August 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.  

About the Organ Music:

Blessed Jesus, We are Here – Frederick Frahm

Essentially a prayer asking for illumination as the Christian community gathers, "Blessed Jesus" is a hymn by Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684). It was first published in the Altdorffisches Gesang-Buchlein (1663) and first attributed to Clausnitzer in the Nüremberg, Germany, Gesangbuch (1676). The fairly literal translation is by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1948-1934), who held several curacies and two benefices.   He translated a number of hymns from German and Latin, which are included in his Songs of Syon, 1904.
Clausnitzer graduated from the University of Leipzig and became a chaplain in the Swedish army. He preached two sermons at memorable occasions: when Queen Christina ascended the Swedish throne in 1645 and when the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, was celebrated in 1648. Clausnitzer became a pastor in Weiden in 1648, where he remained until his death.

The tune was written by Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625-1673), who was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia.  In 1648 he published the Compendium per tenellis, a theoretical treatise on choral singing which was reprinted several times during his lifetime and for a last time 50 years later by his son Johann Georg.  In 1654 Ahle assumed the post of organist at the Church of St. Blasen/Blasius in Mühlhausen.  Much of his compositional output consists of sacred choral and vocal works, instrumental music, and organ music.  He wrote over 400 sacred arias, from which hymn tunes have been adapted.

Dearest Jesu, we are here, at thy call, thy presence owning;
pleading now in holy fear that great sacrifice atoning:
Word incarnate, much in wonder on this mystery deep we ponder.

Jesu, strong to save — the same yesterday, today, for ever —
make us fear and love thy name, serving thee with best endeavour:
in this life, O ne'er forsake us, but to bliss hereafter take us.

Frederick Frahm was born in 1964, in Hemet, California. His catalog of compositions includes works for organ solo including concert works and chorale preludes, chamber music, art songs and song cycles, music for handbells, and several extended works for voices and orchestra including chamber operas and cantatas. A prolific composer, Frahm’s music is distinguished by a symmetrical and architectural approach to form, a keen sensitivity to literature and imagery as a source of musical inspiration, and a preference for music with broad tempi, modal tonality, and stark contrasts in texture.

Grand Chorus – Theodore Dubois

François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) was a French composer, organist, and music teacher.  He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won the Prix de Rome in 1861. In 1868, he became choirmaster at the Church of the Madeleine, and in 1871 took over from César Franck as choirmaster at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde. In 1877, Dubois returned to the Church of the Madeleine, succeeding Camille Saint-Saëns as organist there. From 1871, he taught at the Paris Conservatoire, and was director from 1896-1905.  Although he wrote many religious works, Dubois had considerable hopes for a successful career on the operatic stage.  The music of Dubois also includes ballets, oratorios and three symphonies. His best known work is the oratorio Les sept paroles du Christ ("The Seven Last Words of Christ").

About the Piano Music:

Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen

      Jeremy Page, piano

"Hallelujah" is a song written by Canadian recording artist Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984).  Cohen wrote around 80 draft verses for "Hallelujah", with one writing session at the Royalton Hotel in New York where he was reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, banging his head on the floor. His original version, as recorded on his Various Positions album, contains several biblical references, most notably evoking the stories of Samson and traitorous Delilah from the Book of Judges ("she cut your hair") as well as King David and Bathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you")  Cohen's lyrical poetry and his view that "many different hallelujahs exist" is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones, allowing the song to be "melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on the performer:

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this: The fourth, the fifth,
The minor fall, the major lift;

The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Your faith was strong but you needed proof.
You saw her bathing on the roof;
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.
She tied you to a kitchen chair,

            She broke your throne, and she cut your hair,
             And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah.

            You say I took the name in vain.
            I don't even know the name,
            But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
            There's a blaze of light In every word,
            It doesn't matter which you heard,
            The holy or the broken Hallelujah.

            I did my best, it wasn't much.
            I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
            I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
            And even though it all went wrong,
            I'll stand before the Lord of Song
           With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

            Hallelujah, Hallelujah
            Hallelujah, Hallelujah

About the Choral Music:

We Are the Hands of Christ – Joel Raney

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. 

          No voice to speak his kindness, no eyes to see the pain;

            No Heartbeat of compassion, no empathy remains.

            How will they hear the message that Jesus is alive?

            How can they know the truth unless it’s through our lives?

            No truth to scatter darkness, no candle in the night;

            No warm illumination, no justice, no right.

            When will we recognize? Open our blinded eyes.

            We are the lighthouse to shine his light!

            Touching the desperate, feeling their pain;

            Reaching the hopeless in Jesus’ name.

            Christ has no hands except your own to reach the world and make him known.

            His love can change humanity by your touch alone.

            Christ has no hands except your own.

No voice, no eyes, no hands except our own.

            We are the hands of Christ.

About the Hymns:

Rejoice, the Lord is King

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley.  As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly amazing how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumors of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift.  The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.

“Rejoice, the Lord is King” was first published in John Wesley's Moral and Sacred Poems (1744) and is currently found in 484 hymnals.  The text rejoices in the kingship of Christ whose rule extends "o'er earth and heaven". All will bow the knee to Christ when he returns in glory to judge "the living and dead". The refrain line based on Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice,” is the keynote of the entire text.

A Charge to Keep I Have

As is the case with hymns by Charles Wesley, “A charge to keep I have” is grounded in Scripture. In this case, Leviticus 8:36 is the primary source: “Keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not” (KJV). The hymn was included in Short Hymns on Select Passages of Holy Scripture (1762), a massive two-volume collection of 2,030 hymns based on biblical texts from Genesis to Revelation. 

Wesley scholars F. Hildebrandt and Oliver A. Beckerlegge propose in their commentary on the important Wesley hymnbook A Collection of Hymns for Use of the People Called Methodists (1780) that Charles Wesley (1708-1788) based his text on Mathew Henry’s Commentary on Leviticus. Henry notes: “We have every one of us a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify, an immortal soul to provide for, needful duty to be done, our generation to serve; and it must be our daily care to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our Master, who will shortly call us to an account about it, and it is our peril if we neglect it. Keep it ‘that ye die not’; it is death, eternal death, to betray the truth we are charged with.”

This hymn is an unequivocal call to commitment to follow the Master and to fulfill our vocation through service. The language is unambiguous. Our calling is to save a “never dying soul” and “fit it for the sky”—that is for eternal life with Christ. This eschatological goal is central to Charles Wesley’s hymns: Our goal is heaven. In the second stanza, we find that we fulfill this calling by our service to “the present age.” Fulfilling this calling requires us to engage “all [our] powers.” The third stanza is a petition that God should “arm [us] with jealous care” as we live in God’s sight. Wesley is not afraid to offer a stern admonition that we will one day be required to give “a strict account” of our activities in pursuit of our calling. The final stanza is perhaps the most uncompromising. The singer begins with the imperative verb—a petition to the unnamed Holy Spirit—to “Help me to watch and pray . . . ” Rather than suggesting a positive reward for faithfulness, Wesley warns us of the outcome “if [we] our trust betray”: we “shall forever die.”

The tune BOYLSTON was composed by the famous New England music educator Lowell Mason (1792-1872) and was first found in his The Choir, or Union Collection of Church Music (1832).

Where He Leads Me

Earnest W. Blan­dy, a Sal­va­tion Ar­my of­fi­cer, wrote this song in 1890, af­ter choos­ing be­tween a com­fort­a­ble post at an es­tab­lished church, and an al­ter­nate as­sign­ment to the New York Ci­ty wa­ter­front and slum called "Hell’s Kitch­en." He chose the lat­ter.  No other biographical information on Rev. Blandy has survived.  The text is based on Matthew 16:24:  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”

The melody was composed by pastor and evangelist John S. Norris, who died in 1907.  Norris was born on the Isle of Wight, which is in the English Channel off the southern coast of England. His family emigrated to Canada. In 1868, a few years after the Civil War ended, he was ordained into the Methodist Church ministry. However, 10 years later he joined the Congregational Church and pastored churches in Canada and the United States. Little is known of his ministry. His only legacy is the soulful tune of this simple song of invitation and consecration.