November 23, 2014 - All Saints Celebration

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 Handbell Music:

Acclamation on “Azmon” – Arnold Sherman                                                                        Jubilation Ringers

Dr. Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan.  As a composer of solid, enduring church music, Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has produced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Lowell Mason adapted AZMON from a melody composed by Carl G. Gläser in 1828. Mason published a duple-meter version in his Modern Psalmist (1839) but changed it to triple meter in his later publications. Mason used (often obscure) biblical names for his tune titles; Azmon, a city south of Canaan, appears in Numbers 34:4-5.  AZMON is the preferred tune for “O For a Thousand Tongues”.

Arnold Sherman (b. 1948), currently living in Tyler, Texas, is a free-lance composer and co-founder of Red River Music. Sherman is the founder and Director of the East Texas Handbell Ensemble.  A clinician and guest conductor, he has led choral and handbell workshops, festivals, and reading sessions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Japan and the Bahamas. Arnold has over three hundred choral and handbell pieces in print and has been an active member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers where he has served as Area IX Chairman.

Matutinus – Matthew Prins

          Rings & Strings

“Matutinus” is sunrise in Latin. The morning always comes after the night.  The sun rises, and the Earth is warmed.  The coming of light to darkness on the first day of creation suggests that even those events bear record of Christ.  That is, on the first day God created light, and Christ is the Light of the world, the Firstborn of creation. Further, the light came to the darkness at the first "day" of creation, just as the light of Jesus would come into the dark world.

A clear example of the rising sun representing Christ is the prophecy that unto the righteous "shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings" at his resurrection.  Mark wrote that when the women arrived at the tomb, the sun had risen, and Christ also had risen. The tie of the rising of the Son at the Resurrection and the rising of the sun on that day is often noted at Easter.  As Christ rose, so will all the dead in Christ rise again on the appointed day.

Matthew Prins is currently director of handbells at two Chicago-area churches: First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, where he directs a multi-generational handbell choir, and Park Ridge Presbyterian Church, where he directs an adult handbell choir.  In addition to his directing, he is an active composer of handbell music — with nearly 60 pieces in-print or accepted for publication, the 34-year-old Prins is one of the most published handbell composers under the age of 40.

About the Organ Music:

Prelude on “My Lord, What a Morning” – Charles Callahan

The spiritual “My Lord, What a Morning!”  proclaims that Jesus will return, just as he left, in his physical bodily form, on a cloud, and “wake the nations underground”—the dead—in supreme victory over the bitter cruelty of the grave (Acts 1:1-11) and was essentially derived from the hymn “Behold the Awful Trumpet Sounds.”

My Lord what a morning,
When the stars begin to fall.

You'll hear the trumpet sound,
To wake the nations underground,
Look in my God's right hand
When the stars begin to fall.

Charles Callahan (b. 1951) is one of America’s leading organist-composers.  A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Catholic University of America.  In recognition of his service to the church and his commissioned compositions for Papal visits to the U.S., he was awared the Papal Honor of Knighthood in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 1999.  In addition to compositions and performances, Charles Callahan is a noted educator and author whose two books on American organ-building have become standard reference works.

Look, Ye Saints, the Sight is Glorious – David Johnson

Thomas Kelly (1769-1854) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He planned to be a lawyer, but having undergone a very marked spiritual change, he took Holy Orders in 1792. His earnest evangelical preaching in Dublin led Archbishop Fowler to inhibit him and his companion preacher, Rowland Hill, from preaching in the city. For some time he preached in two unconsecrated buildings in Dublin, Plunket Street, and the Bethesda, and then, having seceded from the Established Church, he erected places of worship at Athy, Portarlington, and Wexford.  Kelly's hymns, 765 in all, were composed and published over a period of 51 years.  “Look, ye saints” was published in Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, 1809.

Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious;
See the Man of Sorrows now!
From the fight returned victorious,
Ev'ry knee to him shall bow.
Crown him! Crown him! Crown Him!
Crowns become the victor's brow.

David N. Johnson (1922-1987) was an American organist, composer, educator, choral clinician, and lecturer.  He studied organ and composition at Curtis Institute of Music. Between 1942 and 1946 he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps/Air Corps in India, Burma, and China, receiving a Meritorious Service Award and campaign ribbons. He continued his music studies at Trinity University (Texas) and Syracuse University. He also held the associate certificate from the American Guild of Organists (AAGO).  He was college organist and music department chair at St Olaf College, Minnesota. In 1967, he succeeded Arthur Poister as professor of music and university organist at Syracuse University.  Johnson published well over three hundred compositions, most of them for church use, and was author of an Instruction Book for Beginning Organists (1964) and an Organ Teacher's Guide (1971). 

About the Choral Music:

Revelation Song – Jennie Lee Riddle

"Revelation Song" is a song written by Jennie Lee Riddle. It was recorded by Gateway Worship and was also included on Kari Jobe's self-titled album. It was later released as the first track on the album Fearless by Phillips, Craig and Dean.  Band member Randy Phillips explained why the trio recorded the song:  “This song captures the moment of looking up into Heaven, peeling back the curtain of eternity so we can peek in. If you keep your eyes on the Dow Jones or nuclear weapons in North Korea, you’ll always be nervous. Look to the awesomeness of God instead.”   It was the longest running #1 song in any format on Christian radio in 2009.

            Worthy is the Lamb who was slain; Holy, holy is He.

            Sing a new song to Him who sits on heaven’s mercy seat.

            Clothed in rainbows of living color, flashes of lightening, rolls of thunder.

            Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power be to You, the only wise King.

            Filled with wonder, awestruck with wonder, at the mention of Your name.

            Jesus, Your name is power, breath, and Living Water, such a marvelous mystery!

            Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

            With all creation, I sing praise to the King of kings;

You are my everything and I will adore You.

About the Hymns:

Come, Let Us Join Our Friends Above

When Charles Wesley penned and later -- with his brother John -- printed these words, he was not imagining they might be sung as a processional hymn on All Saints Day at Westminster Abbey or Coventry Cathedral. Indeed, such would have been out of the question. "Man-made" hymns such as this were not permitted in worship in the Church of England during his lifetime.  But more than this, as the text of this hymn shows, Charles had a vision of sainthood that was at once more inclusive and more demanding than any impressive public ritual one day a year could express. Charles and his brother John were both convinced that sainthood was the intended destiny not of just a few, but indeed of all Christians. God's intention in salvation is nothing less than to make saints of us all. God's desire for us is not simply to forgive us of our sins, nor even to work in our hearts and lives to deliver us entirely from the power of sin, but rather to work in us and with us "a complete salvation" that will "perfect us in love" in this life.

This hymn isn't and could not be for Wesley "special music for special worship on a special day." It was an "anthem for a lifetime," intended to be sung regularly by the early Methodists in society meetings, class meetings, and in daily life as a constant invitation to "join our friends above who have obtained the prize, and on the eagle wings of love to joys celestial rise."

Blest Be the Tie That Binds

John Fawcett (1740-1817) was born into a poor family in Yorkshire, England, and was orphaned at age 12.  To survive, he accepted a lengthy apprenticeship to a tailor.  While still in his teens, he heard the great George Whitfield preach and became a Christian.  Fawcett became active in a Baptist church and was often asked to speak.  At age 25 (and newly married), he was invited to serve as pastor of a small church at Wainsgate.  The poor people of that little village were able to pay very little, and much of Fawcett's pay came as potatoes and other produce.  Once his wife, Mary, began having children, they found it difficult to survive.

Fawcett learned that the pastor of a large Baptist church in London was retiring, and he let the church know that he would be interested in serving them.  They called him to be their pastor at a much larger salary, so John and Mary packed their household and prepared to move.  But, as the story is told, Mary told John that she didn't think she could leave these people whom they had both learned to love, and John admitted that he shared her sentiment; so, the two of them unpacked the wagon and told the London church know they wouldn't be coming.

Fawcett, who wrote a number of hymns during his lifetime, wrote the hymn, "Blest Be the Tie," to convey his sentiments and those of his wife to the poor people among whom they had chosen to live.  Fawcett served that little church for the rest of his life –– 54 years in all.

For All the Saints

“For All the Saints” is the quintessential hymn for All Saints’ Day, with its uplifting text and triumphant music.  Bishop William Walsham Howe (1823-1897), author of the hymn text, wrote over 60 hymns.  Combining pure poetic rhythms with great directness and simplicity, his hymns are simple and unadorned, but enthusiastic.  “For All the Saints” is his most popular hymn.  Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the tune “Sine Nomine” for this text and published it in the English Hymnal in 1906.  Equipped with a walking bass, it is a glorious marching tune and considered by many to be among the finest of 20^th century hymn tunes.