May 14, 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:

Kule Mbinguni Nataka Kwanda - Carl Heine

“Kule Mbinguni Nataka Kwanda” is a Swahili hymn.  The title is translated, “The Way to Jesus”.  It is set to a traditional Kinga tune.

Taarab (sung poetry) is part of the Swahili culture of the East Coast.  It is a successful synthesis of Arab, European and African music traditions.  Taarab is classical music, folk and dance music in one. Taarab is the preservation of the cultural traditions of the Swahili mixed culture in times of globalization.  Nevertheless, the music lives, is an element of the social life of the Wa-Swahili and also popular with the youth. Both the traditional forms and the modern Taarab are constantly changing and adapting new influences. The Arabian sounds are at first sight the most striking. The instruments used are extremely varied: of Arabic origin is oud lute, dumbak (tambourine) and Qanun zither; the tabla is from India; African percussion instruments; and, of course, singing. The dominance of violins, cello, double bass and accordion in the Taarab music is also unmistakably a European-classical influence. The beginning of the Taarab in Zanzibar is attributed to Sultan Seyyid Bargash Bin Said, who ruled from 1870 to 1888. He invited an Egyptian ensemble to his palace Beit el Ajab, and conversely, he sent Mohammed Ibrahim to Egypt to study the Taarab music, which, after his return, founded the first Taarab orchestra. In 1905 this was the oldest orchestra in Africa, Ikhwani Safaa, which is almost 100 years old

In the early 1960s an African Christian visited one of the missionary societies in Europe. As a friendly gesture his host asked him to sing an African song before the congregation. Without hesitation he stood up and sang "Njooni tumsifuni Mungu aliye Mwenyezi" known as: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”. His surprise was great, when the whole congregation joined in the song, but he sang it in his own language. After the service, he asked the priest to explain to him how the church knew this African song. The priest replied that this song came from Germany and not from Africa; In fact he would have expected his guest to sing an African song with an African melody. The African was confused. On the one hand, he could not understand why the priest was not quite satisfied with the song. For him, it made no difference whether the song came from Africa or from Germany. Since it had been introduced into his church to praise Almighty God, it was not a monopoly of European Christians, but belonged to the wealth of Christians around the world. Secondly, he was disappointed that his church clearly did not encourage the church members to write and sing African songs with traditional melodies. 

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) the singing of African songs began in the 1950s. Individual Christians, especially priests, evangelists and theologians of the Makumira Church, had taken the initiative. Pastor Sila Msangi from the Pare Diocese in North Tanzania was the first composer to write Christian songs with African melodies. He wrote more than 300 songs. Also from the awakening movement, which took place in Bukoba in the north-west diocese and the Karagwe diocese, new songs were born, which were sung in communities at many events. These songs clearly showed that only the cross and blood of Jesus reconciled people with God. In the south of Tanzania, the Ubena and Unyakyusa peoples wrote Christian songs, some of which were later included in the hymnbook of the ELCT. In the past, African musical instruments had been banned by missionaries. New songs with African melodies and rhythms were sung and played. It was a revolution in the musical history of the Church in Tanzania. 

Makumira published many of the songs in Tumshangilie Mungu. Churches and missionaries in Europe and America began to include some of the songs with the new melodies of Tumshangilie Mungu in their hymns. Unfortunately, the African hymn-writers were not asked for permission publish their songs.  The authors were not given a copyright.  Sometimes the name of the author is given, but he received no fee. The European publishers hold the copyrights.  In addition to original compositions and published songs, the majority of the tunes in Tumshangilie were in the public domain and obtained from folk traditions. Using folksongs for hymns is consistent with ancient Lutheran practice.  In the early editions of Tumshangilie Mungu most of these ethnic songs are derived from oral tradition, transcribed with a simple melodic line. Only a very few songs came to us in polyphonic form as the Kinga song "Kule Mbinguni Nataka Kwenda". However, over the course of time many African musicians created harmonized ethnic songs. Consequently in the sixth edition of Tumshangilie Mungu, many of the songs have been harmonized by a variety of musicians. Some of the hymns also had the Swahili text with a pronunciation guide. 

Carl Heine is an architect, who is also music director at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wheaton, IL

For All the Faithful Women – Emily Maxson Porter

Rev. Dr. Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. (1924-2007) was a graduate of Susquehanna University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He received additional advanced degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a doctoral degree at Southern California School of Theology at Claremont. He served as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg.  Stuempfle was the author of several books and numerous articles and lectures on preaching, history, and theology. He was also among the most honored and respected hymn writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was known for his leadership in community and civic projects. Always taking an active stance on social issues, he participated in the creation of day care centers, served on the Gettysburg interchurch social action committee, helped create and support prison ministries and a homeless shelter, and tutored young people in the after school program of Christ Lutheran Church, where he was a long time member.

Stuempfle draws from multiple Bible stories for “For All the Faithful Women”. 

For all the faithful women who served in days of old

To you shall thanks be given, to all their story told. 

They served with strength and gladness in tasks your wisdom gave. 

To you their lives bore witness, proclaimed your power to save.

O God, for saints and servants, those named and those unknown

In whom through all the ages Your light of glory shone,

We offer glad thanksgiving and fervent prayer we raise

That faithful in Your service, our lives may sing Your praise.

We praise your name for Miriam, who sang triumphantly

While Pharaoh's vaunted army lay drowned beneath the sea.

As Israel marched to freedom, her chains of bondage gone,

So we may reach the kingdom your mighty arm has won.

To Hannah, praying childless, before the throne of grace,

You gave a son and called him to serve before your face.

Grant us her perseverance; Lord, teach us how to pray

And trust in your deliverance when darkness hides our way.

For Ruth, who left her homeland and ventured forth in faith,

Who pledged to serve and worship Naomi's God till death.

We praise you, God of Israel, and pray for hearts set free

To bind ourselves to others in love and loyalty.

We honor faithful Mary, fair maiden, full of grace.

She bore the Christ, our brother, who saved our human race.

May we, with her, surrender ourselves to your command

And lay upon your altar our gifts of heart and hand.

We sing of busy Martha, who toiled with pot and pan

While Mary sat in silence to hear the word again.

Christ, keep our hearts attentive, to truth that you declare,

And strengthen us for service when work becomes our prayer.

Recall the outcast woman with whom our Lord conversed,

Christ gave her living water to quench her deepest thirst.

Like her, our hearts are yearning, Christ offers us his word,

Then may our lips be burning to witness to our Lord.

We praise the other Mary, who came at Easter dawn,

And near the tomb did tarry, but found her Lord was gone.

As joyfully she saw him in resurrection light,

May we by faith behold him, the day who ends all night.

Lord, hear our praise of Dorcas, who served the sick and poor.

Her hands were cups of kindness, her heart an open door.

Send us, O Christ, your body, where people cry in pain,

And touch them with compassion to make them whole again.

For Eunice and for Lois, we sing our thanks and praise.

Young Timothy they nurtured and led him in your ways.

Raise up in ev'ry household true teachers of your word

Whose lives will bear clear witness to Christ, our risen Lord.

All praise to God the Father!  All praise to Christ the Son!

All praise the Holy Spirit, who binds the Church in one!

With saints who went before us, with saints who witness still,

We sing glad alleluias and strive to do Your will.

Emily Maxson Porter (b. 1942) is organist at St. Philip’s Lutheran Church in Fridley, Minnesota.  She has previously taught organ and theory at Lynchburg College and Concordia College, St. Paul.  She has numerous published works, including anthems, vocal, choral, instrumental pieces, and larger organ works.  Porter won the 2002 Holtkamp-AGO Award in Organ Composition.

A Mighty Fortress – Timothy Albrecht

"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' causeHeinrich 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.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing.
You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever! 

Dr. Timothy Albrecht spent his childhood in Los Angeles and Wisconsin.  He received his Bachelors in organ from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory, and his masters and doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, where he won the Performer’s Certificate. Shortly after graduation, he represented the United States at the Sixth International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. He has spent two sabbaticals at Cambridge University in England, which has conferred on him Life Membership.  At Emory University, Albrecht holds a joint faculty appointment as Professor of Music at Candler Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1982, and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music  He also serves as University Organist. Albrecht has authored twelve published volumes of organ music and has recorded nine solo compact discs, including several Bach CDs and recordings of his own compositions.

About the Choral Music:

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise – Gordon Young

Walter C. Smith based this text on 1 Timothy 1: 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." The six-stanza text was published in Smith's Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1867) and, after having been revised by Smith, in W. Garrett Horder's Congregational Hymns (1884).

Walter Chalmbers Smith (1824-1908) was educated at the University of Aberdeen and New College, Edinburgh, and became a Presbyterian pastor in the Free Church of Scotland in 1850. He served four congregations, including the Free High Church in Edinburgh (1876¬-1894). Moderator of his denomination in 1893, Smith was a man of wide interests. His poetry was published in some six volumes entitled Poetical Works (1902), and his hymn texts were published in Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1886).

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might:
thy justice, like mountains high soaring above,
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

Thou reignest in glory, thou dwellest in light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all laud we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!

Amen, Amen!

Gordon Young (1919-1998) was born in McPherson, Kansas, and during his lifetime was recognized as one of this country's great church organists. He was a prolific and talented composer for both organ and choir, with nearly 1000 published works.  During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.

About the Hymns:

All Creatures of Our God and King

The words of the hymn were initially written by St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) in 1225 in the Canticle of the Sun poem, which was based on Psalm 148. The words were translated into English by William Draper, who at the time was rector of a Church of England parish church at Adel near Leeds. Draper paraphrased the words of the Canticle and set them to music. It is not known when Draper first composed the hymn but it was between 1899 and 1919. Draper composed the hymn for his church's children's Whitsun festival celebrations and it was later published in 1919 in the Public School Hymn Book. The hymn is currently used in 179 different hymn books. The words written by St Francis are some of the oldest used in hymns after "Father We Praise Thee", written in 580 AD. The hymn is set to the tune of "Lasst uns erfreuen herzlich sehr", a German Easter hymn written by Friedrich Spee, published in 1623 in his book Auserlesene, Catholische, Geistliche Kirchengesäng. It was first used in English hymn books in 1906.

St. Francis is famous for many things, including love of animals.  Pictures of him usually have birds flying nearby and small animals at his feet.  A popular story tells of him stopping to preach a sermon to a flock of birds.  He reminded them that God had blessed them with beautiful clothing even though they had never learned to spin or weave–– and that God had blessed them with food even thought they had never learned to sow or reap.  Then he called them to sing their songs as praises to God.  St. Francis wrote this hymn near the end of his life.  Sick and suffering bouts of blindness, he was going home to die when he stopped to visit friends at the St. Damien monastery.  While there, he felt the inspiration to compose this joyful hymn.  It calls all God's creatures ––sun and moon ––wind and water––fruits and flowers––and all who are of tender heart––to sing, "Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!" to honor our God.

Near to the Heart of God

Clcland B. McAfee (1866-1944) is known for this one hymn, his “one-hit-wonder”.  McAfee wrote “Near to the Heart of God” in 1903, after two daughters of his brother Howard died os diphtheria within 24 hours of each other.  The choir of Park College went to Howard McAfee’s quarantined house and sang it outside the window to encourage the grieving family.  McAfee was at Park College, Parkville, MO, for almost 20 years, serving on the faculty and as college chaplain and choir director.  He then pastored in Chicago, IL and Brooklyn, NY.  He was also on the faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and directed the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

Go Forth for God

"Go Forth for God" exhorts believers to "go forth for God" to the world in peace”, "in love", "in strength", and "in joy", using phrases from Romans 12:9-21 and 1 Thessalonians 5:13b¬22-.   John R. Peacey (1896-1971) wrote the original text to this hymn in 1968. The 1987 Psalter Hymnal version of the text, however, is a result of revisions made by Peacey in 1970 and by the editors of the English Hymnal supplement, English Praise (1975). Educated in theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge, Peacey was ordained in the Church of England in 1923. In addition to serving several churches in England, he was also headmaster and principal of the Bishop Cotton School in Simla, India (1927-1945), and principal of Bishop's College in Calcutta, India (1935-1945). Peacey concluded his career at Bristol Cathedral (1945-1966). Written mainly during his retirement years, his hymn texts were published posthumously in Go Forth for God (1981).