November 19, 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:

Nun danket all und bringet Ehr - Max Drischner

Paul Gerhardt (12 March 1607 – 27 May 1676) was a German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist.  Gerhardt was born into a middle-class family at Gräfenhainichen, a small town between Halle and Wittenberg. At the age of fifteen, he entered the Fürstenschule in Grimma. The school was known for its pious atmosphere and stern discipline. The school almost closed in 1626 when the plague came to Grimma, but Paul remained and graduated from there in 1627. In January 1628, he enrolled in the University of Wittenberg. There, two teachers in particular had an influence on him: Paul Röber and Jacob Martini. Both of these men were staunch Lutherans, promoting its teachings not only in the classroom but in sermons and hymns. Röber in particular often took his sermon texts from hymns. In this way Gerhardt was taught the use of hymnody as a tool of pastoral care and instruction.

Gerhardt graduated from the University of Wittenberg around 1642. Due to the troubles of the Thirty Years War it seems he was not immediately placed as a pastor, and thus moved to Berlin where he worked as tutor in the family of an advocate named Andreas Barthold. During his time in Berlin his hymns and poems brought him to the attention of Johann Crüger the cantor and organist at the Nicolaikirche in Berlin. Crüger was impressed by Gerhardt's hymns and included many of them in his Praxis pietatis melica. The hymns proved popular, and Gerhardt and Crüger began a collaboration and friendship that continued for many years.

Gerhardt is considered Germany's greatest hymn writer. Many of his best-known hymns were originally published in various church hymnbooks, as for example in that for Brandenburg, which appeared in 1658; others first saw the light in Johann Crüger's Geistliche Kirchenmelodien (1647) and Praxis pietatis melica. The first complete collection is the Geistliche Andachten, published in 1666-1667 by Ebeling, music director in Berlin. No hymn by Gerhardt of a later date than 1667 is known to exist.

Composed by Johann Crüger (1598-1662) as a setting for Paul Gerhardt's "Nun danket all’ und bringet Ehr," GRÄFENBERG was first published in the 1647 edition of Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica. The tune is arbitrarily named after a water-cure spa in Silesia, Austria, which became famous in the 1820s.

All ye who on this earth do dwell, Give thanks and glorify
The Lord whose praises ever swell In seraph songs on high.

Lift up your hearts in praise to God, Himself best Gift of all,
Who works His wonders all abroad, Upholding great and small.

Since first our life began to be, He has preserved our frame;
And when man's strength was vanity, He as our Helper came.

Though often we His patience try And well deserve His frown,
In grace He lays His anger by And pours new blessings down.

'Tis He revives our fainting soul, Gives joyful hearts to men;
And when great waves of trouble roll, He drives them back again.

May He adorn with precious peace Our own, our native, land
And crown with joys that never cease The labors of our hand.

Long as we tarry here below Our saving Health is He;
And when from earth to heaven we go, May He our portion be!

Max Drischner (1891-1971) was a German composer, Kantor, organist, and harpsichordist.  Drischner was born in Silesia. After completing his secondary education, he pursued studies in theology in Leipzig and Breslau, beginning in 1910. By 1914, however, he had decided to quit his theological studies in favor of studying music. At this time, Drischner relocated to Berlin, and was enrolled in the Berlin University of the Arts, where he studied harpsichord.  In 1924, Drischner was named Kantor and organist of St. Nicholas Church in Brieg.  While in Brieg, Drischer built a reputation for himself as a choirmaster, as well, organizing and directing many successful events, and founding a youth choir. This earned him a renown that stretched beyond Brieg. His efforts earned him the title of Kirchenmusikdirektor ("Church music director"), a very high honor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

November – John Tasker Howard

John Tasker Howard (1890-1964) was an early American music historian, radio host, writer, lecturer, and composer. His Our American Music, published in 1931, was an early general history of music in the United States.  Howard was also the curator of the New York Public Library from 1940 to 1956. 

“November” is from his “Calendar Suite”.

Postlude on "Nun danket alle Gott" - Eric Thiman

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was the Bishop of Eilenberg, Germany during the Thirty Years’ War.  Since Eilenberg was a walled city, it became a place of refuge for fugitives of the war, and also a place of famine and disease due to overcrowding.  In 1637, at the height of their misery, Rinkart was the only clergyman left in the city who could perform the 40 or 50 daily burial services, one of which was for his wife.   The city was sacked three times by invaders.  During this time, Rinkart managed to write 7 dramas and 66 hymns.  The hymn “Nun danket alle Gott” was originally titled “Tisch-Gebetlein” (a little prayer before the meal).  This humble prayer of thanksgiving is laid out simply and beautifully in the first verse.  This verse of thanks is followed by a verse asking for strength in time of trial and a doxology.   The tune, “Nun Danket” is named for Rinkart's text, has been associated with it ever since they were published together by Johann Crüger (1598-1662) in his Praxis Pietatis Melica (1647).

            Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,                                                                         Who wondrous things has done, in whom the world rejoices;                                                     

            Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way                                                              

            With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today. 

            O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,                                                                 

            With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,                                                                   

             To keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed,                                                                   

             And free us from all ills in this world and the next.

            All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,                                                               

            The Son and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven                                                                      

            The one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore;                                                                  

            For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.      

  

Eric Harding Thiman (1900 – 1975) was an English composer and organist.Largely self-taught, he was awarded an FRCO in 1921. From 1930 he was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music and later, from 1956 to 1962, was Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of London. From 1958, having moved from Park Chapel (a Congregational Church in Crouch End, later to join with Ferme Park Baptist Church to form a Union Church in the same district, he was organist of the City Temple in London, a Congregational Church where he increased his renown as an improviser of great skill. He was a keen advocate of amateur music-making and in the 1960s was the conductor and Musical Director of the Purley Choral Society.  A prolific composer of small-scale works, he wrote much educational music for piano and other instruments, as well as accessible music for church choirs.       

About the Choral Music:

With Heart and Hands – John Rutter

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was the Bishop of Eilenberg, Germany during the Thirty Years’ War.  Since Eilenberg was a walled city, it became a place of refuge for fugitives of the war, and also a place of famine and disease due to overcrowding.  In 1637, at the height of their misery, Rinkart was the only clergyman left in the city who could perform the 40 or 50 daily burial services, one of which was for his wife.   The city was sacked three times by invaders.  During this time, Rinkart managed to write 7 dramas and 66 hymns.  The hymn “Nun danket alle Gott” was originally titled “Tisch-Gebetlein” (a little prayer before the meal).  This humble prayer of thanksgiving is laid out simply and beautifully in the first verse.  This verse of thanks is followed by a verse asking for strength in time of trial and a doxology.   The tune, “Nun Danket” is named for Rinkart's text, has been associated with it ever since they were published together by Johann Crüger (1598-1662) in his Praxis Pietatis Melica (1647).

John Rutter (b. 1945) studied at Cambridge, where he wrote his first published compositions and conducted his first recording while still a student.  His compositional career has included both large and small scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, and music for television.  In 1979, he formed the Cambridge Singers, a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording sacred choral works, and he now divides his time between composition and conducting.  In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.  In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contributions to church music.

          For all the blessings you have granted us, Lord, give us thankful hearts we pray;

            For life and health and happiness, and for the gift of each new day;

            For all our families and loved ones, the friends we meet along our way,

            We thank you, Lord, they are your gifts: Lord, we praise you,

            Lord we bless you, In your service let us all your love repay.

            Look all around you: You’ll see a miracle or two;

            Every valley, hill and mountain is calling to you.

            For all the wonders of creation, A world whose marvels we behold;

            Where winter turns to spring again; the changing scenes of life unfold,

            But there is One who never changes: through all eternity the same:

            Be with us, Lord, forevermore: Alleluia, Lord, we praise your Holy Name.

            Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,

            Who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices;

            Who from our mother’s arms hath blessed us on our way

            With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

            Amen.

About the Hymns:

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

 “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” was written for the English harvest festivals, a movable feast varying with the harvest time in the various villages.  Its author, Henry “Dean” Alford (1810-1871), is generally regarded as one of the most gifted Christian leaders of the nineteenth century, distinguishing himself as a theologian, scholar, writer, poet, artist, and musician.  It was as a Greek scholar that he attained his greatest distinction.  His four-volume edition of the Greek Testament, on which he labored for twenty years, became the standard critical commentary of the later nineteenth century.  As a member of the new Testament Revision Committee, he made a notable contribution to biblical knowledge on both sides of the Atlantic.  Hymnology was one of Henry Alford’s major interests, and he translated and composed numerous hymns, which he published in hi Psalms and Hymns (1844), The Year of Praise (1867), and Poetical Works (1852 and1868). Of these many works, only “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is still in general use.  The hymn first appeared in Alford’s Psalms and Hymns, in 1844.  It was originally titled “After Harvest” and was accompanied by the text “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:6).  The hymn originally contained seven stanzas, but only four have remained in common usage.  It is said that at the end of a hard day’s work, as well as after every meal, it was customary practice for Dean Alford to stand to his feet and give thanks to God for the blessings just received or enjoyed during the day.  This spirit of perpetual gratitude is clearly evidenced throughout this hymn.

The composer of this tune, “St. George’s, Windsor”, was George J. Elvey, who served as the organist for forty-seven years at the historic, royal chapel at Windsor Castle in England.  He originally composed the music for James Montgomery’s text “Hark! the Song of Jubilee,” published in E. H. Throne’s Selection of Psalms and Hymn Tunes in 1858.  In 1861, this tune first appeared wedded to Henry Alford’s text in the well-known Anglican Church hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern.  It has found a place in nearly every published hymnal to the present time.

George Elvey was knighted by Queen Victoria, in 1871, for his many years of faithful service to the royal family as well as for his various musical publications, including several oratorios, anthems, and collections of service music.

We Gather Together

"We Gather Together" is a Christian hymn of Dutch origin written in 1597 by Adrianus Valerius as "Wilt heden nu treden" to celebrate the Dutch victory over Spanish forces in the Battle of Turnhout.  At the time the hymn was written, the Dutch were engaged in a war of national liberation against the Catholic King Philip II of Spain.  “Wilt heden nu treden”  resonated because under the Spanish King, Dutch Protestants were forbidden to gather for worship.  The hymn first appeared in print in a 1626 collection of Dutch patriotic songs,  Nederlandtsch Gedencklanck.  The hymn is customarily performed to a tune known as “Kremser”, from Eduard Kremser's 1877 score arrangement and lyric translation of “Wilt Heden Nu Treden” into Latin and German. The modern English text was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.  “We Gather Together” first appeared in an American hymnal in 1903.  It had retained popularity among the Dutch, and when the Dutch Reformed Church in North America decided in 1937 to abandon the policy that they had brought with them to the New World in the 17th century of singing only psalms and add hymns to the church service, "We Gather Together" was chosen as the first hymn in the first hymnal.   The hymn steadily gained popularity, especially in services of Thanksgiving on such occasions as town and college centennial celebrations.  The "big break" came in 1935 when it was included in the national hymnal of the Methodist-Episcopal Church.   This hymn is often sung at American churches the Sunday before Thanksgiving.