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.”