September 6, 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:

Gardiner – Healey Willan

Caleb T. Winchester, an editor of the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, challenged Frank M. North (1850-1935) to write a hymn text on city missions. North had intimate knowledge of urban life because of his work for the Methodist Church in New York City. Inspired by Jesus' words "Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find" (Matt. 22:9), North wrote "Where Cross the Crowded Ways." After making various revisions and adding a title ("A Prayer for the Multitudes"), he published the text in The Christian City (1903), a missions journal he edited. The text was also published in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal and in many other twentieth-century hymnbooks. One of the earliest and finest modern "city hymns," this text focuses on the ills of our great urban centers with the insight and compassion of a Christian worker in the city slums. North's descriptive phrases may have been startling at the turn of the century, but they are even more accurate descriptions of the massive cities in our world today. His prescription to follow in the footsteps of Christ and bring the gospel in word and deed is relevant as long as the Lord delays in bringing the New Jerusalem.
North devoted himself to loyal service in the Methodist denomination and to various ecumenical ventures. He was educated at Wesleyan University, and ordained in the Methodist Church in 1872. A minister in several churches in Florida, New York, and Connecticut, he also held administrative positions-secretary of the New York Church Extension and Missionary Society (1892-1912) and secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Church (1912-1924). He was involved with the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America (forerunner of the National Council of Churches) and was the council's president from 1916-1920. Editor of the periodical Christian City, North was active in many organizations that promoted and carried out Christian ministries in urban life. North contributed hymns to Sursum Corda (1898) and the Methodist Hymnal (1905) and was a charter member of the Hymn Society, which republished his eight hymns in a booklet in 1970.

Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the cries of race and clan,
above the noise of selfish strife, we hear your voice, O Son of Man.

In haunts of wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds fraught with fears,
from paths where hide the lures of greed, we catch the vision of your tears.

From tender childhood's helplessness, from human grief and burdened toil,
from famished souls, from sorrow's stress, your heart has never known recoil.

The cup of water given for you still holds the freshness of your grace;
yet long these multitudes to view the sweet compassion of your face.

O Master, from the mountainside, make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
among these restless throngs abide; O tread the city's streets again;

Till all the world shall learn your love, and follow where your feet have trod;
till glorious from your heaven above shall come the city of our God.

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was an Canadian organist and composer.  He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but is best known for his religious music.  Willan was born in England, and he began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne.  He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the Royal College of Organists' Associateship in 1897 and Fellowship in 1899. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910, Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant").  In 1913, Willan emigrated to Canada.  In 1921, he become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto), where he remained until his death.  St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians.  In 1920, the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan Head of its Theory Department.  In 1934, he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939.  From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur; in 1956, Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers", became the first non-English church musician to be so honoured.  People who remember Willan from his time at St Mary Magdalene's like to moderate his somewhat dourly pious public image by quoting him: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption."

Beatus Laurentius – Thomas Preston

Lawrence of Rome (Latin: Laurentius, c. 225–258) was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome under Pope Sixtus II that were martyred during the persecution of Emperor Valerian in 258. When Sixtus became the Pope in 257, he ordained St Lawrence as a deacon, and though still young appointed him first among the seven deacons who served in the patriarchal church. He is therefore called "archdeacon of Rome", a position of great trust that included the care of the treasury and riches of the church and the distribution of alms among the poor. Roman authorities had established a norm according to which all Christians who had been denounced must be executed and their goods confiscated by the Imperial treasury. At the beginning of August 258, the emperor Valerian issued an edict that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death. Sixtus was captured on 6 August 258, at the cemetery of St. Callixtus while celebrating the liturgy and executed forthwith.  After the death of Sixtus, the prefect of Rome demanded that St Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church to the Roman Emperor. St Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth. He worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the poor as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, "The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor." This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.

Thomas Preston (died c. 1563) was an English organist and composer who held posts at Magdalen College, Oxford, Trinity College, Cambridge, and St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.  His work represents the pre-Reformation period in England, in which plainsong-based liturgical music predominated.

About the Choral Music:

The Cry of the Poor – John Foley

Jesuit Father John Foley is a liturgical and classical composer, theologian, liturgist and writer. In 1993, Foley became director of the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University, a national think tank for studying and teaching the liturgy. He continues to lecture across the country on liturgy, liturgical music and the spirituality of liturgy.  Some of his most familiar hymns are included in liturgical collections of the St. Louis Jesuits: "One Bread, One Body," “Come to the Water,” “Earthen Vessels,” “May We Praise You,” “For You Are My God” and “The Cry of the Poor.” He has published more than 30 other titles as well. He has master’s degrees in philosophy and fundamental theology and a doctorate in liturgical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

“The Cry of the Poor” is based on Psalm 34.

            The Lord hears the cry of the poor.  Blessed be the Lord.

            I will bless the Lord at all times, with praise ever in my mouth.

            Let my soul glory in the Lord, who will hear the cry of the poor.

            Let the lowly hear and be glad: the Lord listens to their please;

            And to hearts broken God is near, who will hear the cry of the poor.

            Every spirit crushed God will save, will be ransom for their lives;

            Will be safe shelter for their fears, and will hear the cry of the poor.

            We proclaim your greatness, O God, your praise ever in our mouth;

            Every face brightened in your light, for you hear the cry of the poor.

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.

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

Frederick Faber (1814-1863) was one of a number of English clergy who converted from the Anglican Church to Roman Catholicism in the Romantic era of hymnody in the 19th century.
Faber was born an Anglican and reared a strict Calvinist. After attending Oxford, he took orders as an Anglican priest and began his ministry as a rector. Influenced by his friend John Henry Newman (1801-1890) who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845, Faber also converted to Catholicism that same year.

Drawing inspiration from the hymns of John Newton, William Cowper and the Wesleys during his Anglican youth, he recognized that Roman Catholics lacked a tradition of more recent metrical hymnody in English. He took it upon himself to remedy this. By the time he died, he had contributed 150 hymns, all composed after his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” originally had eight stanzas and appeared under the title “Come to Jesus” in Faber’s Oratory Hymns (1854). In a later collection, the hymn expanded to 13 stanzas, beginning with “Souls of men, why will ye scatter/ Like a crowd of frightened sheep?” That version was included in a posthumous collection, Hymns Selected from F. W. Faber (1867).

Two omitted stanzas expand on the theme of God’s unfathomable mercy in a manner that, according to UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young, “demonstrates Faber’s affinity with eighteenth-century evangelical writers such as Charles Wesley”:

     There is no place where earth’s sorrows Are more felt than up in heaven;
     There is no place where earth’s failings Have such kindly judgment given.

     There is grace enough for thousands Of new worlds as great as this;
     There is room for fresh creations In that upper home of bliss.

British hymnologist J. Richard Watson notes that, “Faber’s emotionalism, and his uninhibited use of . . . imagery, demonstrate his love of a sentiment that comes close to sentimentality.
But his sentiment, however excessive it may seem, touches a tender spot: Faber is cheering on the soul, recognizing the troubles of life, and holding out the promise of a final homecoming.”
The ultimate theme of this hymn is based on the premise and paradox that a sovereign God, unlike earthly rulers, demonstrates welcome, kindness, grace and mercy. All we need to do is have a simple faith that “rest[s] upon God’s word.”

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.”

August 30, 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:

Gott, heiliger Schopfer aller Stern  - Hermann Schroeder

Plainsong hymns represent some of the older selections in the United Methodist Hymnal. The texts often come from devotional as well as liturgical sources.  Historically, plainsong was the province of the choir only. This distinctive style was sung in monastic settings by monks who observed the offices of daily prayer. Originally the rhythm is free in style, unaccompanied, sung in Latin and performed with the melody only.  The liturgical renewal movement had its roots in the 19th century. This scholarly movement included the revival of medieval liturgical forms, especially plainsong. The movement was given an extra impetus in the early 20th century by Pope Pius X with his motu proprio on church music (1903).  A motu proprio is a letter from a pope to the entire church on a specific subject chosen by the pope. Pius X’s letter encouraged a return to the musical aesthetics of earlier centuries, especially plainsong-based music. A number of monasteries participated in the revival of plainsong, the most famous of which was the Benedictine Abbey of St. Solesmes in France.  This has led to the inclusion of plainsong hymns in more recent hymnals, though their performance is not only for choirs, but also for congregations. The UM Hymnal contains several plainsong hymns, the most familiar being the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (No. 211) with the Latin tune name VENI EMMANUEL, the first two words of the original Latin text.

“Creator of the Stars of Night” was originally written as an evening hymn for Advent somewhere between the 7th and 9th centuries. The original version was modified by Pope Urban VIII to fit classical Latin meters in preparation for the Roman Breviary, 1632. As a result of this revision, only one line from the original Latin hymn was included in its revised form.  The text was originally translated in English by John Mason Neale, a 19th-century translator, from the Latin Conditor alme siderum as found in the Sarum Breviary, an 11th-century rite from Salisbury.  The plainsong melody is singable and beautiful. Unlike many plainsong hymns, this one is syllabic—one syllable to one note of music, making it easy to learn. A connection to Advent is strongly implied in the text, and the hymn ties 21st-century Christians to believers over 1,000 years ago. “Creator of the Stars of Night” deserves to be sung more and bring the witness of the saints to our generation.

Creator of the stars of night, Thy people's everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all, and hear Thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse should doom to death a universe,
hast found the medicine, full of grace, to save and heal a ruined race.

Thou camest, the Bridegroom of the Bride, as drew the world to evening tide,
proceeding from a virgin shrine, the spotless Victim all divine.

At whose dread Name, majestic now, all knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
and things celestial Thee shall own, and things terrestrial Lord alone.

O Thou whose coming is with dread, to judge and doom the quick and dead,
preserve us, while we dwell below, from every insult of the foe.

To God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, Three in One,
laud, honor, might, and glory be from age to age eternally. Amen.

Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984) was a German composer and a Catholic church musician.  Schroeder was born in Bernkastel and spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His mother's family had common ancestry with Beethoven. He studied from 1926 to 1930 at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. Upon graduation from the conservatory, he obtained a post teaching music theory at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne. Eight years later he became organist at the cathedral in Trier. He remained in this post until the end of the war, adding the position of director of the Trier School of Music in 1940. After the war, taught music theory at the Cologne Musikhochschule beginning in 1946, becoming a professor there in 1948 and deputy director in 1958. He was also a reader at Bonn University from 1946 until 1973, and a lecturer at the University of Cologne from 1956 until 1961. He also conducted various semiprofessional ensembles such as the Bach-Verein Köln and the Rheinischer Kammerchor.

Schroeder's main accomplishments as a composer were inf Catholic church music, where he attempted to break free of the predominance of Romantic style. His works are characterized by the employment of medieval elements such as Gregorian chant, modal scales, and fauxbourdon which he combined with quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing similar to that of Paul Hindemith. His works include much  organ music as well as folk-song settings, German settings of the Ordinary and Proper of the Mass, and chamber music (especially with the organ).

My Lord, What a Morning – Bert Carlson

The 1790 U.S. census reported over 700,000 African-American slaves. The majority embraced Christianity with its promise of a life beyond suffering and hate. As a result, they created and performed songs, particularly the spiritual, combining European chromatic-scale melody lines with African rhythms and harmonies.  Thus, the spiritual is among the most important, vibrant, and enduring elements of American culture and is our first wholly American musical form.  Slaves held informal, possibly secret, prayer meetings. Recalled former slave Wash Wilson: “Sometimes us sing and pray all night.” The spirituals sung in these meetings drew from hymns, the Bible, sermons, and African styles of singing. Most slaves could not read, so the spirituals helped to teach them the Bible. 

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.”  The original hymn, first published in Richard Allen’s 1801 hymnal, show where the slave composer received his inspiration:

Behold the awful trumpet sounds,
The sleeping dead to raise,
And calls the nations underground:
O how the saints will praise! …
The falling stars their orbits leave,
The sun in darkness hide:
The elements asunder cleave,
The moon turn’d into blood! …

Although the original hymn lies forgotten, the spiritual has maintained its popularity, with its uplifting view of a new world to come.

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.

J. Bert Carlson (b. 1937), retired pastor, holds a master of music from Duquesne University School of Music and has served as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Whiting, NJ since 1997. Carlson wears many diverse hats as a piano teacher, organ recitalist, tenor soloist, musical director, and conductor as well as cofounder of the Chicago Oratorio Society and clinician for numerous workshops with an emphasis on choral methods, organ and hymn composition. His prodigious list of publications includes anthems, vocal songs, organ works, and piano works.

Toccata, from “Revelations” – Daniel Pinkham

Daniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. (1923-2006) was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist.  He studied organ performance and music theory and composition at Phillips Academy, Tanglewood, and Harvard.  "The single event that changed my life was a concert [at Andover] by the Trapp Family Singers in 1939, right after they had escaped from Germany," Pinkham once recalled. "Here, suddenly, I was hearing clarity, simplicity. It shaped my whole outlook," he said in a 1981 interview with The Boston Globe.

Pinkham taught at the Boston Conservatory beginning in 1946, and at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1959 until his death in 2006; while there, he created and chaired the program on early music performance. He also taught at various times at Simmons College (1953–1954), Boston University (1953–1954), and Harvard University (1957–1958).  For forty-two years (1958–2000), Pinkham was the organist of King's Chapel in Boston, a position which gave him much exposure to and opportunity to write church-related music; the Sunday evening concert series he created there celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007. He was also a frequent guest on the E. Power Biggs program on the CBS Radio Network. He performed regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as an organist and as a harpsichordist.

Pinkham's enormous output represents a broad cross-section of 20th-century musical trends. He produced work in virtually every genre, from symphonies to art songs, though the preponderance of his music is religious in nature, frequently choral and/or involving organ. Much of his music was written for use in church services or other ceremonial occasions, and reflected his longstanding relationship with King’s Chapel. At various points in his career, he embraced plainchant, medievally-influenced modal writing, and 17th-century forms, dodecaphony and serialism, electronic music, and the neo-baroque idiom. Some of Pinkham's best-known works are designed for services: the Christmas, Advent, and Wedding cantatas.  In 1990, Pinkham was named Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists. In 2006 Pinkham was named Musician of the Year by the Boston Musicians' Association.

About the Choral Music:

Let Everything That Hath Breath – Jeffrey Ames

Let Everything That Hath Breath is an exuberant celebration set within the traditional gospel style.  For many decades, traditional gospel music has been a vital component of worship for African-Americans.  Whether being performed in a neighborhood church or in a concert hall, gospel music fulfills its purpose to uplift the spirit and hearts of all who hear.  The text within this piece is taken from several Psalms and seeks to “Magnify the Lord and exalt His name”.

Jeffrey Ames, a sought-after clinician, adjudicator, accompanist, and composer, received his Ph.D. in Choral Music from Florida State University.  Ames was the first recipient of the National ACDA James Mulholland Choral Music Fellowship and has taught choral music at the high school and college level.  His compositions have been premiered by the Florida ACDA, Southern Division ACDA, National ACDA, and Florida MENC conventions.  Ames is currently the Assistant Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Baylor University.

            Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth.

            Declare His glory among the nations.

            Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!

            Magnify the Lord with me and exhalt His name together.

            Hallelujah, bless His name for He’s worthy to be praised.

            Clap your hands all ye people.  Shout with a voice of triumph!

            For the mighty Lord is great and greatly to be praised.

           

            Come on and praise the Lord.  Let’s all praise His name.

            Praise Him with the timbrel, praise Him with the dance.

            Stand up on your feet and just lift up holy hands.

            Sing “Hallelujah,” praise His holy name for the Lord is worthy to be praised!

           

            Let’s praise the Lord. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!

            You oughta Praise Him!

About the Hymns:

For the Healing of the Nations

During the 1960s and 1970s, four English-language hymn writers emerged on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean who were the leaders of the “hymnic explosion.” Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) and Brian Wren (b. 1936) all were born in Great Britain.   Unlike the other three, Fred Kaan (b. 1929), though ordained in the United Reformed Church and serving in England, is a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands.   These writers, along with their counterparts from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, brought the language and theological vision of hymnody out of the earlier Victorian era into the late 20th century. In many cases, their work continues to enrich 21st-century congregational song.

After serving congregations in England, Kaan served as minister-secretary of the International Congregational Council in Geneva, Switzerland and the executive secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.  He returned to England in 1978 as a moderator of the Western Midlands Conference of the United Reformed Church. From 1986-1989 he returned to parish ministry in the United Reformed Church.

Kaan’s linguistic ability, ecumenical service and fervent concern for the powerless are apparent in his hymns, numbering more than 200.  Collections of his hymns appear in this country as The Hymn Texts of Fred Kaan (1985), Planting Trees and Sowing Seeds (1989) and The Only Earth We Know (1999). He was elected Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 2001. His hymns have been translated into more than 15 languages.

In 1985, Dr. Kaan reflected on “For the healing of the nations,” saying, “Of all the hymns I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other. It was first used in 1965 in a worship service at the Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, to mark Human Rights Day. Subsequently, it has been used on many official occasions, such as the 25th anniversary of the United Nations organization.”

Dr. Kaan reminds us to care for a world where we are inter-dependant and to use our political will, global influence and natural resources for the good of all humanity in seeking justice and “abundant living” for all.Alleluia!

Lord, I Want to Be a Christian

Lord, I Want to Be a Christian was likely composed in 1750s Virginia by African-American slaves exposed to the teaching of evangelist Samuel Davies. The music and lyrics were first printed in the 1907 Folk Songs of the American Negro, edited by Frederick Work.  The music is an example of the slow, sustained, long-phrased tune found in a number of African American spirituals. In the manner of many such spirituals, this is a call-and-response song, in which a soloist (or choir in unison) sings the stanzas (first two lines) and everyone responds by singing the chorus (last two lines) in four-part harmony.

In Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953), Miles Mark Fisher suggests that this African American spiritual could well have originated in Virginia in the 1750s, based on this story from Hanover, Virginia, 1756: "A black slave asked Presbyterian preacher William Davies, 'I come to you, sir, that you may tell me some good things concerning Jesus Christ and my duty to God, for I am resolved not to live any more as I have done. . . Lord [Sir], I want to be a Christian.'" Apparently the story fits well with the ministry style of Davies in Virginia between 1748 and 1759.

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was a prolific hymn writer of the 18th century. Coming from a musical family, he left a lasting legacy of congregational song.  The youngest of 18 children, Charles possessed prodigious talents that soon blossomed. Little did he know that “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” would rise to become one of the most popular and consistently vocalized Christian songs.  Writing hymn texts that are solidly based on the Scriptures gives them an appeal across denominational lines. It is estimated that during his lifetime, Wesley penned more than 9,000 poems of a spiritual nature, 6,000 of which are hymns. What really set Charles apart from other hymn writers was his effective use of scriptural allusions, providing a spiritual roadmap whereby individuals could imagine a Christ-centered life. His writings were passionate and well-crafted, conveying the true essence of Christian teaching. 

A substantial number of his writings were completed while riding on horseback to his evangelical meetings.  Scholars suggest that he was able to compose about 10 lines of verse daily for 50 years. Charles’ brother John sometimes served as editor to his hymns. John’s typical response was, “some were good, some were mediocre, and some were exceptional.” John can also be credited with improving the singability of Charles’ hymns.

Both John and Charles were instrumental in changing the spiritual environment of Britain during the 18th century. In doing so, they formed the bedrock of what Methodism has become worldwide. Their unwavering devotion to expressing Christian spirituality through hymns has impacted individuals across all denominational lines.  We are fortunate to be the recipients of the poetic genius of Charles Wesley. He influenced Methodism more than any other hymn writer. Upon hearing of Charles’ death, an elderly Londoner asked, “Who will write poetry for us now?” 

“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” was first published in a collection of hymns entitled Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have, Redemption in the Blood of Christ (1747). The incipit (opening line) was a play on the opening line of John Dryden’s (1631-1700) poem “Fairest Isle, All Isles Excelling” set to music by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) in the generation before Charles Wesley was born.  The hymn is written around a progression of thoughts: (1) our prayers for the Holy Spirit, (2) praying for the return of our Lord through the second coming, and (3) prayers for the finalization of his new creation.

Stanza 2 expresses the Wesleyan concept of the “second rest.” When Charles referred to this in his hymns, it specifically applies to the “second birth,” “second blessing,” “second gift.” All of these are directed toward achieving full “sanctification” or “Christian perfection.” This is an important theological tenet of Methodist preaching from the very beginning.

August 23, 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:

Auf meinen lieben Gott – Dietrich Buxtehude

This chorale text was written by Sigismund Weingärtner and published in Geistliche Psalmen (Nuremberg, Germany: 1607).  Little is known of Weingärtner, whose name is in the author index. Supposedly he was from the Heilbronn area, though no record has been found of him there.  “Auf meinen lieben Gott” was set to music by Bartholomäus Gesius (c. 1560-1613) in his “Christliche Haus- und Tisch-Musica…” for 4 voices [Wittenberg, 1605]

The chorale melody source is a secular composition by Jacob Regnart (c. 1540-1599) with the song title “Venus, du und dein Kind seid alle beide blind” contained in the collection of “Kurtzweilige teutsche Liedlein / nach Art der Neapolitanen oder welschen Villanellen” [Nürnberg, 1574.]  Regnart stated in the foreword that these “little, entertaining German songs” were ‘in the style of ‘napolitane’ or Italian villanellas.’ The public response to these compositions, including important musicians like Michael Praetorius who praised them, was overwhelming and led to numerous editions and even rivalry between printing firms.

            In my beloved God I trust in anxiety and trouble;

            He can always deliver me from sorrow, anxiety, and troubles;

            He can change my misfortune; everything is in His hands.

            Although my sins oppose me, I shall not despair;

            On Christ I shall build and trust Him alone;

            To Him I surrender myself in death and also in life.

            Amen at all hours I say from the depths of my heart;

            May it be Your will to guide us Lord Christ, at all times,

            So that we may praise your name forever.  Amen.

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. 

In his chorale partita Auf meinen lieben Gott (BuxWV 179) Dieterich Buxtehude combines the (sacred) genre of the chorale with the (secular) genre of a dance suite by modelling the variations of the partita on popular dances. This was part of a larger trend to turn hymn settings into keyboard pieces that borrowed stylistic features from contemporary dances. The choice of the hymn has to be understood within the context of contemporary piety and the ars moriendi in particular. Both aspects converge in the musical and religious practices of the educated middle class in the second half of the seventeenth century in northern Germany.

The Solid Rock – Don Hustad

Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15. Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. The hymn "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" was published anonymously in several hymn collections before first being attributed to Edward Mote in a collection of approximately 100 of his hymns published in 1837 under the title Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals.  Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term “gospel hymn” appears. Mote's original title was "The Immutable Basis for a Sinner's Hope" in this collection.  The refrain of "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and builds around the metaphor of Christ as a rock with a firm basis (1 Corinthians 10:4).

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly trust in Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.

Don Hustad (1918-2013) was one of the giants of Christian music of the 20th century. Hustad had a distinguished ministry and a life-long profession as a recording artist, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor, hymnal editor, and author.  He began work as staff musician of Chicago's WMBI in the early 1940s, worked with soloist George Beverly Shea on a weekly broadcast called "Club Time," and served for some 20 years as organist for a popular radio broadcast "Songs in the Night." He taught at Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1946 to 1950, at which time Hustad was appointed director of the Sacred Music Department at Moody Bible Institute—a position he held until 1961.  During his 11-year tenure at Moody he developed the Moody Chorale into a superior choral ensemble that achieved fame nationally and internationally.   In 1961 he became Crusade organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and directed the Crusader Men Choir in the "Hour of Decision" broadcasts.  His publications include over 100 articles and five books.  Throughout his career, Hustad devoted considerable energy to music arranging and hymnal editing, serving as editorial consultant and musical advisor to Hope Publishing Company. Among his editorial contributions are fourteen hymnals and songbooks, as well as dozens of collections.  In 1989, Hustad was awarded Fellow of the Hymn Society for his outstanding contribution to American hymnody.  In 2008, he was honored by the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Conference for his contributions to church music. He earned diplomas as an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), London, UK.

About the Choral Music:

He Never Failed Me Yet – Robert Ray

Robert Ray is a composer and conductor, and is currently professor of music and coordinator of keyboard studies at the University of Missouri St. Louis. He is also director of the University Community Chorus and Director of the Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus.  Ray received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Northwestern University. He has appeared as piano soloist with the Kirkwood Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul (Korea) Philharmonic Orchestra. Ray has served as the Repertoire and Standards Chair for Ethnic Music and Multi-Cultural Prospectives for the American Choral Directors Association (Southwestern Division) and has appeared as a lecturer and clinician at numerous universities and colleges, as well as MENC, ACDA, and IAJA conventions.

“He Never Failed Me Yet” was written in 1982 for the Echos of Grace choir at Second Baptist Church in Evanston, Illinois, the oldest black church in Evanston, founded in 1882.

            I will sing of God’s mercy, every day.

Every hour, He gives me power.

            I will sing and give thanks to Thee

for all the dangers, toils, and snares that He has brought me out.

            He is my God, and I’ll serve Him, no matter what the test.

            Trust and never doubt, Jesus will surely bring you out.

            He never failed me yet.

            I know God is able to deliver in time of storm.

            I know that He’ll keep you safe from all earthly harm.

            One day when my weary soul is at rest,

            I’m going home to be forever bless’d.

            Didn’t my God deliver Moses from King Pharoah?

            And didn’t He cool the fiery furnace for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?

            When I think what my God can do,

            He delivered Daniel; I know He will deliver you.

About the Hymns:

O Worship the King

Of Scottish ancestry, Robert Grant (1779-1838) was born in India, where his father was a director of the East India Company. He attended Magdalen College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1807. He had a distinguished public career a Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament, where he sponsored a bill to remove civil restrictions on Jews. Grant was knighted in 1834. His hymn texts were published in the Christian Observer (1806-1815), in Elliot’s Psalms and Hymns (1835), and posthumously by his brother as Sacred Poems (1839).

Grant’s text was influenced by William Kethe’s paraphrase of Psalm 104 in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561). Grant’s text was first published in Edward Bickersteth’s Christian Psalmody (1833) with several unauthorized alterations. In 1835 his original six-stanza text was published in Henry Elliott’s Psalm and Hymns. Stanza 3 was omitted in the Psalter Hymnal.

Rather than being a paraphrase or versification, the text is a meditation on the creation theme of Psalm 104, focusing on God’s creation as a testimony to his “measureless might.” More personal in tone, stanzas 4 and 5 confess the compassion of God toward his creatures and affirm with apocalyptic vision that the “ransomed creation, with glory ablaze” will join with angels to hymn its praise to God.  In the last verse, Grant points to Christ as the ultimate reconciler of a broken, but still beautiful creation. An original last stanza that we no longer sing reads, “The humbler creation, though feeble their lays, with true adoration shall lisp to Thy praise.”

‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

From her childhood, the call to missionary service was the guiding motivation for Louisa M. R. Stead (c. 1850-1917). Born in Dover, England, and converted at the age of nine, Stead came to the United States in 1871, living in Cincinnati. She attended a camp meeting in Urbana, Ohio, where she dedicated her life to missionary service. Ill health prevented her from serving initially. She married in 1875, and the couple had a daughter, Lily. Hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck describes a major turning point in the family’s life:

“When the child was four years of age, the family decided one day to enjoy the sunny beach at Long Island Sound, New York. While eating their picnic lunch, they suddenly heard cries of help and spotted a drowning boy in the sea. Mr. Stead charged into the water. As often happens, however, the struggling boy pulled his rescuer under water with him, and both drowned before the terrified eyes of wife and daughter. Out of her ‘why?’ struggle with God during the ensuing days glowed these meaningful words from the soul of Louisa Stead.”

The hymn, “’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus” was inspired by this personal tragedy.  

Soon after, Louisa and Lily left for the Cape Colony, South Africa, where Louisa worked as a missionary for fifteen years. She married Robert Wodehouse, a native of South Africa. Because of her health, the family found it necessary to return to the United States in 1895. Wodehouse pastored a Methodist congregation during these years until, in 1900, they returned to the mission field, this time to the Methodist mission station at Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). Kenneth Osbeck records a message sent back to the United States shortly after her arrival in Southern Rhodesia:

“In connection with the whole mission there are glorious possibilities, but one cannot, in the face of the peculiar difficulties, help but say, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ But with simple confidence and trust we may and do say, ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’”

While the exact date of the composition is not known, Louisa Stead’s hymn was first published in Songs of Triumph (1882).  The hymn might be described as a mantra on the name of Jesus. Indeed, “Jesus” is sung twenty-five times if one sings all four stanzas and the refrain.

Trust and Obey

This hymn was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals. Towner provided the following account cited by Moody’s musical partner, Ira D. Sankey, in his biography, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns:   “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”

Sammis is said to have composed the lines of the refrain upon receiving the letter:

             “Trust and obey—for there’s no other way
              To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

As is the case with most gospel songs, these lines provide the central theme around which all of the stanzas were written. The text and tune first appeared in the 1887 collection, Hymns Old and New, and has been included in countless hymnals since. Methodist hymnals in the United States have carried it since 1897.