November 13, 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:

Peace in Our Time, O Lord - Peter Stearns

William Arthur Dunkerley (1852-1941) was a prolific English journalist, novelist and poet. He was born in Manchester, spent a short time after his marriage in America before moving to Ealing, west London, where he served as dea­con and teach­er at the Ealing Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church from the 1880s, and he then moved to Worthing in Sussex in 1922, where he became the town's mayor.  He wrote under his own name, and also as John Oxenham for his poetry, hymn-writing, and novels. His poetry includes Bees in Amber: a little book of thoughtful verse (1913) which became a bestseller. He also wrote the poem "Greatheart." He used another pseudonym, Julian Ross, for journalism. Dunkerley was a major contributor to Jerome K. Jerome's The Idler magazine.

Dunkerly wrote “Peace in Our Time” under the name John Oxenham in 1938.  It was likely inspired by Neville Chamberlain’s speech, in which he quoted from The Book of Common Prayer "Give peace in our time, O Lord", based on the 7th-century hymn "Da pacem Domine! in diebus nostris, Alleluja"

Peace in our time, O Lord, To all the peoples--peace

Peace surely based upon thy will And built in righteousness.

Thy power alone can break The fetters that enchain

The sorely stricken soul of life, And make it live again.

Too long mistrust and fear Have held our souls in thrall;

Sweep through the earth, keen Breath of Heaven, And sound a nobler call!

Come, as thou didst of old, In love so great that men

Shall cast aside all other gods And turn to thee again.

O shall we never learn The truth all time has taught,

            That without God as architect Our building comes to naught?

            Lord, help us, and inspire Our hearts and lives that we

May build, with all thy wondrous gifts, A Kingdom meet for thee.

Peace in our time, O Lord, To all the peoples--peace!

Peace that shall build a glad new world, And make for life's increase.

O living Christ, who still Dost all our burdens share,

Come now and dwell within the hearts Of all men everywhere.

Peter Pindar Stearns (1931-2016) was born in New York City of musician parents, whose New England roots can be traced back to 1630. His father, Theodore Stearns, was a composer and an opera and musical comedy conductor. Stearns' mother, known professionally as Marguerite Lamar, was a lyric soprano with the Chicago Lyric Opera Company in addition to recital work. Peter grew up in Los Angeles and began the formal study of music theory and composition at the age of fifteen, although he had already begun to compose on his own three years earlier. Returning to New York at the age of eighteen he earned the Artist’s Diploma from the Mannes Music School. Upon graduation from Mannes, Stearns went back to Los Angeles to work in the film industry. In 1957, he was appointed to the faculty of Mannes and also taught at Yale University and the Wykeham Rise School. During his years at Mannes, Stearns developed the composition curriculum, serving fifteen years as head of the Composition Department. His output of over 300 musical compositions in all media includes seven symphonies, six string quartets, numerous other orchestral and chamber works as well as a substantial amount of organ and choral pieces. As an organist and choral director he served various churches. He also worked as an organ builder under Charles B. Fisk and Robert Noehren.

Holy, Holy, Holy – Piet Post

Reginald Heber  (1783-1826) wrote this text for Trinity Sunday, the day for which lectionary in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer prescribes the reading of Revelation 4. Using reverent and apocalyptic language, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" alludes to Revelation 4:6-11; 5:13; 15:2-4; and Isaiah 6:1-3 to sing the great majesty of the triune God. Note the cosmic scope of the text: human beings (st. 1), saints and angels in glory (st. 2), and all creation (st. 4) praise the name of the Lord. Though God's holiness, love, and purity are cloaked in mystery, we can still experience God's mercy and mighty power, and we can participate in praising God.  It references the Sanctus, which is often called the "Holy holy holy" in English. The name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.

It was first published in the third edition (1826) of  A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury  and was also published posthumously in Heber's Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Services of the Year (1827). The unusual single rhyme (all on the "ee" sound) and the uneven number of syllables in some lines have not detracted from the hymn's popularity.  It was soon adopted by hymn-book compilers, and is the best known and most widely used of the author's hymns.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity. 

Contemporary Dutch composer, Piet Post (1919-1979) studied with A. van der Horst in Amsterdam and with Hendrik Andriessen and Jan Zwart.  He was the organist of the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden from 1949 to 1979.

About the Handbell Music:

Foundation – Karen Thompson

          Tintinnabulators

The authorship of this great hymn of the faith is one of the great hymnological mysteries. When John Rippon, pastor of Carter Lane Baptist Church in London, published A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors in 1787, the attribution for this hymn appeared only as “K—.” Hymnologist William Reynolds notes that the 1822 edition designated the author as “Kn,” and the 1835 edition of the collection indicated “Keen.” Finally, an 1844 edition ascribed authorship to “Kirkham.” Robert Keene (or Keen), a close friend of Rippon’s, was the song leader at the Carter Lane Church from 1776-1793. Mr. Reynolds believes that Keene assisted Rippon in preparing the compilation. But no hymn in the early editions appears to have been written by Keene. Six tunes bear the attribution “R. Keene” or “Keene,” and logic would dictate that if Keene had written the text, this would have also been clearly indicated. It is safe to say that compilers of collections in the 18th and 19th century did not take the same care to assign authorship as we have come to expect in modern hymnals. 

We know that Rippon’s Selection was very popular, with 11 editions published in England and one in the U.S. (1820) before his death in 1836.  “How firm a foundation” was sung frequently in both the North and the South before the Civil War. Mr. Reynolds notes that it was a favorite hymn of Theodore Roosevelt, and that Andrew Jackson requested it be sung at his deathbed, and that Robert E. Lee asked it be sung at his funeral. 

The anonymous folk tune FOUNDATION is an American contribution to the hymn that first appears with the text in Joseph Fund’s 1832 Genuine Church Music under the tune name PROTECTION. Hymnology scholar Harry Eskew has concluded that PROTECTION was a new tune and not previously published. The composer remains unknown. The tune appears in other famous American 19th-century collections such as The Sacred Harp(1844) and Southern Harmony (1854) with some melodic variations and with changes in harmony, but R.M. McIntosh’s Tabor: or, the Richmond Collection of Sacred Music (1866) provides us the present form found in most Baptist and Methodist hymnals.

Originally written with seven four-line stanzas, five are included in The United Methodist Hymnal with only one small alteration. Much of the hymn’s text is straight from The Bible, such as Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:2, 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Hebrews 13:5.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Karen Thompson is the founding and current President of Concert Bells of Fort Worth. She is a freelance composer and also writes handbell resources. In the last few years, Thompson has had numerous compositions on the Hot 40 List at handbellworld.com. Last year, she won an ASCAP Plus Award for her handbell compositions. Thompson has held various positions nationally and regionally in the Handbell Musicians of America. She also teaches and conducts at handbell events nationally, regionally, and locally. Karen holds a B.A. in music from Austin College, and she has a husband, Rick, and two grown daughters, Alice and Helen. Karen and Rick foster greyhounds and specialize in “Hound Hospice.”

About the Choral Music:

Show Me Thy Ways – Walter Pelz

Walter Pelz (1926-1997) was born in Chicago and educated at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois (B.S. 1948), and Northwestern University ( M.Mus. 1951). After teaching music at Christ Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, and music in the public schools for fourteen years, he became minister of music at Christ Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (1970). He was been a member of the music faculty of Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, and conducted the Bethany Oratorio Society.

“Show Me Thy Ways” is based on Psalm 25.

            Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths;

            Lead me in thy truth and teach me:

            For thou art the God of my salvation,

            And on thee do I wait all the day.

About the Hymns:

A Mighty Fortress

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"  (“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott”) is one of the best known of Martin Luther's hymns. Luther wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529.  It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages.  The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 46.  "A Mighty Fortress" is one of the best loved hymns of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. It has been called the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation" for the effect it had in increasing the support for the Reformers' cause Heinrich Heine states that it was sung by Luther and his companions as they entered Worms on 16 April 1521 for the Diet.

The earliest extant hymnal in which it appears is that of Andrew Rauscher (1531), but it is supposed to have been in Joseph Klug's Wittenberg hymnal of 1529, of which no copy exists. Its title was “Der xxxxvi. Psalm. Deus noster refugium et virtus.”  Before that it is supposed to have appeared in the Hans Weiss’ Wittenberg hymnal of 1528, also lost.  This evidence would support its being written in 1527–1529, since Luther's hymns were printed shortly after they were written.

Tradition states that the third Protestant King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, had it played as his forces went to battle in the Thirty Years' War. The hymn had been translated into Swedish already in 1536, presumably by Olaus Petri, with the incipit, “Vår Gud är oss en väldig borg.”  In the late 19th century the song also became an anthem of the early Swedish socialist movement.

It was first translated into English by Myles Coverdale in 1539 with the title, “Oure God is a defence and towre.” The first English translation in common usage was “God is our Refuge in Distress, Our strong Defence” in J.C. Jacobi's Psal. Ger. in 1722. The most popular English version is “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing” and was translated by Frederick H. Hedge in 1853.

The hymn's enduring popularity in Western Christendom has breached boundaries set in the Reformation as it is now a suggested hymn for Catholic Masses.  It currently appears in the second edition of the Catholic Book of Worship, published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, though its adoption is not without controversy.

Luther composed the melody, named "Ein feste Burg" from the text's first line, in meter 87.87.55.56.7. This is sometimes denoted "rhythmic tune" to distinguish it from the later isometric variant, in 87.87.66.66.7 meter which is more widely known and used. In 1906 Edouard Rœhrich wrote, "The authentic form of this melody differs very much from that which one sings in most Protestant churches and figures in (Giacomo Meyerbeer's) The Huguenots. ... The original melody is extremely rhythmic, by the way it bends to all the nuances of the text ..." While 19th-century musicologists disputed Luther's authorship of the music to the hymn, that opinion has been modified by more recent research; it is now the consensus view of musical scholars that Luther did indeed compose the famous tune to go with the words.

This is the Day

Based on Psalms 118:24, “This Is the Day” celebrates God’s mighty acts of redemption (originally referring to the Passover before the Exodus), hailing “the day” as a special day of the Lord.  Paraphrased by Leslie Norman Garret (b. New Zealand, 1943), it was first published in his collection Scripture in Song (1967). Les Garret became a pastor after graduating from the Word of Faith Bible School. Currently he ministers at the Christian Family Center in Maddington (Perth), Australia. He is also a lecturer at Hebron Bible College and has traveled throughout the world speaking at conventions and churches. Garret promotes the singing of Scripture choruses in books such as Scripture in Song.

My Hope is Built

Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15. Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. The hymn "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" was published anonymously in several hymn collections before first being attributed to Edward Mote in a collection of approximately 100 of his hymns published in 1837 under the title Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals.  Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term “gospel hymn” appears. Mote's original title was "The Immutable Basis for a Sinner's Hope" in this collection.  The refrain of "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and builds around the metaphor of Christ as a rock with a firm basis (1 Corinthians 10:4).