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.”