May 6, 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:

Nyland – Dale Wood

Anna Laetitia Waring was a child prodigy, born in Wales in 1823. She learned Hebrew as a child and read the Old Testament in its original language daily. Although raised a Quaker, she joined the Anglican Church of England as an adult.  She published two works that contained dozens of her hymns, Hymns and Meditations in 1850 (in which “In Heavenly Love Abiding” appears) and Additional Hymns in 1858. She was also involved in prison ministry and the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society.  Her hymn texts, particularly for “In Heavenly Love Abiding”, express strength and faith in times of struggle.

NYLAND, named for a province in Finland, is a folk melody from Kuortane, South Ostrobothnia, Finland. In fact, the tune is also known as KUORTANE. NYLAND was first published with a hymn text in an appendix to the 1909 edition of the Finnish Suomen Evankelis Luterilaisen Kirken Koraalikirja. It gained popularity in the English-speaking world after David Evans's use of it in the British Church Hymnary of 1927 as a setting for Anna 1. Waring's text "In Heavenly Love Abiding." Evans (1874-1948) edited that hymnal, which was the source of a number of his harmonizations, including this one. David Evans was an important leader in Welsh church music. Educated at Arnold College, Swansea, and at University College, Cardiff, he received a doctorate in music from Oxford University. His longest professional post was as professor of music at University College in Cardiff (1903-1939), where he organized a large music department. He was also a well-known and respected judge at Welsh hymn-singing festivals and a composer of many orchestral and choral works, anthems, service music, and hymn tunes.

In Heavenly Love abiding, No change my heart shall fear,
And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me, My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me, And can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me, No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me, And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim, —
He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him.

Green pastures are before me, Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o'er me, Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure, My path to life is free,
My Savior has my treasure, And He will walk with me.

Dale Wood (1934-2003) was a prominent composer, organist, choral director, and clinician.  He was honored many times by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for his “very important contribution towards the creation and development of contemporary American church music”.  He wrote many collections of organ works, most of which are based on both old and new hymn tunes.  Over eight million copies of his publications have been purchased in over 50 countries.

God Changes Not – Lani Smith

Life may have its changing scenes, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. As we don't know how our existence on the earth was decided and all that we have been through were designed, it is wise of us to believe that there is someone who cares about our lives each passing day. However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God changes not. If He varied as we do, if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if He were controlled by caprice, who could confide in Him? But, all praise to His glorious name, He is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, His will is stable, His word is sure.

Kathleen Wheeler Ross (1864-1924) wrote this hymn text.  Ross was born in Ireland, Daughter of Edward Oliver Wheeler and Josephine Helsham. She was living in the Union Workhouse for paupers in Methyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, in 1881, but had moved to Collingwood, by the end of the next year. By 1910, she was in a convent in Hamilton County, Ohio, and in 1914, she married Henry Clarkson Ross in Ottawa, Canada.  She wrote a number of hymns, most of which are now forgotten.

The tune IMMUTABILIS was written by Edmund Lorenz (1854-1942).  The Lorenz family were Adventists, and emigrated from Messer, Russia (near Saratow), to America, and lived in Dayton, Ohio. Edmund attended Otterbein University, Union Biblical Seminary, Yale Theological Seminary, and the University of Leipzig. He served as pastor of the High Street United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio (1884-86), and as president of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania (1886-88). He later founded the Lorenz and Company music publishing house in Dayton, Ohio.  He wrote almost 200 hymn texts and over 40 tunes.

Scenes of the world are shifting, Friends are in time forgot;
But tho’ the mountains crumble, God changes not.

Winter gives place to springtime, Winds blow both cold and hot;
Only our God is stable - God changes not.

Daily we grieve and wonder, Over man’s changing lot;
Only our God remaineth, God changes not.

How could we live each moment, If ever we forgot
The loving God above us, Who changeth not.

God changes not!  God changes not!
Love Him who faileth never - God changes not.

Lani Smith (1934-2015) is an organist best known for his church music compositions. He has been composing for nearly fifty years, and his compositions include choral, organ and piano pieces. He is a regular contributor to the Lorenz Corporation’s keyboard magazines The Church Pianist, The Organist, The Organ Portfolio, and The Sacred Organ Journal, as well as the choral magazines The SAB Choir and The Volunteer Choir.  The grandson of Edmund Lorenz, he served as an editor, composer, and arranger on the Lorenz Publishing editorial staff between 1967 and 1982. During this time, he received composing and arranging credits for over 1000 works.

Ich hab' mein Sach' Gott heimgestellt - J. S. Bach

Johannes Leon (c.1530-1597) was an army chaplain, then in 1557, pastor at Königsee (Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt), in 1560 at Gross-Muhlhausen, and in 1575 at Wolfis, near Ohrdruf. Leon's hymns appeared principally in his Handbüchlin, , 1566, and  Trostbüchlein., 1588.  The only hymn ascribed to him which has passed into English is “Ich hab mein Sach Gott heimgestellt”, with 18 5-line stanzas found in Trostbüchlein. This hymn has been translated as “My Life I now to God resign”, “My all I to my God commend”, and “My cause is God's, and I am still”.

            I have left all that concerns me up to God. Let Him do whatever He wants with me.

            If I continue to live on here still longer, Without striving against Him.

            I will surrender myself to His will.

            My time and hour will be when God wills; I do not dictate to Him any bounds.

            My each and every hair is numbered, Both great and small;

            Not a single one falls without His will.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.  He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.  Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity.  His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century.  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven,  Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music.  Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony".  He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time.  A highly devout Christian, Bach signed all of his compositions “soli Deo Gloria” (to God alone be the glory).  

About the Choral Music:

Lord, I Know I Been Changed – Larry Shackley

The Spiritual was a creation of plantation life, born as a desperate cry for freedom and of laments on the loss of family, culture, history, and home. The texts, finding inspiration from the Bible, contained double and triple layers of meaning, speaking of trial and triumph, suffering and salvation. A brave and ingenious oral tradition, clues and instructions for escape are interwoven with encouragement to hold on to hope for a better future. This music comes from a righteous people who looked within and carried the light of God as they worked to overcome sin and slavery. 

 Major themes include escape, daily work life, reaching heaven, and missing loved ones, often told through biblical references. In Hebrew scriptures, a symbol of freedom and overcoming adversity, so too the Negro slaves looked to gain vindication from their foes and escape from hardship.

One theme was field work and serving, we hear of the tribulations of slave labor and the struggle to escape, be it literally or spiritually, by ship, train, or a chariot of angels. For many, that relief and healing came in the form of prayer, echoed through the melodies and harmonies of songs that proclaim there is nothing to fear so long as you cast away your sins, have faith, and follow the word of God and your good brothers and sisters. These ancestors of America built the country with their hands, and, seeing beyond their weariness and strife, hoped to inhabit that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Yet another theme is the bittersweet reminder of our mortality, an inevitable truth; but for many, the real truth is that with the passing from this life comes the beginning of a greater journey of life. This music sings of that joy and sorrow and spreads the message of hope and continued effort to follow in God’s footsteps toward the ultimate freedom.

Larry Shackley (b. 1956) is a full-time composer and editor from Columbia, SC. He studied composition at the Eastman School of Music and his Master in Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the University of South Carolina. From 1995-2007, he taught and directed the music program at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC. Prior to that, he worked for several years at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, creating original music and producing radio programs for the Moody Broadcasting Network. He has been active in church music since his teens, and served as staff keyboardist for ten years at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. Currently, Shackley is on the staff of Gateway Baptist Church in Irmo, SC. He has produced over twenty books of keyboard arrangements and more than one hundred choral anthems. He has won ASCAP standard panel awards every year since 1998, and has received commissions from churches, schools, and community choirs across America.

            Lord, I know I been changed. Angels in heaven done signed my name

            If you don’t believe that I have been redeemed, 

                        The angels in heaven done signed my name.

            Just follow me down to that ol’ Jordan stream.

                        The angels in heaven done signed my name.

            I’m singin’ Lord, I know I been changed. Angels in heaven done signed my name.

I went to the river and the water was cold.

                        The angels in heaven done signed my name.

            It chilled my body but not my soul.

                        The angels in heaven done signed my name.

            Lord, O Lord, I know I been changed.  The angels in heaven done signed my name.

About the Hymns:

I Come with Joy

“I Come with Joy” was written in 1971 by Brian Wren (b. 1936), Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Brian holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is a Minister of the United Reformed Church (UK). His publications include What Language Shall I Borrow? - God-Talk in Worship: A Male Response to Feminist Theology (1989 and 2009), Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song (2000), Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship (2008), Hymns for Today (2009) and seven hymn collections totaling 250 hymns.

DOVE OF PEACE was first published in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835), a Sacred Harp collection, with the text “O Tell Me Where the Dove has Flown”.  It was originally the tune of a Catskill folk song, “The Darby Ram”.

Breathe on Me, Breath of God

The simplicity of this profound hymn belies the education and knowledge of its author, Edwin Hatch (1835-1889).  Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Hatch ministered in an Anglican parish in the slums of east London before accepting a position at Trinity College in Quebec where he taught classics.  After serving as Rector of Quebec High School, he returned to Oxford to become the vice-principal of St. Mary’s Hall, and took several posts including the Bampton Lecturer, Reader in Ecclesiastical History, and the Hibbert Lecturer.  Hatch was recognized as an authority on the early church as a result of his Bampton Lectures, “On the Organization of Early Christian Churches,” which were acknowledged by a leading continental scholar on this topic and translated into German.

In spite of Hatch’s scholarship, his one remaining hymn reflects both a profound simplicity and a deep knowledge of Scripture. Our hymn draws largely from John 20:21-22, following John’s account of the Resurrection, for its inspiration: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even, so send I you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (RSV). This passage in John correlates with Genesis 2:7 where “the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”  The author invokes the Holy Spirit to come into his life and transform it. Using the first-person perspective throughout the hymn adds to the hymn’s power as the singer seeks the breath of God (Genesis 2:7) as a source for renewal.

British hymnologist J.R. Watson notes that the hymn “was given the title of ‘Spiritus Dei’ [Spirit of God], thus linking the image of ‘breath’ with that of the Holy Spirit (as in the Greek, where the same word is used for ‘spirit’ and ‘breath.’)”   Mr. Watson also finds echoes of John 3:3-8, especially verses 5-7: “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’”  Summarizing the message of the hymn, Mr. Watson suggests that the breath of God “brings new life and love, purity and obedience, surrender and inspiration, and finally eternal life, as the hymn moves through various stages of Christian experience and discipline towards a unity with God.”

The hymn was first published by Hatch in Between Doubt and Prayer (1878), a privately printed volume. Henry Allon included it in the hymnal, The Congregational Psalmist in 1886. Hatch’s widow then published this hymn posthumously in Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems (1890).

The tune most often used in the U.S. is TRENTHAM, named for a small village in Staffordshire, England, which was composed by Robert Jackson (1842-1914) in 1888 originally for a text by Henry W. Baker, “O Perfect Love of Life.”