December 20, 2015 - Advent 4

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:

Veni Emmanuel – David Schack

O come, O come, Emmanuel is a Christian hymn for Advent. While it is most commonly known by that English title, it is in fact a translation of the original Latin, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; translations into other modern languages (particularly German) are also in widespread use. The 1861 translation from Hymns Ancient and Modern is the most prominent by far in the English-speaking world, but other English translations also exist.  The hymn is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas.  The words and the music of "O come, O come, Emmanuel" developed separately. The Latin text is first documented in Germany in 1710, whereas the tune most familiar in the English-speaking world has its origins in 15th-century France. 

The pre-history of the text stretches back to the origins of the O Antiphons, which were in existence by, at the latest, the eighth century.  They were paraphrased extensively by the English poet Cynewulf in a poem written before the year 800.  While "O come, O come, Emmanuel" is often linked with the 12th century, the earliest surviving evidence of the hymn's text is in the seventh edition of Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. That hymnal was a major force in the history of German church music: first assembled by Jesuit hymnographer Johannes Herringsdorf in 1610 and receiving numerous revised editions through 1868, it achieved enormous impact due to its use in Jesuit schools.

The text of the Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum version is essentially expanded, rather than altered, over the subsequent centuries. That version exhibits all of the hymn's characteristic qualities: it is strophic and metrical, and the order is altered so that the last of the O Antiphons (the titular "Veni Emmanuel") becomes the first verse of the hymn. Each stanza consists of a four-line verse, which adapts one of the antiphons, and a new two-line refrain ("Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel \ nascetur pro te, Israel," i.e. "Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel \ Shall come to thee, O Israel"), which provides an explicitly Advent-oriented response to the petition of the verse.

The familiar tune called Veni Emmanuel was first linked with this hymn in 1851, when Thomas Helmore published it in the Hymnal Noted, paired with an early revision of Neale's English translation of the text. The volume listed the tune as being "From a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon."  The pairing of the hymn text with the Veni Emmanuel tune was an extremely significant combination. The hymn text was embraced both out of a Romantic interest in poetic beauty and medieval exoticism and out of a concern for matching hymns to liturgical seasons and functions rooted in the Oxford Movement in the Church of England. The Hymnal Noted, in which the words and tune were first combined, represented these goals. This hymnal consisted entirely of versions of Latin hymns, designed for use as Office hymns within the Anglican Church despite the fact that Office hymns had no part in the authorized liturgy. The music was drawn chiefly from plainchant, as was the case with the Veni Emmanuel tune for "O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save, And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might, Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree, An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall; All peoples on Thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease, And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

David Schack (b. 1947) currently holds the position of organist at First Lutheran Church of Omaha, NE.  He holds a degree in church music from Valparaiso University in Indiana and was later an assistant professor at Concordia University where he taught organ and other musical courses.

Noel Suisse – Louis-Claude Daquin

Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772) was born in Paris, to a family originating from Italy (where their name was D'Aquino). One of his great-uncles was a professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France. D’Aquin was a musical child prodigy who performed for the court of King Louis XIV at the age of six. At the age of 12, he became organist at the Sainte-Chapelle, and in the following year took a similar post at the church of the Petit St. Antoine.  Claude Daquin never lacked for work as an organist. In 1727, he was appointed organist at the church of St. Paul in Paris, ahead of Jean-Philippe Rameau who was also a candidate. Five years later, he succeeded his teacher Louis Marchand as organist at the Église des Cordeliers. In 1739, he became organist to the king. In 1755, he was made titular organist at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.  By reputation a dazzling performer at the keyboard, Daquin was courted by the aristocracy, and his great expertise at the organ drew large crowds to hear him. He was known for his "unfaltering precision and evenness" at both the harpsichord and organ.

Daquin wrote twelve Noëls, which are sets of variations on old French carols.  Number 12 is one of his best known works, Noel Suisse, Grand jeu, et Duo.  It is based on the ancient French carol “Il est un p'tit l’ange “ (He is a little angel).

About the Handbell Music:

In the Bleak Midwinter – Susan Geschke

          Jubilation Ringers

"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti written before 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem. It was published posthumously in Rossetti's Poetic Works in 1904.  The poem became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Gustav Holst.  In verse one, Rossetti describes the physical circumstances of the Incarnation in Bethlehem. In verse two, Rossetti contrasts Christ's first and second coming. The third verse dwells on Christ's birth and describes the simple surroundings, in a humble stable and watched by beasts of burden. Rossetti achieves another contrast in the fourth verse, this time between the incorporeal angels attendant at Christ's birth with Mary's ability to render Jesus physical affection. The final verse shifts the description to a more introspective thought process.   The poem became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Gustav Holst.

In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel Which adore.

Angels and archangels May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim Thronged the air -
But only His mother In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved With a kiss.

What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet what I can, I give Him - Give my heart.

Dr. Susan E. Geschke is currently the Music Director at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Her choirs include ringers of all ages and levels of experience. She actively composes and arranges handbell music and has more than 70 publications to her credit. 

About the Choral Music:

Joy to the World – Joel Raney

          Chancel Choir & Jubilation Ringers

Our Christmas season would hardly seem complete without the singing of Joy to the World, the most joyous of the carols. Yet Isaac Watts, its author, never intended it to be a Christmas carol at all. Rather, it was a part of his Psalms of David Imitated, published in 1719, which contained paraphrases of many of the Psalms in New Testament language.

The story of the hymn, Joy to the World, is the story of the author, Isaac Watts (1675-1748), who is universally acknowledged as "The Father of English Hymnody". He has earned the title, not because he was first to write English hymns, but because he gave impetus to hymnody and established its place in the worship of the English church.  For over one hundred years, congregational singing had been strictly limited to the Psalms of the Old Testament in poetic form. Many of these rhymed Psalms were so unnatural that Samuel Wesley, father of the famous brothers Charles and John, called them "scandalous doggerel," and his opinion was shared by many.

The birth of Isaac Watts to a dissenting deacon and the daughter of a Huguenot refugee was followed by fourteen years of persecution and hardships for the entire family. Perhaps this suffering was responsible for Isaac Watts’ ill health, for he grew only to a height of just over five feet and was weak and sickly all his life.  Though weak in body, the boy was strong in mind and spirit and early in life showed promise of poetic capability. After one Sunday morning service, Isaac, then fifteen years old, complained of the atrocious worship in song. One of the deacons challenged him: "Give us something better, young man." His answer was to write hundreds of hymns that are still sung today.

 Joy to the World is the "imitation" of the last half of Psalm 98. The author transformed the old Jewish psalm of praise for some historic deliverance into a Christian song of rejoicing for the salvation of God that began to be manifested when the Babe of Bethlehem came "to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found." This is one of the most joyous hymns in all Christendom because it makes so real what Christ’s birth means to all mankind.  The tune to which the hymn is sung is attributed to George Frederick Handel and bears resemblance to phrases of his great oratorio, Messiah. Notably the first four tones match the beginning of the chorus, "Lift Up Your Heads."

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. 

            Let every heart prepare him room!

            Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King.

            Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing,

           

            Joy to the world! Rejoice! Sing joy!

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing – Kurt Heinecke

          God’s Project Children's Choir

The carol we now know as "Hark! the herald angels sing" did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Wesley's original, written as a Christmas Day hymn and first published in 1739, is made up of ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now.  It is interesting to note that in the original version of Wesley's, the heavens ring with the phrase "Glory to the King of kings," echoing Luke's "Glory to God in the highest heaven."  George Whitfield, who had been a student with Wesley, changed this to "Glory to the newborn King" in 1753. His fairly revolutionary Calvinist position was not compatible with Wesley's gentler reforming approach, which eventually bore fruit in the Methodist movement that he and his brother John inspired, Whitfield maintained the four-line verses of Wesley's original, but changed the angels' emphasis: "Glory to the newborn King" means something slightly but significantly different from "Glory to the King of kings." In the Gospel account, the angels praise God, whereas in "Hark! the herald angels sing," they are described as praising Jesus.  Furthermore, Luke does not say that the angels "sing," and so it may well be that this reinterpretation by Whitfield has emphasized the popular but unscriptural picture of angels singing the Gloria. ("While shepherds watched" also implies that they sang.)

Kurt Henry Heinecke is a composer, songwriter, voice actor and photographer. He is the music director at Big Idea Entertainment.  Heinecke was born in Wisconsin and raised in Cullman, Alabama. He came from a musical family, his mother played the organ and was a member of the church choir. Heinecke studied at the University of Montevallo and  Luther College.  Heinecke became director of church music at Park Community Church in Chicago, where he met Lisa and Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki.  Together they founded Big Idea Productions.  Heinecke provided the music for VeggieTales, 3-2-1 Penguins, Jonah and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. He has received 6 Dove Awards. He is also producer, arranger, performer at Oak Valley Studios and is composer of the Adam Raccoon video series.

            Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King;

            Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

            Joyful, all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies;

            With the angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of the virgin’s womb;

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Hail, the heaven born Prince of Peace!  Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.

            Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

About the Hymns:

Good Christian Friends, Rejoice

In dulci jubilo ("In sweet rejoicing") is a traditional Christmas carol. In its original setting, the carol is a macaronic text of German and Latin dating from the Middle Ages. Subsequent translations into English, such as J.M. Neale's arrangement "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" have increased its popularity, and Robert Pearsall's 1837 macaronic translation is a mainstay of the Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols repertoire.  The original song text is thought to have been written by the German mystic Heinrich Seuse circa 1328. According to folklore, Seuse heard angels sing these words and joined them in a dance of worship. In his biography (or perhaps autobiography), it was written:  “Now this same angel came up to the Servant (Suso) brightly, and said that God had sent him down to him, to bring him heavenly joys amid his sufferings; adding that he must cast off all his sorrows from his mind and bear them company, and that he must also dance with them in heavenly fashion. Then they drew the Servant by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus ...”

The tune first appears in Codex 1305, a manuscript in Leipzig University Library dating from c.1400, although it has been suggested that the melody may have existed in Europe prior to this date. In print, the tune was included in Geistliche Lieder, a 1533 Lutheran hymnal by Joseph Klug. It also appears in Michael Vehe's Gesangbuch of 1537. In 1545, another verse was added, possibly by Martin Luther. This was included in Valentin Babst's Geistliche Lieder, printed in Leipzig. The melody was also popular elsewhere in Europe, and appears in a Swedish/Latin version in the 1582 Finnish songbook Piae Cantiones, a collection of sacred and secular medieval songs.  The tune appears in Michael Praetorius's Polyhymnia Caduceatrix & Panegyrica collection of 1619.

The Oxford Movement of 19th-century England resurrected many ancient Greek and Latin hymns and translated them for modern use. The chief proponent of this movement was John Mason Neale (1818-1866).  “Good Christian friends, rejoice” is rather unusual compared to other translations rendered by Neale in that the original song was in two languages—Latin and German. The technical term for this is macaronic, meaning Latin plus the vernacular language, thus this song is classified as a macaronic carol. Macaronic carols were most certainly not sung as a part of the medieval Roman Catholic liturgy for at least three reasons: only Latin would have been sung in the Mass at this time; macaronic carols used dance-like rhythms in contrast to unmetered flow of plainsong chant; and folk instruments including percussion were often used to accompany these songs, instruments usually not permitted in the Mass. Folk carols were music the people used in more civic and domestic festival celebrations outside of the liturgical structure of the Mass. 

Away in a Manger

The origin of this popular Christmas hymn is shrouded in apocryphal associations with Martin Luther (1483-1546).  Methodist hymnologist Fred Gealy (1894-1976) noted that “evidence suggests that [“Away in a Manger”] is wholly an American product. The original two-stanza form probably originated among German Lutherans in Pennsylvania about 1885.”  The hymn first appeared with two stanzas in Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families, a Sunday school collection published in 1885 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America.

Stanza three first appeared unattributed in Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs (1892), compiled by gospel composer Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932).  Gealy conjectured “the song may have been contributed by an editor or publisher who thought the two narrative stanzas needed to be supplemented by a prayer.”

The only German version of the carol is clearly a translation from the English because the metrics are not natural to the German language. Furthermore, this version was first included in Herbert W. Werneke’s Christmas Songs and Weihnachts-Lieder (1934), a privately published collection. The false association between “Away in a Manger” and Luther appears to have been made by James R. Murray (1841-1905), who in his Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887) called it “‘Luther’s Cradle Hymn,’ composed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.” However, no one has uncovered an original German version by the reformer. Theophilus Baker Stork (1814-1874)  wrote Luther at Home (1872), in which he stated, “Luther’s carol for Christmas, written for his own child Hans, is still sung.” The irony of this assertion is that we actually have a Luther hymn that may have been written for young Hans, “Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her” (1531), published in Joseph Klug’s Gesangsbuch (1535).

Angels We Have Heard on High

"Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol of French origin in the public domain. The song commemorates the story of the birth of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of Luke, in which shepherds outside Bethlehem encounter a multitude of angels singing and praising the newborn child.  People began to chant the phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo" in Christmas Eve worship services as early as 130 A.D. In medieval times, French shepherds had a Christmas Eve tradition of shouting "Gloria in excelsis Deo" to each other as they watched over their sheep flocks on their respective hills in southern France. A Latin chorale version may have inspired the traditional French Christmas carol 'Les Anges dans nos Campagnes,' which Edward Shippen Barnes used in the 1800s to arrange the first version of 'Angels We Have Heard on High'. The most common English version that was translated in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, northeast England.  'Angels We Have Heard on High' was first published in English as part of an 1862 book called Crown of Jesus Music. But the version that has become popular worldwide was published later, in 1916, in the book Carols Old and Carols New.