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.
Hosanna Filio David - Jeanne Demessieux
Gregorian chant is the central
tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant
developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th
centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits
Pope St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant,
scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.
“Hosanna Filio David” is an Antiphon for Palm Sunday, sung at the beginning
of the service. As with most chant, the
composer of this melody is unknown. The
sources of the text are Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9-10, Luke 19:38, John 12:13. Demessieux has set this chant in a way that
invokes the sense of the swaying step of the donkey.
Hosanna
filio David:
benedíctus qui venit in nomine Domini. Rex Israel: Hosanna in excelsis. |
Hosanna
to the son of David:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. O King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest. |
Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux (1921-1968), was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Between 1936 and 1939, she studied organ privately with Marcel Dupré, whose organ class at the Conservatoire she joined in 1939. After receiving a first prize in organ performance and improvisation in 1941, Demessieux studied five more years privately with Dupré in Meudon, before she played her début recital at Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1946. This was the beginning of her career as an international recitalist. In her brief life, she gave more than 700 concerts not just in France, but also in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, West Germany, and the United States. Blessed (like Dupré) with a prodigious memory, she knew more than 2,500 works by heart, including the complete organ works of Bach, Franck, Liszt, and Mendelssohn, as well as most of Dupré's compositions for the instrument. A prolific recording artist, she received in 1960 France's Grand Prix du Disque award for her Franck intégrale, committed to disc two years before. In 1962, Demessieux was appointed titular organist at La Madeleine in Paris. She wrote more than 30 compositions. Many of these were written for the organ, but she also produced pieces for piano, fairly numerous songs, a handful of choral works (including an oratorio, "Chanson de Roland"), and orchestral works.
All Glory, Laud, and Honor – Roger Wilson
Roger C. Wilson (1912-1988) was an American composer of choral and organ music. He served as editor of The Organist, The Choir Herald, The Volunteer Choir, The Choir Leader, The Organ Portfolio, and The Quarterly Anthem Folio. His works were frequently included in Lorenz Publishing's serials, and many were subsequently anthologized. He also composed under the names Walter Price and Stewart Landon, as was a frequent practice at Lorenz.
About the Choral Music:
Hosanna,
Loud Hosanna – Joel Raney
Like
"All Glory, Laud, and Honor" (375/376), 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."
Joel Raney’s (b. 1956) taste
for gospel music began in a rural Baptist church in Alabama, an influence that
shows strongly in his work to this day. Joel's interest in music of all kinds
has led to everything from classical and jazz performance to pop vocal
arranging. He has conducted Broadway productions, and has been honored for
outstanding musical direction of theater in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Since
1988 he has worked as a composer and producer of commercial music in Chicago
and has written soundtracks for more than 2000 television and radio
commercials, plus numerous scores for short films. Joel is a choral and keyboard clinician, and
performs throughout North America as a piano soloist and in duo-concert with
organist Jane Holstein. He has over 200
titles in print, including choral anthems, musicals and cantatas, handbell
compositions, piano solos, and instrumental works.
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.
Hosanna in the
highest, hosanna to the King!
Hosanna in the
highest, let loud hosannas ring!
Sing hosanna,
hosanna to the King!
Sing hosanna, let
loud hosannas ring!
O may we ever
praise him with heart and life and voice,
And in his
blissful presence eternally rejoice!
Hosanna in the
highest, let loud hosannas ring!
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.
How Firm a Foundation
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