February 28, 2016

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.  

This week's topic for the Lenten sermon series, Cativated by Christ, is Jesus Eliminated the Red Tape.

About the Organ Music:

Johann Heerman (1585-1657), son of a furrier, was the fifth but only surviving child of his parents. During a severe illness in his childhood, his mother vowed that if he recovered she would educate him for the ministry, even though she had to beg the necessary money. He was appointed diaconus of Koben, a small town on the Oder, in 1611, and was promoted to the pastorate there.  Much of Heermann's life was spent amid the distressing scenes of the Thirty Years' War; and by his own ill health and his domestic trials he was trained to write his beautiful hymns of “Cross and Consolation." Between 1629 and 1634, Koben was plundered four times by the Lichtenstein dragoons and the rough hordes under Wallenstein sent into Silesia by the King of Austria in order to bring about the Counter-Reformation and restore the Roman Catholic faith and practice; while in 1616 the town was devastated by fire, and in 1631 by pestilence. In these troublous years Heermann several times lost all his moveables; once he had to keep away from Koben for seventeen weeks; twice he was nearly sabred; and once, while crossing the Oder in a frail boat loaded almost to sinking, he heard the bullets of the pursuing soldiers whistle just over his head. He bore all with courage and patience.  After 1623 he suffered from an affliction of the throat, which compelled him to cease preaching in 1634. 

As a hymnwriter, Heermann ranks with the best of his century.  He began writing Latin poems about 1605 and was recognized for his poetry at Brieg in 1608. He represents the transition from the objective standpoint of the hymnwriters of the Reformation period to the more subjective and experimental school that followed him. His hymns are distinguished by depth and tenderness of feeling; by firm faith and confidence in face of trial; by deep love to Christ, and humble submission to the will of God.In his House and Heart Music some of his finest hymns are in the section entitled "Songs of Tears. In the time of the persecution and distress of pious Christians."

Oh God, you righteous god, you source of good gifts,
without whom nothing exists that does exist, from whom we have everything :
give me a healthy body and grant that in such a body
there may remain an inviolate soul and a pure conscience.

Grant that I may do diligently what it is my duty to do,
as your command guides me in my position.
Grant that I may do it promptly, at the time when I should,
and when I do it, then grant that it may turn out well!

Help me, so that I may always say what I can stand by,
let no useless word come from my mouth,
and when in my office I should and must speak,
then give my words force and weight without causing vexation.

If there is danger, then let me not despair,
give me heroic courage, help me to bear my cross !
Grant that I may overcome my enemies with gentleness.
And if I need counsel may I find good counsel.

Let me with everyone live in peace and friendship,
as far as is Christian. If you want to give me anything to do with
wealth, property and money, then give this also,
that nothing may be mixed up with any goods that are unjust.

If in this world I have to live my life longer,
through many a bitter step  press on to old age,
then give me patience. From sin and shame protect me,
so that I may bear with honour my grey hair

At my end let me depart relying on Christ's death,
take my soul to you to your joys in heaven,
bestow a little space on my body, a grave by my parents,
so that it may have peace by their side.

On that day when you will awaken the dead,
then stretch out your hand to my grave,
let me hear your voice, and awaken my body
and lead it beautiful and transformed to the multitude of your chosen people!

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a German composer and pianist.  Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs".

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, perfected in the Baroque period, and of thematic development, characteristic of the Classical era. Brahms aimed to honor the "purity" of these established "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

Emperor’s Fanfare – Antonio Soler

Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, usually known as Padre ('Father', in the religious sense) Antonio Soler, known in Catalan as Antoni Soler i Ramos (1729-1783) was a Spanish composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire.

In 1736, when he was six, he entered the Escolania of the Monastery of Montserrat where he studied music with the resident maestro Benito Esteve and organist Benito Valls. In 1744, he was simultaneously appointed organist and subdeacon at the Cathedral of La Seu d'Urgell. Later in life, he was chapel master in Lleida and at the Royal Court in El Escorial. In El Escorial, he studied with professors about different subjects of music.  Soler took holy orders at the age of 23, and embarked on an extremely busy routine as a Hieronymite in El Escorial, Madrid with 20-hour workdays, in the course of which he produced more than 500 compositions. Among these were around 150 keyboard sonatas, many believed to have been written for his pupil, the Infante Don Gabriel, a son of King Carlos III. Other pieces include Christmas villancicos^[1] and Catholic liturgical music, including Masses.

The fanfare is an excerpt of the second movement of the Concierto VI (Minué and variations) for 2 organs,which was widely popularized in an arrangement for organ solo by E. Power Biggs. The title Fanfare impériale or Imperial Fanfare or Emperor’s Fanfare are popular titles of this fanfare, but are not found in the composer's original score. 

About the Handbell Music:

Dona Nobis Pacem – Kevin McChesney

          Tintinnabulators

Dona nobis pacem (Latin for "Grant us peace") is a phrase in the Agnus Dei section of the Roman Catholic mass.  The origin of the melody is unknown.  The Agnus Dei from the Roman Catholic Mass is the invocation to the Lamb of God to have mercy and grant peace to the worshippers. It is said to have been introduced into the Mass by Pope Sergius I in 687.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

English Translation:

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

The Agnus Dei is said to be based on Based on John 1:29 (KJV): The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Kevin McChesney (b. 1963) graduated with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BMus in Composition and Theory. A composer and arranger of handbell music, Kevin currently has nearly 1000 titles in print and is one of the very few musicians who makes handbells a full-time vocation. He has won numerous awards for his work, including winning American Guild of English Handbell Ringers Composition Contests and Jeffers Composer of the Year.  He is Music Director of the Pikes Peak Ringers and his work with that organization for over 20 years has brought them to national prominence, including a recording with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Kevin is also Music Director of the Atlanta Concert Ringers.

About the Choral Music:

Come to Me, All Who Labor – John Purifoy

John Purifoy (b. 1952) is a composer and arranger with numerous published choral cantatas, anthems and keyboard collections. His stage musical "Lambarene," based on the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, received workshop productions at the state theatre of New Jersey and the North Shore Musical Theater near Boston.  Mr. Purifoy served as editor and director of music publishing for Word, Inc. from 1975-1982. He is the recipient of the Freedom’s Foundation Award and five-time recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award. 

Come to Me, All Who Labor is an early work by Purifoy, published in 1975, and is based on Matthew 11:28-30.

            Come to me all who labor and are heavily laden down,

and I’ll give you rest.

            Take my yoke upon you and learn from me now,

for I’m gentle and low in heart.

           

Come all who labor, let me take your load,

I am life, I am rest for your soul.

Here you’ll find rest for your weary soul,

for my yoke is easy, and my burden’s light,

            come to me.

About the Hymns:

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6,000 hymns. Wesley was suffering a bout of pleurisy in May, 1738, while he and his brother were studying under the Moravian scholar Peter Böhler in London. At the time, Wesley was plagued by extreme doubts about his faith. Taken to bed with the sickness on May 21, Wesley was attended by a group of Christians who offered him testimony and basic care, and he was deeply affected by this. He read from his Bible and found himself deeply affected by the words and at peace with God. Shortly, his strength began to return. He wrote of this experience in his journal and counted it as a renewal of his faith; when his brother John had a similar experience on the 24th, the two men met and sang a hymn Wesley had written in praise of his renewal.

One year from the experience, Wesley was taken with the urge to write another hymn, this one in commemoration of his renewal of faith. This hymn took the form of an 18-stanza poem, beginning with the opening lines “Glory to God, and praise, and love Be ever, ever given” and was published in 1740 and entitled “For the anniversary day of one's conversion”. The seventh verse, which begins, 'O for a thousand tongues to sing', and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn, recalls the words of Peter Böhler who said, “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.” The hymn was published first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists in 1780. It has appeared first in every Methodist hymnal since that time.

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.”

Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy

The invitation hymn “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy” dates from 1759, when it was published in Joseph Hart’s Hymns Composed on Various Subjects under the title “Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.”  The original opening line, “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,” was modified by Augustus Toplady, the 18th-century author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”

Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was born in London, where he became an independent Calvinist preacher converted by the Moravians. Hart received an excellent education and, because of his knowledge of the classics and languages, became a highly esteemed teacher. For a number of years he drifted from the faith of his family, and by his own confession became a “loose backslider, an audacious apostate, and a bold-faced rebel.”  In 1757, at the age of 45, he experienced a spiritual awakening after attending a service at a Moravian chapel in London. During the two years that followed his renewal, he wrote many hymns marked by earnestness and love for Christ.

“Come, ye sinners” was included in Spence’s Pocket Hymn-Book (1785). Later in the 19th century, Ira D. Sankey, the musical partner of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, included this hymn in his famous Gospel Hymns, Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894), ensuring its popularity in Sunday schools and revival settings.   The anonymous refrain, beginning with “I will arise and go to Jesus,” makes a rather oblique reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son. The refrain was found in Southern hymnbooks as early as 1811.  The refrain is one of the old-fashioned camp-meeting spirituals, in which such short choruses “floated” from text to text, serving as a refrain for an appropriate longer hymn.