March 15, 2015

Each week, you may find information here about the music 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:

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Normand Lockwood

This hymn’s origin is a paradox. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) worshipped in the tradition of the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Whittier was one of the most important of the 19th-century American poets. The New Englander was a Quaker abolitionist, reared in a large farmhouse in the rural setting of Merrimac Valley at East Haverhill, Mass.  Traditionally, Quakers have not sung in worship, but value silence, waiting for the “still, small voice” of God.

According to accounts Whittier had been reading in Max Müller’s The Sacred Books of the East about the use of soma, a plant found in northwest India. Soma was used to prepare an intoxicating drug that was ingested in religious rituals, resulting in a state of frenzy.  This hymn began as a part of a long narrative poem, “The Brewing of Soma,” published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1872. The poem describes Vedic priests going into the forest, brewing a drink from honey and milk, and drinking themselves into a frenzy. Whittier was critical of those who believed they might find God through unbridled ecstasy, such as the hysterical camp meetings and revivals common in his day.   Whittier’s response was a 17-stanza poem, of which stanzas 12-17 have been excised to form the hymn as found in many hymnals.

English hymnologist J.R. Watson summarizes well the contribution of this hymn: “It is the opposite end of the devotional spectrum from those hymns which encourage activity and energy; but everyone experiences the need for quiet meditation at some time, and this hymn encourages an almost mystical contemplation of the peace of God ‘which passes all understanding.’” 
 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Re-clothe us in our rightful mind

In purer lives thy service find,

In deeper reverence praise.

Drop thy still dews of quietness

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,

O still small voice of calm!

Normand Lockwood (March 19, 1906 – March 9, 2002) was an American composer born in New York, New York. He studied composition at the University of Michigan and then traveled to Rome and studied composition under Ottorino Respighi and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He won a Prix de Rome in 1929.  He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.  Lockwood returned to America, becoming an associate professor of composition and theory at Oberlin Conservatory, and won two Guggenheim Fellowships. He taught at Columbia University, Trinity University (Texas), University of Wyoming, University of Oregon, and University of Denver.  Lockwood composed works in many forms, but he was most well-known for his choral works, which were mostly based on religious texts. He also composed operas, orchestral symphonies and suites, and instrumental and vocal chamber music.

Vater unser in Himmelreich – Dieterich Buxtehude

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was an Augustinian monk and priest who became a professor at the University of Wittenberg.  In 1517, he published his 95 Theses, proposing major reforms in the Roman Catholic Church.  These reforms were rejected by Papal Bull, resulting in the German Reformation and leading to the foundation of the Lutheran Church.  Luther translated the Bible into German (1521-1534) and had a huge influence on German hymnody, publishing nine hymnals containing German chorales written by Luther and others.

“Vater unser im Himmelreich” was included in Geistliche Lieder auffs neu gebessert (1539), in 9 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "The Lord's Prayer briefly expounded and turned into metre" (apparently first as a broadsheet with the same title, in 1539.  Each of the first eight stanzas amplifies one of the clauses of the Lord's Prayer (omitting the doxology), and the ninth is on the Amen. It is a beautiful rendering, and has been by some regarded as Luther's finest hymn. 

6. All unsre Schuld vergib uns, Herr,              Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore,
Daß sie uns nicht betrübe mehr,                      Remove from us their burden sore,
Wie wir auch unsern Schuldigern                   As we their trespasses forgive
Ihr' Schuld und Fehl' vergeben gern;              Who by offenses us do grieve.
Zu dienen mach uns all' bereit                        Thus let us dwell in charity
In rechter Lieb' und Einigkeit!                        And serve our brother willingly.

Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637/39^-1707) was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1705, J.S. Bach, then a young man of twenty, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 250 miles, and stayed nearly three months to hear the “Abendmusik”, meet the pre-eminent Lübeck organist, hear him play, and, as Bach explained, "to comprehend one thing and another about his art". Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.

There are over 40 surviving chorale settings by Buxtehude, and they constitute the most important contributions to the genre in the 17th century. His settings include chorale variations, chorale ricercares, chorale fantasias and chorale preludes. Buxtehude's principal contributions to the organ chorale are his 30 short chorale preludes. The chorale preludes are usually four-part cantus firmus settings of one stanza of the chorale; the melody is presented in an elaborately ornamented version in the upper voice, the three lower parts engage in some form of counterpoint (not necessarily imitative).  The ornamented cantus firmus in these pieces represents a significant difference between the north German and the south German schools; Johann Pachelbel and his pupils would almost always leave the chorale melody unornamented.  

About the Handbell Music:

Gaelic Blessing – John Rutter

          Jubilation Ringers/Michele Anderson, soprano

John Rutter (b. 1945) studied at Cambridge, where he wrote his first published compositions and conducted his first recording while still a student.  His compositional career has included both large and small scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, and music for television.  In 1979, he formed the Cambridge Singers, a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording sacred choral works, and he now divides his time between composition and conducting.  In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.  In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contributions to church music.

A Gaelic Blessing was commissioned by the Chancel Choir of First United Methodist Church, Omaha, Nebraska, as a parting gift for their choir director.  The text is translated from old Gaelic runes.

            Deep peace of the running wave to you;

            Deep peace of the flowing air to you;

            Deep peace of the quiet earth to you;

            Deep peace of the shining stars to you;

            Deep peace of the gentle night to you.

            Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.

            Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world, to you.

            Deep peace of Christ to you.

About the Choral Music:

Father, Forgive Us – Craig Courtney

A native of Indiana, Craig Courtney received a Bachelors and a Masters degree in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati. He served on the faculty of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, serving as piano teacher and accompanist for the woodwind and brass department. While serving in the music ministry of the Salzburg International Baptist Church, Courtney began composing sacred choral music. In 1985, his compositions came to the attention of John Ness Beck through the publication of his octavo, Thy Will Be Done, initiating a close working relationship between the two men which continued until Beck’s death in 1987. In making plans for the ongoing of Beckenhorst Press, Beck appointed Craig Courtney staff composer and editor. Courtney’s published works include more than two hundred choral octavos, nine vocal collections, two piano solo collections and six extended works for choir and orchestra. Courtney combines his background as pianist, cellist, vocal coach, accompanist and choral director to create works in his unique style.   

This moving anthem with text by Pamela Martin and music by Craig Courtney was written and dedicated to the victims of hurricane Katrina. 

Father, forgive us each time we close our eyes to a bruised and wounded world,
the shattered broken lives, empty ones who die alone, forsaken in their shame.
Every time we turn away, we crucify again.

Father, forgive us each time that we disown mothers who have lost their sons,
the children with no home, thousands crying out in thirst, the prisoners in pain.
Every time we turn away, we crucify again.

Father, forgive us; our hearts remain unmoved by suffering and poverty.
We know not what we do.
When we fail to hear the voice of Christ in every cry,
when we do not recognize the Savior in their eyes,

We crucify again.

Father, forgive us.

About the Hymns:

To God Be the Glory

Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915), born in New York and died in Connecticut, wrote over 8,500 gospel hymns. In 1972, Hope Publishing Co. found over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts. Her work defined what it meant to be a successful writer of gospel hymns.  By the age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby was completely blind. She entered the New York School for the Blind at age twelve. She began writing hymns and poetry at age twelve.  Her collaborators in publishing gospel hymns included the most successful and popular composers of her day, including William Bradbury, William Doane, Robert Lowry, Ira Sankey, and William Kirkpatrick. Crosby used numerous pen names in publishing her songs, including: Ella Dale, Mrs. Kate Gringley and Miss Viola V. A.  She married blind musician Alexander Van Alstyne, and the British most often refer to her by her married name rather than Fanny Crosby.  She was a lifelong Methodist and her contributions to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) include: “Blessed Assurance,” “Close to Thee,” “I Am Thine, O Lord,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “To God Be the Glory.”
Frances Jane Crosby’s hymns have historically been among the most popular songs sung by Methodists.  “To God be the glory” was included in William Doane’s Songs of Devotion in 1870.  Ira Sankey probably saw the hymn in Doane’s collection and incorporated it into the first edition of his Sacred Songs and Solos (1875).  Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey helped to establish the hymn’s popularity during their revivals in Great Britain in the late 19th century.  It also appeared in some British hymnals including the Methodist Hymn Book (1933).

However, it was not until the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville that Cliff Barrows introduced this song to congregations in the United States.  Mr. Graham and Mr. Barrows had learned the song during the 1952 revivals they had conducted in Great Britain.  Hymnologist William J. Reynolds, writing in his hymnal companion Hymns of Faith (1964), documented the return of this hymn to the USA: “It is most extraordinary that this long-forgotten American gospel song should have been imported from England and become immensely popular during the last decade.” 

Grace Greater than All Our Sin

Julia Harriet Johnston (1849-1919) was a Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, and for 41 years was head of the infant class in the children’s department.  For twenty years, Julia was president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society of Peoria which had been founded by her mother. Also a prolific author, she produced primary Sunday school lesson material for the David C. Cook Publishing Co. of Chicago, IL, and had several of her own works published, including School of the Master in 1880, Bright Threads in 1897, Indian and Spanish Neighbors in 1905, and Fifty Missionary Heroes in 1913. Furthermore, Miss Johnston is credited with about 500 hymns, set to music provided by a number of different composers.

"Grace Greater Than Our Sin" is dated 1910, and the tune (Moody) was composed that same year by Daniel Brink Towner (1850-1919), the director of the music department at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL The first appearance of "Grace Greater Than Our Sin" seems to have been in Towner’s Hymns Tried and True, published in 1911 by the Bible Institute Colportage Association of Chicago.
This “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,” finds a scriptural basis in Paul’s teaching of justification by faith in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Paul continues in verses 14-16, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift of grace. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.”

I Stand Amazed in the Presence

Charles Gabriel (1856-1932) grew up on an Iowa farm and learned music by playing the reed organ in his home. He became one of the most prolific composers of gospel songs of his day. Gabriel's musical activities ranged from teaching in the singing schools that were so popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to authoring texts, composing songs, anthems, and cantatas, and editing song collections. He was associated with the leading gospel song publishers of his day, including Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell.  Though self-trained, he started leading singing school educational events as a teenager. He worked with Grace Episcopal Methodist Church in San Francisco from 1890-1892, and then moved to Chicago where he worked for Homer Rodeheaver’s publishing firm.  Gabriel is credited with between 7000 and 8000 songs, thirty-five gospel song collections, Sunday school song books, collections for men's and women’s choirs, numerous cantatas, including 41 Christmas cantatas, and music education texts. He wrote under numerous pseudonyms, making it often difficult to know the precise number of songs he wrote.

The words of the gospel hymn “I Stand Amazed” were written in 1905 when Gabriel was 49 years old, after more than three decades into his life’s work in music. The hymn’s words indicate he was not self-absorbed, as some with his talent over such a long stretch of time might have been. Instead, Gabriel focused his attention on the One who had gifted him musically. Gabriel’s composition shows he saw his own faults (a sinner, condemned, unclean), but that’s not where he dwelt. Gabriel evidently had emerged from his own struggles – including his father’s death when Charles was still a teenager, and his failed first marriage - to recognize the Lord’s work in his life. Look at Him, hold Him in awe, and open your mouth in joyous response as you look forward to a face-to-face encounter. That sums up Gabriel’s song-message. It’s not hard to find something amazing about Him – you just have to look.