years that he was "mesmerized when I saw the organ console for the first time" at the church and soon began taking organ lessons. By the age of ten, Swann was playing the church's organ for services when his teacher died suddenly.

Swann was associated with the music ministry of the famed Riverside Church in New York City from 1952 through 1982, first as substitute organist (1952–1957), then as organist (1957–1965) joining organist Virgil Fox there until the latter's departure in 1964. Between 1966 and 1982, Swann was organist, choir director, and director of music at Riverside.  Beginning in 1982, Swann was organist and music director at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, where he presided over their main "Hazel Wright" double-organ, and appeared on their weekly televised service. His performances were characterized by music critic Daniel Cariaga as "splendid, probing, brilliant and entertaining".

Swann has served on the faculties of New York City's Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, Teacher's College of Columbia University, and chaired the Organ Department of the Manhattan School of Music for ten years. He is currently University Organist and Artist Teacher of Organ at the University of Redlands in California.
  
As a concert organist, he frequently performs at recitals throughout North America, Europe and the Far East.  In 2002, he was named "International Performer of the Year" by the New York City Chapter of the AGO. On April 13, 2008, the AGO saluted him at an AGO Gala recital at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles as the "Crown Prince of the King of Instruments" for his "dedicated service ... for more than a half century".  Swann was President of the American Guild of Organists from 2002-2008.

Toccata, from “Heures Intimes”, Op. 25 – Flor Peeters

A toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music, typically for keyboard, featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise rapid passages or sections.  This toccata is from a set of pieces written for organ or harmonium.

The harmonium is a type of pump organ that generates sound with air passing through sets of reeds from a bellows that is supplied by pumping a pair of pedals.  More portable than pipe organs, reed organs were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes in the 19th century, but their volume and tonal range are limited, and they generally had one or sometimes two manuals, with pedal-boards being rare. Harmoniums reached the height of their popularity in the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were especially popular in small churches and chapels where a pipe organ would be too large or too expensive. Harmoniums generally weigh less than similar sized pianos and are not as easily damaged in transport, thus they were also popular throughout the colonies of the European powers in this period not only because it was easier to ship the instrument out to where it was needed, but it was also easier to transport overland in areas where good-quality roads and railways may have been non-existent. An added attraction of the harmonium in tropical regions was that the instrument held its tune regardless of heat and humidity, unlike the piano.  At the peak of the instruments' Western popularity around 1900, a wide variety of styles of harmoniums were being produced. These ranged from simple models with plain cases and only four or five stops (if any at all), up to large instruments with ornate cases, up to a dozen stops and other mechanisms such as couplers. Expensive harmoniums were often built to resemble pipe organs, with ranks of fake pipes attached to the top of the instrument.

Flor Peeters (1903-1986) was an important Belgian composer, organist and teacher.  When sixteen years old, he began his studies at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen (since moved to Leuven), which was named after the nineteenth-century organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens.  In 1923 he became an organ teacher at the Institute; simultaneously he acquired the position of chief organist at the St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, which he held for most of the rest of his life;  As an organist and pedagogue, Peeters enjoyed great renown, giving concerts and liturgical masterclasses all over the world. He also made recordings of sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century organ music; some of these have been reissued in recent years on compact disc. Most of his own pieces (he wrote well over 100) were for organ, for choir, or for both. Peeters was created a baron by King Baudouin of Belgium in 1971.

About the Handbell Music:

Antiphony – Dale Wood

Jubilation Ringers

Antiphonal music is performed by two choirs, ensembles, or instruments, alternating sections or phrases, often from different parts of a room.  Antiphonal singing is of great antiquity and occurs in the folk and liturgical music of many cultures. Descriptions of it occur in the Old Testament. The antiphonal singing of psalms occurred both in ancient Hebrew and early Christian liturgies.

In our case, the handbells are divided into two choirs at the front and rear of the sanctuary.  Enjoy the added effect created by spacial placement as the music passes from one group to the other and then is played together.

Dale Wood (1934-2003) was a prominent composer, organist, choral director, and clinician.  He was honored many times by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for his “very important contribution towards the creation and development of contemporary American church music”.  He wrote many collections of organ works, most of which are based on both old and new hymn tunes.  Over eight million copies of his publications have been purchased in over 50 countries.

About the Choral Music:

Many Gifts, One Spirit  - Allen Pote

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but in all of them, and in everyone, it is the same God at work.”  I Corinthians 12:4–6

The lyrics of Allen Pote’s beautiful song simultaneously describe the diversity and the unity of the church. While we walk on different paths, with different programs and services, there are many intersections as we all work to reach and uplift those most in need.

Allen Pote (b. 1945) was born in Halstead, Kansas, and educated at Texas Christian University, where his diploma was in Church Music. A Fulbright Scholar, he studied in Brussels, Belgium, and took advanced work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. For twenty-two years he served as a full-time Director of Music in churches in Texas and Florida. He is currently a full-time composer living in Pensacola, Florida, where, with his wife Susan, he is co-director of the Pensacola Children's Choir, an organization of over 200 singers which has achieved national recognition.

Many gifts, one spirit, many songs, one voice
Many reasons, one promise, many questions, one choice.
O, God, we pray for unity, give guidance from above.
In our differences unite us in the circle of your love.
O, God, remind us we are not alone.
Though we move on different pathways, we are walking to your throne.

Help us learn to love each other, show us ways to understand.
We are members of one family, growing strong by joining hands.
Take our many ways of working, blend the colors of each soul into the

             beauty of a rainbow.
            Give us life, Lord, make us whole.

About the Hymns:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is a hymn based on Joachim Neander's German chorale Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, published in 1680. John Julian, in his A Dictionary of Hymnology, calls the German original "a magnificent hymn of praise to God, perhaps the finest creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class." It was the favorite hymn of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who first heard it in 1800

The melody used by Neander, first published in 1665, is probably based on a folk tune. The common name given to this melody is "Lobe den Herren". Several variants were published with various secular texts between 1665 to 1680, when Joachim Neander published his German hymn, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, using its meter. The text paraphrases Psalm 103 and Psalm 150. 

Where He Leads Me

Earnest W. Blan­dy, a Sal­va­tion Ar­my of­fi­cer, wrote this song in 1890, af­ter choos­ing be­tween a com­fort­a­ble post at an es­tab­lished church, and an al­ter­nate as­sign­ment to the New York Ci­ty wa­ter­front and slum called "Hell’s Kitch­en." He chose the lat­ter.  No other biographical information on Rev. Blandy has survived.  The text is based on Matthew 16:24:  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”

The melody was composed by pastor and evangelist John S. Norris, who died in 1907.  Norris was born on the Isle of Wight, which is in the English Channel off the southern coast of England. His family emigrated to Canada. In 1868, a few years after the Civil War ended, he was ordained into the Methodist Church ministry. However, 10 years later he joined the Congregational Church and pastored churches in Canada and the United States. Little is known of his ministry. His only legacy is the soulful tune of this simple song of invitation and consecration.

Here I Am, Lord

Dan Schutte is a native of Wisconsin, who received his education at St. Louis University with a bachelor’s degree in 1973, a master of divinity degree in 1979 at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Calif., and a master’s degree in 1980 at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.  Following graduation, Mr. Schutte joined the Jesuits and served as the director of liturgy at Marquette University (1982-1986). He entered parish ministry in Milwaukee serving as director of music at Immaculate Heart of Mary and then Our Lady of Lourdes parishes.   He is currently director of music at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution, and tours extensively as a Christian concert artist. Of his many hymns, “Here I Am, Lord” is the most commonly sung.

A salient feature of Catholic renewal hymnody since the Second Vatican Council is a stirring and memorable refrain. “Here I Am, Lord” recalls immediately Isaiah 6:8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”

An unusual attribute of this hymn is the change in point of view that the singer makes between the stanzas and the refrain. The stanzas speak from the perspective of God in the first person singular, while the refrain, though remaining in first person, is from the perspective of the singers of the hymn offering their lives to God.   Each stanza reflects a paradox. The powerful God, creator of “sea and sky,” “snow and rain” and “wind and flame” is also the God who hears the “people cry,” bears the “people’s pain” and “tend[s] the poor and lame.”  This is a hymn of transformation. God transforms the darkness into light in stanza one, melts “hearts of stone” with love in stanza two and nourishes the “poor and lame” with the “finest bread”—a clear Eucharistic reference.  Each stanza ends with the question, “Whom shall I send?” Rhetorical questions are very common poetical devices in Christian hymnody, but this is not one of them. The refrain immediately offers the response, “Here I am, Lord.”

September 21, 2014

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:

Le Coucou  – Louis-Claude D’Aquin

From the 17th century's adventuresome Heinrich Biber (whose violin sonata mimics nightingales, hens, and quails) right up through today, composers have been fascinated with our fine-feathered friends, and have used their songs as a source of inspiration. The instruments imitating bird songs in these pieces include the flute, oboe, bassoon, and, frequently, the organ. 

Bird calls were so popular that special organ stops appeared in the 17^th century and continue to be included in many organs today -  stops which imitate the warbling of birds. There were stops consisting of two or more small metal pipes whose ends are immersed in a vessel of water or light oil (Nachtigall, Rossignol, Usignuolo - ‘nightingale’).  There were also stops using small pipes twittering when the stop-knob admits wind to their miniature chest (Uccelli, Vogelgesang), stopped pipes a third apart and successively blown, thereby creating a cuckoo (Kuckuck).  If you wish to hear a Nachtigall, you need only go as far as First United Methodist Church of Richardson.

This “Cuckoo” piece is written such that the notes imitate the twittering of birds with the distinctive call of the cuckoo intertwined.  Originally written for the harpsichord, it is highly effective and very popular on the organ.

Louis-Claude D’Aquin (1694-1772) was born in Paris, to a family originating from Italy (where their name was D'Aquino). One of his great-uncles was a professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France. D’Aquin was a musical child prodigy who performed for the court of King Louis XIV at the age of six. At the age of 12, he became organist at the Sainte-Chapelle, and in the following year took a similar post at the church of the Petit St. Antoine.  Claude D’Aquin never lacked for work as an organist. In 1727, he was appointed organist at the church of St. Paul in Paris, ahead of Jean-Philippe Rameau who was also a candidate. Five years later, he succeeded his teacher Louis Marchand as organist at the Église des Cordeliers. In 1739, he became organist to the king. In 1755, he was made titular organist at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.  By reputation a dazzling performer at the keyboard, D’Aquin was courted by the aristocracy, and his great expertise at the organ drew large crowds to hear him. He was known for his "unfaltering precision and evenness" at both the harpsichord and organ.

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme – J. S. Bach

"Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (Awake, the voice is calling) is a Lutheran hymn written in German by Philipp Nicolai, first published in 1599 together with "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". It appears in German hymnals and in several English hymnals in translations such as "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying".  Philipp Nicolai wrote the hymn in 1598, a time when the plague had hit Unna where he lived as a preacher after studies in theology at the University of Wittenberg, for six months. The text is based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). Nicolai refers to other biblical ideas, such as from the Revelation the mentioning of marriage (Revelation 19:6–9) and the twelve gates, every one of pearl (Revelation 21:21), and from the First Letter to the Corinthians the phrase "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" (1 Corinthians 2:9).  The author wrote in his preface, dated 10 August 1598:

"Day by day I wrote out my meditations, found myself, thank God, wonderfully well, comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content; gave to my manuscript the name and title of a Mirror of Joy... to leave behind me (if God should call me from this world) as a token of my peaceful, joyful, Christian departure, or (if God should spare me in health) to comfort other sufferers whom He should also visit with the pestilence."

Johann Sebastian Bach based his chorale cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, on the hymn.  This chorale prelude is a trio setting of the chorale which is derived from  the cantata's central movement.  It is one of Bach’s best known chorale preludes.

"Wake, awake, for night is flying,"
the watchmen on the heights are crying;
"Awake, Jerusalem, arise!"
Midnight hears the welcome voices
and at the thrilling cry rejoices:
"Where are the virgins pure and wise?
The Bridegroom comes: Awake!
Your lamps with gladness take!
Alleluia!
With bridal care and faith's bold prayer,
to meet the Bridegroom, come, prepare!"

Lamb of God, the heavens adore you,
the saints and angels sing before you
with harp and cymbals' clearest tone.
Of one pearl each shining portal,
where, joining with the choir immortal,
we gather round your radiant throne.
No eye has seen that light,
no ear the echoed might
of your glory;
yet there shall we in victory
sing shouts of joy eternally!

I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light – Wayne Wold

Kathleen Thomerson (b. 1934) is Organist and Music Director at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. She was born in Tennessee and grew up in Mississippi, California, and Texas. College music study was at the Universities of Colorado and Texas, the Flemish Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, and privately in Paris. Before retirement in Austin, she lived in Collinsville, Illinois, when her husband was a biology professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Her best-known hymn text is "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light."  It was written as a scriptural meditation and prayer. It was inspired by many Bible verses, including Genesis 1:17, Isaiah 60:19, Psalm 75:16, Psalm 139:12, Ephesians 3:17, Ephesians 5:8, Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 2 Peter 1:19, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23.

I want to walk as a child of the light;
I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to give light to the world;
The star of my life is Jesus.

Refrain:
In him there is no darkness at all;
The night and the day are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954) is active as a teacher, church musician, composer, author, performer, and clinician. He serves as Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Md. Over 200 of his compositions are published by fourteen different companies in the U.S. and Australia and include twenty volumes of works for organ and instruments with organ, 30 choir anthems, a children's musical, a recorder suite, and several hymn tunes.

About the Hymns:

Christ for the World We Sing

Samuel Wolcott (1813-1886) was the pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio when the local branch of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) asked to hold a meeting in his sanctuary.  Wolcott not only agreed to allow their meeting, but also made it a point to attend.  As he listened to the speakers, he couldn't help but notice the large banner that the YMCA sponsors had hung over the pulpit to announce the theme of the rally.  The banner read, "Christ for the World and the World for Christ."  Wolcott was very much in sympathy with that motto, having served as a missionary for several years.  He knew the need that existed in other countries, but he also thought of Cleveland and the other cities of this country as part of the world that needed Christ.  Wolcott had tried his hand at hymn-writing on a previous occasion, and was surprised when “Christ for the World We Sing” was published in 1869.  Wolcott wrote two hundred hymns during his lifetime, but this is the only one in common usage today.

 

This Little Light of Mine

"This Little Light of Mine" is a gospel children's song written by composer and teacher Harry Dixon Loes (1895–1965) circa 1920. Loes, who studied at the Moody Bible Institute and the American Conservatory of Music, was a musical composer, and teacher, who wrote, and co-wrote, several other gospel songs. The song has since entered the folk tradition, first being collected by John Lomax in 1939. Often thought of as a Negro spiritual, it does not, however, appear in any collection of jubilee or plantation songs from the nineteenth century:

The song may take its theme from Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heaven."; Luke 11:33, "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light."; and Matthew 5:14–15, where Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."

Awake, O Sleeper

“Awake, O sleeper, rise from death” is one of many creative hymn texts written by the man thought of as the “American Dean of hymn writers,” the Rev. Francis Bland Tucker, a 20th-century Episcopal minister, translator and hymn writer. F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984) was born in Norfolk, Va., and educated at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He served as an operating room assistant in World War I. In 1920, at the age of 25, he was ordained as an Episcopal priest and served for 20 years as rector of St. John’s Church, Georgetown.  In his last 20 years, he was a rector of Christ Church in Savannah, Ga., pointing out many times that he was in fact a successor to John Wesley in that position. 

One of Tucker’s most popular hymn texts is “Awake, O sleeper, rise from death.” This text was not originally written for a hymn, but was commissioned as a text for a choral anthem in February 1980 by David N. Johnson, set for mixed chorus with organ and optional parts for trumpet, handbells, timpani and congregation. 
The text first appeared in The Hymnal 1982 and is also printed in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989).  “Awake, O Sleeper” is based on Ephesians 5:14 and other portions of Paul’s letter. Tucker wrote of this text: “The first two lines (Eph. 5:14) are a quotation from a very ancient Christian hymn, probably. There is no copy of it in existence; so I filled it out with quotations from other verses in the epistle.”