November 27, 2017

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:

The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came – David Cherwein

"Gabriel's Message" or "The angel Gabriel from heaven came" (Basque: Birjina gaztetto bat zegoen) is a Basque folk carol about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ the Son of God. It quotes the biblical account of that event (Luke 1:26-38) and Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).  It was collected by Charles Bordes and then paraphrased into English by Sabine Baring-Gould  (1834- 1924), an English Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar.

The angel Gabriel from heaven came, his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;
"All hail," said he, "thou lowly maiden Mary, most highly favored lady," Gloria!

"For know a blessed Mother thou shalt be, all generations laud and honor thee,
thy Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold, most highly favored lady," Gloria!

Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head, "To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"my soul shall laud and magnify his holy Name." Most highly favored lady, Gloria!

Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born in Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn;
Christian folk throughout the world will ever say-- "Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

Dr. 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.

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme – Sigfrid Karg-Elert

"Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (Awake, the voice is calling) is a Lutheran hymn written in German by Philipp Nicolai, first published in 1599 together with "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". It appears in German hymnals and in several English hymnals in translations such as "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying".  Philipp Nicolai wrote the hymn in 1598, a time when the plague had hit Unna where he lived as a preacher after studies in theology at the University of Wittenberg, for six months. The text is based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). Nicolai refers to other biblical ideas, such as from the Revelation the mentioning of marriage (Revelation 19:6–9) and the twelve gates, every one of pearl (Revelation 21:21), and from the First Letter to the Corinthians the phrase "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The author wrote in his preface, dated 10 August 1598: "Day by day I wrote out my meditations, found myself, thank God, wonderfully well, comforted in heart, joyful in spirit, and truly content; gave to my manuscript the name and title of a Mirror of Joy... to leave behind me (if God should call me from this world) as a token of my peaceful, joyful, Christian departure, or (if God should spare me in health) to comfort other sufferers whom He should also visit with the pestilence."

"Wake, awake, for night is flying," the watchmen on the heights are crying;
"Awake, Jerusalem, arise!"
Midnight hears the welcome voices and at the thrilling cry rejoices:
"Where are the virgins pure and wise?
The Bridegroom comes: Awake! Your lamps with gladness take!  Alleluia!
With bridal care and faith's bold prayer, to meet the Bridegroom, come, prepare!"

Lamb of God, the heavens adore you, the saints and angels sing before you
with harp and cymbals' clearest tone.
Of one pearl each shining portal, where, joining with the choir immortal,
we gather round your radiant throne.
No eye has seen that light, no ear the echoed might of your glory;
yet there shall we in victory sing shouts of joy eternally!

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was a German composer of considerable fame in the early twentieth century.  The cultural climate in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was very hostile to the internationally oriented, French-influenced Karg-Elert; and although his works were admired outside Germany, especially in the U.K. (the Organ Music Society of London held a ten-day festival in his honour in 1930) and in the U.S.A., in his home country his music was almost completely neglected.  Karg-Elert regarded himself as an outsider. Notable influences in his work include composers Johann Sebastian Bach (he often used the B.A.C.H. motif in Bach's honour), Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Aleksandr Scriabin, and early Arnold Schoenberg. In general terms, his musical style can be characterised as being late-romantic with impressionistic and expressionistic tendencies. His profound knowledge of music theory allowed him to stretch the limits of traditional harmony without losing tonal coherence.

About the Choral Music:

In the Bleak Midwinter – Albin C. Whitworth

"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.

Dr. Albin C. Whitworth is Minister of Music & Worship/Organist at Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  Albin holds a B.A. and the D.C.M from Asbury University and a M.Ed. and Ed.S. from the University of Louisville. 

          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.

          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;
          What I can, I give Him; Give him my heart.

About the Hymns:

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Charles Wesley wrote this Advent hymn and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Stanzas 1 and 2 recall Advent prophecies in the Old Testament; stanza 3 speaks of Christ's birth and kingdom, and stanza 4 is a prayer for Christ's rule in our hearts.

We express longing when we sing the words of Charles Wesley’s beautiful Advent hymn, for though we know that Christ goes with us and before us every day, we long for the day when we are with Him in all of the fullness and glory He will bring. We long for the day when we are with Him in a New Heaven and New Earth, when all things are made new. And just as a four-year-old crawls into his father’s arms after an extended absence, so too we long for the day when we will be at rest in Christ, enfolded in the embrace of our Savior.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

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.”

Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates

Georg Weissel (1590-1635) studied theology at the University of Königsberg,  and at Wittenberg, Leipzig, Jena, Strassburg, Basel and Marburg. In 1623, he became pastor of the newly erected Altrossgart church at Königsberg, where he remained till his death.  Weissel was one of the most important of the earlier hymn-writers of Prussia.  His hymns, about 20 in all, are good in style, moderate in length, and varied in meter. The earliest seem to have been written for use at the consecration of the Altrossgart church on the 2nd Sunday in Advent, 1623. The majority are for the greater festivals of the Christian year. They appeared in the Königsberg hymn-books, 1639-1650, and in the Preussische Fest-Lieder, 1642-1644.

Psalm 24 is a majestic song of praise to the King of glory. It concludes with a herald’s announcement of the King’s approach: “Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty—he is the King of glory”.