December 6, 2015 - Advent 2

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:

Ou s’en vont ces gais Bergers – Jean-Francois Dandrieu

Jean-François Dandrieu (c. 1682- 1738) was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist.  He was born in Paris into a family of artists and musicians. A gifted and precocious child, he gave his first public performances when he was 5 years old, playing the harpsichord for King Louis XIV of France, and his court. In 1700, aged 18, he started playing the organ at the Saint-Merri church in Paris and became its titular organist in 1705. In 1721 he was appointed one of the four organists of the Chapelle royale of France. In 1733, he became the organist of the (now destroyed) church of St Barthelémy in the Île de la Cité.

During his lifetime, only a small number of harpsichord and chamber works were published.  A volume of organ pieces was published posthumously in 1739. Dandrieu also published an academic treatise on accompaniment (Principes de l'accompagnement) in 1718, which now serves as an important source of information on the musical practice of the era.  Dandrieu's harpsichord writing is reminiscent of that of François Couperin, but with more effective use of counterpoint, which reminds the listener of German Baroque music.

“Where are these happy shepherds going?” is a traditional French carol dating from the 15^th or 16^th century.   Dandrieu’s setting is a typical French Baroque Noel setting, consisting of a series of variations on the carol melody.

In Dulci Jubilo – J. S. Bach

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, a macaronic alternation of Medieval German and Latin, 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 literal translation of the text is:

In sweet rejoicing, now sing and be glad!
Our hearts' joy lies in the manger;
And it shines like the sun in the mother's lap.
You are the alpha and omega!

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.  He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.  Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity.  His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century.  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven,  Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music.  Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony".  He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time.  A highly devout Christian, Bach signed all of his compositions “soli Deo Gloria”  (to God alone be the glory).  

This chorale prelude is one of 46 found in the Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book").  The collection was originally planned as a set of 164 chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year. The chorale preludes form the first of Bach's masterpieces for organ with a mature compositional style in marked contrast to his previous compositions for the instrument. Although each of them takes a known Lutheran chorale and adds a motivic accompaniment, Bach explored a wide diversity of forms.  The Orgelbüchlein is at the same time a collection of organ music for church services, a treatise on composition, a religious statement and a pedagogical manual.  In this setting, Bach uses an accompaniment figure that is reminiscent of the rocking of the infant Christ.

Salvation Unto Us Has Come – David Cherwein

Paulus Speratus (1484-1551) was born in Swabia at the castle of Röthlen, near Ellwangen. The family name seems to have been Hoffer or Offer, and to have been Latinized into Speratus, following a practice common in the 16th cent. He is probably the "Paul Offer de Ellwangen," who attended the University of Freiburg (Baden) and also studied at universities in Paris and Italy. He became the preacher in Würzburg in 1519, but his preaching was much too evangelical for the new bishop, and he had to leave, apparently in the beginning of 1520. Proceeding to Salzburg he preached for some time in the cathedral, until the archbishop there also would not tolerate his pronounced opinions. He left Salzburg in the autumn of 1520, and went to Vienna, where he appears to have graduated D.D. at the University. He was already married (probably as early as 1519), and was one of the first priests who had dared to take this step. After a violent sermon against marriage, delivered by a monk in St. Peter's church, at Vienna, the governor of Lower Austria (Count Leonhard von Zech) asked Speratus to make a reply. With the consent of the bishop he did so, and preached, on Jan. 12, 1522, a sermon in the cathedral (St. Stephen's) in which he expressed his opinions very freely regarding the monastic life and enforced celibacy, and also clearly set forth the doctrine of Justification by Faith. This sermon (published at Königsberg in 1524) made a great impression, and was condemned by the Theological Faculty at Vienna.  On his way from Vienna to the north he stayed at Iglau in Moravia, where the abbot of the Dominican monastery appointed him as preacher. Here the people became greatly enamored of him and of the Reformation doctrines, and stood firmly by him, notwithstanding the remonstrances and threats of the king and of the bishop of Olmütz. In the summer of 1523, King Ludwig put him in prison without trail, but after three months he released him, probably through the influence of his queen (Maria of Hungary).  In the end of 1523, Speratus came to Wittenberg, where he worked with Luther, and assisted him in the preparation of the first Lutheran hymn book (the Etlich cristlich lider. It contained 4 German hymns by Luther, 3 by Speratus, and 1 anonymous German hymn). Luther then recommended him to the Margrave Albrecht, and about May 1524, the Margrave appointed him as court preacher at Königsberg. He seems to have had the principal share in drawing up the Liturgy and Canons (Kirchenordnung or "Book of Church Order") for the Prussian church, which was presented to the Diet in December 1525. On March 31, 1526, he was chosen as the clerical commissioner to visit the parishes of Prussia and see that the new arrangements were carried out; and in the end of 1529 he was appointed Lutheran bishop of Pomesania, with his residence at Marienwerder, where he remained until his death.

”Es ist das Heil uns kommen her”, his most famous hymn, is founded on Romans 3:28. It was probably written in the autumn of 1523, either during his imprisonment at Olmütz, or else during his stay at Wittenberg. Included as one of the 8 hymns in the Etlich cristlich lider (1524), and entitled, “A hymn of Law and Faith, powerfully furnished with God's Word. Doctor Paul Speratus." Lauxmann, in Koch, calls it "the true confessional hymn of the Reformation”, or, as Albert Knapp puts it, 'the poetical counterpart of Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.'" It is a Scriptural ballad, setting forth, in what was, for the time, excellent verse, the characteristic teachings of the German Reformers; and is indeed of considerable historical importance.

Salvation has come to us from grace and sheer kindness
Works never help, they cannot protect us.
Faith looks towards Jesus Christ who has done enough for all of us.
He has become our mediator

David Cherwien (b. 1957) is currently serving as Director of Music at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, and in 2002 was appointed Music Director for the National Lutheran Choir, also based in the Twin Cities. He has also held full time parish music positions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin.  He completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance, and the Master of Arts degree in Theory and Composition, both from the University of Minnesota. His undergraduate work was in organ performance and music education at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, where he was honored as distinguished alumni in the fall of 2000.

About the Choral Music:

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.

Mack Wilberg (b. 1955) is a composer, arranger, conductor, and choral clinician.  Wilberg was raised in Utah, and served an LDS mission in South Korea where he was part of New Horizons, a vocal group made up of LDS missionaries.  Wilberg then attended Brigham Young University (BYU), and earned a bachelor's degree in music.  He then earned a master's degree and a PhD in music from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.  He is a former professor of music at BYU, where he directed the Men's Chorus and Concert Choir and was a member of the American Piano Quartet.  He is the current music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  He was the associate director of the choir and music director of the Temple Square Chorale for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from May 1999 until his appointment as director on March 28, 2008. 

            Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o’er the plains,

            And the mountains in reply Echoing their joyous strains.

            Shepherds, why this jubilee?  Why your joyous strains prolong?

What the gladsome tidings be Which inspire your heavenly song?

Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;

Come, adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

See Him in the manger laid, Whom the choirs of angels praise;

Mary, Joseph, lend your aid While our hearts in love we raise.

            Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Magnificat – J. S. Bach

Bach's Magnificat is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat. It is scored for five vocal parts (two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass), and a Baroque orchestra including trumpets and timpani. It is the first major liturgical composition on a Latin text by Bach.  In 1723, after taking up his post as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Bach set the text of the Magnificat in a twelve movement composition in the key of E-flat major. In Leipzig, the Magnificat was regularly part of Sunday services, sung in German on ordinary Sundays but more elaborately and in Latin on the high holidays (Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) and on the three Marian feasts Annunciation, Visitation and Purification.   For a performance at Christmas he inserted four hymns (laudes) related to that feast. This version, including the Christmas interpolations, was given the number BWV 243a in the catalogue of Bach's works.  For the feast of Visitation of 1733, Bach produced a new version of his Latin Magnificat, without the Christmas hymns: instrumentation of some movements was altered or expanded, and the key changed from E-flat major to D major, for performance reasons of the trumpet parts. This version of Bach's Magnificat is known as BWV 243.  After publication of both versions in the 19th century, the second became the standard for performance. It is one of Bach's most popular vocal works.

The text is from Luke 1:46-55.

1.      Magnificat anima me Dominum.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

2.      Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo.
and my spirit has exulted in God my saviour.

3.      Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae;
because he has regarded the lowly state of his handmaiden;
ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent
for look! from now on [they]will say that I am blessed.

4.      Omnes generationes.
every generation.

5.      Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius.
because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

6.      Et misericordia a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
and his mercy [continues ] from generation to generation for those who fear him.

7.      Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
He has made known the power of his arm, scattered those who are arrogant in the thoughts of their heart.

8.      Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles.
He has put down the mighty from their seats [of power] and raised up those who are lowly.

9.      Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes.
The hungry he has filled with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

10.  Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus misericordiae suae.
He has taken under his protection Israel his boy, and remembered his mercy.

11.   Sicut locutus est ad Patres nostros, Abraham et semini eius in saecula.
in accordance with what he said to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

12.   Gloria Patri, gloria Filio, gloria et Spiritui Sancto!
Glory to the Father, glory to the Son glory also to the Holy Spirit!
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum.
As it was in the beginning and [is] now and always and throughout ages of ages.
Amen.

Sweet Little Jesus Boy – Robert MacGimsey

          Paul Sackett, tenor

Robert MacGimsey (1898-1979) was born in Pineville, Louisiana.  MacGimsey spent most of his formative years in the company of blacks who lived and worked for and with his family. Due to their influence he wrote in an "African American" style, and he is often mistakenly assumed to be a black composer. His most famous song was "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" (1934), a well-known Christmas carol written in the style of an African-American spiritual.

Sweet little Jesus Boy They made You be born in a manger
Sweet little Holy Child They didn't know who You were

Didn't know You'd come to save us Lord, to take our sins away.
Our eyes was blind; we could not see.
We didn't know who You were

Long time ago You were born.

Born in a manger, Lord, Sweet little Jesus Boy.
The world treat You mean, Lord; Treat me mean, too.
But that's how things is down here.
We didn't know ‘twas You.

You done told us how we been a-tryin'
Master, You done showed us how Even when You’s dyin'.

It just seems like we can't do right; Look how we treated You
Please, please, forgive us, Lord,
We didn't know ‘twas You.

            Sweet little Jesus Boy Born a long time ago
            Sweet little Holy Child
            We didn't know who You were.

About the Hymns:

Hail to the Lord’s Anointed

James Montgomery (1771-1854) was a Moravian minister and writer.  In addition to his religious writings and hymns, he was the editor and a writer for a newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. As such, he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hymns, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety to his life. After his death, a statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honor.

Montgomery ranks in popularity with Wesley, Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Cowper as a writer of hymns.  Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms), more than 100 are still in common use.  His finest lyrics are "Angels from the realms of glory," "Go to dark Gethsemane," "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," and "Songs of praise the angels sang."  “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” is Montgomery's best psalm rendering. It is based on Psalm 72 and was written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements, perhaps Fulneck, in the United Kingdom, Christmas, 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm (Tune: Culmstock)."

Love Came Down at Christmas

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) came from a family steeped in the arts. The author of three collections of mostly religious poetry and four devotional books, she suffered poor health from age 16. Her deep faith is thought to be partially due to the solace she found in writing.
Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was a professor of Italian at King’s College, London, living in exile in England. Her brothers Dante Gabriel and William Michael gave birth to a 19th-century art movement, the Pre-Raphaelites, for which the beautiful Christina often served as a model, especially for portraits of the Madonna. Among the family friends was Charles Dodgson—under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Rossetti’s best-known hymns are the Christmas carols “In the Bleak Midwinter” (1872) and “Love Came Down at Christmas,” the latter appearing first in Time Flies: a Reading Diary (1885), as her entry for Dec. 29.  While the first stanza of “In the Bleak Midwinter” paints a vivid picture of an unwelcoming and desolate landscape—a symbolic representation of the state of the world encountered by the incarnate God—“Love Came Down at Christmas” presents an inviting image of incarnate “Love” descending to Earth, heralded by “star and angels.” Indeed, if one includes the word “lovely,” “Love” is mentioned 12 times in three short stanzas.  The personification of “Love,” an inanimate concept, as the name for the incarnate God is not a new idea in Christian hymnody. More than a century before Rossetti’s hymns, Charles Wesley’s “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown” (UMH No. 386) and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” (UMH No. 384) show a similar anthropomorphic use of “Love.”

Though Rossetti’s poems were not composed as hymns for congregational use, this one first appeared in the Oxford Hymn Book (1908) as a hymn. Hymnal editor Percy Dearmer (1867-1936), editor of the famous Oxford Book of Carols (1928), championed the cause of incorporating English poems as hymns. He included this text in the influential Songs of Praise (1925).

The poem is based on 1 John 4:7-11, a passage that mentions “love” in some form 11 times: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

The author modified the original final line herself from “Love the universal sign” to “Love for plea and gift and sign.” In doing so, she eliminated the one four-syllable word “universal,” and maintained the utter simplicity of one- and two-syllable words throughout with the exception of “incarnate” in stanza two.  As British hymnologist Richard Watson notes, “The sublime simplicity of this hymn is the mark of a very great writer.”

This poem is the perfect antidote for those who find themselves recovering from the stress of the Christmas season induced by materialism, extensive shopping, travel and multiple gatherings of family and friends—in short, everything except for a moment to reflect on the gift of “Love incarnate, Love divine.”

Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above

Philip Spener became the pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Frankfurt am Main in the mid-1600s, and effected a revival by fervent preaching that emphasized repentance, personal piety, and discipleship.  He encouraged prayer and Bible study as a means to personal spiritual growth.  He spelled out his five guiding principles in a document entitled Pia Desideria (Pious Desires).  These included: the increased use of scripture; lay participation in small groups, emphasizing prayer and Bible study; a balance of faith and actions; an emphasis on a pious clergy; sermons that encourage an active faith. Not only did the church that Spener was serving in Frankfurt prosper, but a pietistic movement swept across Germany through his influence.

An enthusiastic member of Spener's congregation was a young attorney, Johann Jakob Schutz, who not only encouraged Spener's work but also wrote hymns.  He wrote "Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above" in 1675, and published it in Christliches Gedenkbüchlein that same year. 

The hymn is usually sung to the tune, "Mit Freuden Zart" ("With great delight!").

The most common English translation in use is by Frances E. Cox from 1864, which was published in Orby Shipley's Lyra Eucharistica and her own Hymns from the German.  Deuteronomy 32:3 was the basis for this hymn of praise – “For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!” (ESV) Using a variety of metaphors for God and for His works, this text overflows with proclamations of God's loving care for His people.  Note the second verse, which emphasizes the presence of the Lord, a typical pietistic emphasis:  "The Lord is never far away, but thru all grief distressing an ever-present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing."