July 1, 2018

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:

Communion on Two American Folk Hymns – Alice Jordan

This arrangement combines the melodies of “There is a Balm in Gilead” and “Let Us Break Bread Together”. 

Some of the stanzas of the African American spiritual “Let Us Break Bread” may date back to the eighteenth century. Other stanzas have been added by oral tradition. A look through modern hymnals will reveal an array of variations on the text. The most notable alteration in the Psalter Hymnal is the phrase "to the Lord of life" in place of the original "to the rising sun," in which "rising sun" was a metaphor referring to the Son rising. The song's use at communion services probably dates from after the American Civil War. Miles Mark Fisher notes in Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953): [Originally the hymn] relates hardly at all to holy communion, which does not necessarily require early morning administration or a devotee who faces east.  It was a signal song of Virginia slaves during the eighteenth century who used it and similar ones to convene their secret meetings.

The text describes participation in the Lord's Supper as a humble act in which we not only eat the bread and drink the wine, but also praise our God "on our knees." The refrain ends with a prayer for mercy, an African-American Kyrie that reminds us of the tax collector's prayer in Luke 18:13.

Let us break bread together on our knees, let us break bread together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me.

Let us drink wine together on our knees, let us drink wine together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me.

Let us praise God together on our knees, let us praise God together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me. 

Alice Jordan (1916-2011) is known for her widely published choral and organ compositions which are regularly used in churches, schools and colleges in this country and abroad. Some of her compositions have won recognition in national competition.  She was the recipient of over 40 commissions from across the United States.

Cwm Rhonda - Wilbur Held

During the 1960s and 1970s, four English-language hymn writers emerged on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean who were the leaders of the “hymnic explosion.” Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) and Brian Wren (b. 1936) all were born in Great Britain.   Unlike the other three, Fred Kaan (b. 1929), though ordained in the United Reformed Church and serving in England, is a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands.   These writers, along with their counterparts from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, brought the language and theological vision of hymnody out of the earlier Victorian era into the late 20th century. In many cases, their work continues to enrich 21st-century congregational song.

After serving congregations in England, Kaan served as minister-secretary of the International Congregational Council in Geneva, Switzerland and the executive secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.  He returned to England in 1978 as a moderator of the Western Midlands Conference of the United Reformed Church. From 1986-1989 he returned to parish ministry in the United Reformed Church.

Kaan’s linguistic ability, ecumenical service and fervent concern for the powerless are apparent in his hymns, numbering more than 200.  Collections of his hymns appear in this country as The Hymn Texts of Fred Kaan (1985), Planting Trees and Sowing Seeds (1989) and The Only Earth We Know (1999). He was elected Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 2001. His hymns have been translated into more than 15 languages.

In 1985, Dr. Kaan reflected on “For the healing of the nations,” saying, “Of all the hymns I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other. It was first used in 1965 in a worship service at the Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, to mark Human Rights Day. Subsequently, it has been used on many official occasions, such as the 25th anniversary of the United Nations organization.”

Dr. Kaan reminds us to care for a world where we are inter-dependant and to use our political will, global influence and natural resources for the good of all humanity in seeking justice and “abundant living” for all.Alleluia!

CWM RHONDDA was composed in 1905 by John Hughes (1873-1932) during a church service for a Baptist Cymanfa Ganu (song festival) in Capel Rhondda, Pontypridd, Wales. Hughes received little formal education; at age twelve, he was already working as a doorboy at a local mining company in Llantwit Fardre. He eventually became an official in the traffic department of the Great Western Railway. Much of his energy was devoted to the Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd, where he served as both deacon and precentor. Hughes composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known. At first widely disseminated in leaflet form, CWM RHONDDA gradually was adopted into various hymnals. The tune is named after the valley of the Rhondda River, a coal mining area in Wales.

For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord,
for a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords.
To a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word.

Lead us forward into freedom, from despair your world release,
that, redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace.
Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase.

All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned:
pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan.
In our common quest for justice may we hallow brief life's span.

You, Creator God, have written your great name on humankind;
for our growing in your likeness bring the life of Christ to mind;
that by our response and service earth its destiny may find.

Wilbur C. Held (1914-2015) was born in Des Plaines, Illinois, and received his B.M. and M.M. degrees at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he earned his S.M.D. A member of the Episcopal Church, for many years Dr. Held was Professor of Organ and Church Music at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.  He remained in this position for over 30 years, and for most of that time was also organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio.  Dr. Held started composing little pieces for the organ because he felt there was a lack of teaching material aimed at developing style and registration, especially for the romantic use of the instrument.  Having written several suites primarily for pedagogical use, he turned his attention to broadening the repertoire for church use, continuing to stress modest technical requirements and flexibility of registration. To date he has published 325 organ works. He has served on the national councils of both the AGO and the Hymn Society of America and has appeared as recitalist at their national conventions.

About the Piano Music:

There is a Balm in Gilead – David Angerman

This is a well-known traditional African-American spiritual. The “balm in Gilead” is a reference from the Old Testament, but the lyrics of this spiritual refer to the New Testament concept of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Balm of Gilead is interpreted as a spiritual medicine that is able to heal Israel (and sinners in general). In the Old Testament, the balm of Gilead is taken most directly from Jeremiah chapter 8 v. 22: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wounds of my [God's] people?" (Another allusion can also be found in Jeremiah chapter 46, v. 2 and 11: “This is the message (of the Lord) against the army of Pharaoh Neco … Go up to Gilead and get balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt, but you multiply remedies in vain; here is no healing for you” - see also Jeremiah chapter 22, v. 6.)

The first appearance of the spiritual in something close to its current form is uncertain. A version of the refrain can be found in Washington Glass's 1854 hymn "The Sinner's Cure”.  Glass attributed this hymn to himself, but like several of the hymns so attributed, it is substantially the work of another.   The 1925 7-shape Primitive Baptist songbook Harp of Ages has an unattributed song "Balm in Gilead" with a similar chorus, but verses drawn from a Charles Wesley hymn, "Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee." 

The second verse  ("If you can't...") is also found in some versions of another well-known spiritual "(Walk That) Lonesome Valley." "Wandering verses," as they are often called, are quite common in the camp meeting and revival context, and were already found  in the African-American community, as shown by Richard Allen's 1801 "A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs Selected from Various Authors."

There is a balm in Gilead To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead To heal the sin-sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged, And think my work’s in vain,

But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul again.

If you cannot sing like angels, If you can’t preach like Paul,

You can tell the love of Jesus, And say He died for all.

David Angerman (b. 1955) has been Director of Music and organist at Bethany Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, since 1980. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education Degree and Master of Church Music Degree from Baylor University and a Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance from the University of Texas in Austin.  As a composer he has to his credit more than 100 published works including choral and handbell music as well as organ and piano solos. He has also written the music for several youth and children's musicals, and co-authored, along with Joseph Martin and Mark Hayes, KEYS FOR THE KINGDOM, a piano method for the Christian student, published by Shawnee Press. Many of his published works have been awarded Editor's Choice designations.

About the Vocal Solo Mu

It is Well with My Soul – Patti Drennan

For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing, It Is Well With My Soul.  Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.

At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.

In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.

With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul..

Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed a beautiful piece of music to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey, in 1876.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

                When sorrows like sea billows roll;

              Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know 

               It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well with my soul.  It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
“Even so,” it is will with my soul.

It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Patti Drennan taught Choral Music for twenty-eight years in Norman, OK public schools and was awarded the coveted “Director of Distinction Award” given yearly by the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association. An active composer and arranger, Drennan has published over 425 anthems. She has served as a clinician for school and church workshops, guest director at numerous churches, and adjudicator for choral contests in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. Drennan retired from teaching in 2004 to compose and stay active as a clinician and workshop presenter. For almost ten years she served as Music and Worship Arts Director at First Baptist Church, Norman.

About the Hymns:

Time Now to Gather

This communion hymn was written in 1997 by Mary Nelson Keithahn (b. 1934), a United Church of Christ minister and church education specialist, who works out of her home in Rapid City, South Dakota as a curriculum writer-editor, journalist, and lyricist for musical dramas and anthems. She has also written over eighty hymns, and her texts are included in hymnals or supplements published by the Advent Christian Church, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Faith Alive Christian Resources, Alternatives for Simple Living/Selah, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, United Church of Canada and the United Methodist Church. Mary is a Life Member and former board member of Choristers Guild and a Life Member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. She is also a member of ASCAP.

The tune, WELCOME SONG, was written by John Horman (b. 1946), who has served Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington, Maryland for thirty-nine years as Organist and Director of Music. He oversees three choral groups and two bell choirs. Over eighty members of the congregation participate in the music groups of the church.  Horman's compositions are found in the catalogues of over ten nation-wide publishers, and they have been heard on national television in both the United States and Great Britain. He presently has over 150 anthems for children, youth and adults in print. Over the last decade John has served as clinician for children or youth choirs at national conferences held by Presbyterians, Reformed Presbyterians, American Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Disciples of Christ. He has taught Children's Choir Techniques at the Church Music Institute held by the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.  John has served both on the Choristers Guild Board of Directors and The Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. Recently he was consultant for the Exploring Faith Sunday school curriculum published by the United Methodist Publishing House, supporting the writing teams and providing music resources for the curriculum.

John has collaborated with Mary in producing three collections of new hymns, Come Away With Me and Time Now to Gather, published by Abingdon Press, and The Song Lingers On, published by Zimbel Press. Some of these hymns and others have been included in the United Methodist hymnal supplement, The Faith We Sing, and the Presbyterian supplement, Sing the Faith. 

How Can I Keep from Singing?

How Can I Keep From Singing?" (also known by its incipit "My Life Flows On in Endless Song") is a Christian hymn with music written by American Baptist minister Robert Wadsworth Lowry. The song is frequently, though erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn. The original composition has now entered into the public domain, and appears in several hymnals and song collections, both in its original form and with a revised text. Though it is not, in fact, a Quaker hymn, twentieth-century Quakers adopted it as their own and use it widely today.

The first known publication of the words was on August 7, 1868, in The New York Observer, Titled "Always Rejoicing", and, attributed to "Pauline T."  These words were published by Robert Lowry in the 1869 song book, Bright Jewels for the Sunday School.   Here Lowry claims credit for the music, but gives no indication as to who wrote the words. These words were also published in a British periodical in 1869, The Christian Pioneer, but no author is indicated. Lewis Hartsough, citing Bright Jewels as source of the lyrics and crediting Lowry for the tune, included "How Can I Keep from Singing?" in the 1872 edition of the Revivalist. Ira D. Sankey published his own setting of the words in Gospel Hymns, No. 3 (1878), writing that the words were anonymous. The song has often been attributed to "early" Quakers, but Quakers did not permit congregational singing in worship until after the American Civil War.  It was published in the Quaker songbook Songs of the Spirit, and the original words were included in the much more ambitious Quaker hymnal project, Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal^] in 1996.

During the 20th century, this hymn was not widely used in congregational worship. Diehl's index to a large number of hymnals from 1900 to 1966 indicates that only one hymnal included it: the 1941 edition of The Church Hymnal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, titled "My Life Flows On". It was also published in the earlier 1908 Seventh-day Adventist hymnal, Christ In Song, under the title "How Can I Keep From Singing?"  The United Methodist Church published it in its 2000 hymnal supplement, The Faith We Sing, giving credit for the lyrics as well as the tune to Robert Lowry. The Faith We Sing version changes some of the lyrics and punctuation from the 1868 version. 

June 24, 2018

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:

Caithness – Healey Willan

By all accounts, the author of the hymn O for a closer walk with God led a tragic life clouded by mental instability. After receiving his education at Westminster School, William Cowper (1731–1800) studied law and was called to The Bar in 1754. During the next few years he suffered spells of severe depression, and though he was offered several prestigious posts, the thought of taking them up induced such terror in his mind that he tried to take his own life three times. After 1765, Cowper went to live with the Reverend John Newton, Curate of Olney, and between them they composed over 350 hymns.

William Cowper wrote this text on December 9, 1769, during the illness of his long-time friend and housekeeper, Mrs. Unwin. In a letter written the next day Cowper voiced his anxieties about her condition and about what might happen to him if she died. Saying that he composed the text "to surrender up to the Lord" all his "dearest comforts," Cowper added, “Her illness has been a sharp trial to me. Oh, that it may have a sanctifying effect!. . . I began to compose the verses yesterday morning before daybreak, but fell asleep at the end of the first two lines; when I awoke again, the third and fourth were whispered to my heart in a way which I have often experienced.”

The text was published in Richard Conyers's Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1772) and, with some revision, in the Olney Hymns (1779). There it had the heading "Walk with God" and included a reference to Enoch in Genesis 5:24. Although Cowper frequently battled depression, doubt, and melancholy, this text speaks of a very intimate walk with the Lord. That walk is rooted in Scripture, rejoices in conversion, and denounces all idols that would usurp God's sovereignty. This is one of the most beautiful, tender, and popular of Cowper's hymns.

The tune CAITHNESS derives from a melody in The Scottish Psalter of 1635, also known as ‘The Old Psalter’ or ‘John Knox’s Psalter’. This psalter, an incomplete version of which was published in 1561 for use in the Anglo-Scottish Church, was brought back from Geneva by the Scottish refugees who had fled there to escape the persecutions of the Reformation. The psalter was completed and issued in Edinburgh in 1564; it appeared in many later editions and served the churches for a century. The early editions contained melodies only but 1635 saw the publication of an edition which provided harmonized tunes.

O for a closer walk with God, a calm and heav'nly frame,
a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the blessedness I knew when first I sought the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their mem'ry still!
But they have left an aching void the world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove, return, sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn and drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be,
help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God, calm and serene my frame;
so purer light shall mark the road that leads me to the Lamb.

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was an Canadian organist and composer.  He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but is best known for his religious music.  Willan was born in England, and he began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne.  He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the Royal College of Organists' Associateship in 1897 and Fellowship in 1899. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910, Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant").  In 1913, Willan emigrated to Canada.  In 1921, he become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto), where he remained until his death.  St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians.  In 1920, the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan Head of its Theory Department.  In 1934, he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939.  From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur; in 1956, Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers", became the first non-English church musician to be so honored.  People who remember Willan from his time at St Mary Magdalene's like to moderate his somewhat dourly pious public image by quoting him: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption."


If You But Trust in God to Guide You – Daryl Hollinger


Georg Neumark (1621-1681) lived during the time of the Thirty Years' War, when social and economic conditions were deplorable. He had personal trials as well. On his way to Konigsberg to study at the university, traveling in the comparative safety of a group of merchants, he was robbed of nearly all his possessions. During the next two years he spent much of his time looking for employment. He finally secured a tutoring position in Kiel. When he had saved enough money, he returned to the University of Konigsberg and studied there for five years. In Konigsberg he again lost all his belongings, this time in a fire. Despite his personal suffering Neumark wrote many hymns in which he expressed his absolute trust in God. In 1651 he settled in Weimar, Thuringia, where he became court poet and archivist to Duke Johann Ernst and librarian and registrar of the city. Neumark wrote thirty-four hymns, of which "If You But Trust in God to Guide You" has become a classic.

Neumark wrote this text, literally translated “Who only lets dear God rule”, at age twenty, just after he had finally been able to find employment as a tutor for a judge in Kiel. Neumark was so relieved and grateful to God by his change in circumstance that he wrote this text, saying, “This good fortune, which came so suddenly and, as it were, from heaven, so rejoiced my heart that I wrote my hymn 'Wer nur den lieben Gott' to the glory of my God on that first day.”  Written in Kiel, Germany, in 1641, the seven-stanza text (“Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten”) had the following heading: "a hymn of consolation, that God will care for and preserve his own in his own time; after the saying 'cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.' Psalm 55:22." The text was published with the tune, also composed by Neumark, in Fortgepflanzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald (1657).  The hymn draws on parts of Psalm 55 as well as 1 Peter 3:8-15, which contains instructions to honor life and seek peace. This text is especially poignant in the context of the atrocities and violence of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), which would have still been fresh in the minds of the singers. 

If thou but trust in God to guide thee And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee, And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God's unchanging love Builds on the Rock that naught can move.

What can these anxious cares avail thee, These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee O'er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press The heavier for our bitterness.

Be patient and await His leisure In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whate'er thy Father's pleasure And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known To Him who chose us for His own.

God knows full well when times of gladness Shall be the needful thing for thee.
When He has tried thy soul with sadness And from all guile has found thee free,
He comes to thee all unaware And makes thee own His loving care.

Nor think amid the fiery trial That God hath cast thee off unheard,
That he whose hopes meet no denial Must surely be of God preferred.
Time passes and much change doth bring And sets a bound to everything.

All are alike before the Highest; 'Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest, To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought Who setteth up and brings to naught.

Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving, Perform thy duties faithfully,
And trust His Word, though undeserving, Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need The soul that trusted Him indeed.

Daryl Hollinger is my former classmate at the University of Montevallo and is a worship consultant, composer and author.  He recently was the Dean of the Chapel, Organist and adjunct faculty member at Lancaster Theological Seminary.  He is minister of music at First Congregational Church in Stockton, California, and has been active as a church musician for over thirty years.  

Toccata, from Symphony No. 5 – Charles-Marie Widor

The organ is back!  What better way to celebrate than with the most famous toccata of them all.

Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844-1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher, most notable for his ten organ symphonies.  Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889. The French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, reviver of the art of organ building, was a friend of the Widor family; he arranged for the talented young organist to study in Brussels in 1863 with Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens for organ technique and with the elderly François-Joseph Fétis, director of the Brussels Conservatoire, for composition. After this term of study Widor moved to Paris, where he resided for the rest of his life. At the age of 24 he was appointed assistant to Camille Saint-Saëns at Église de la Madeleine.

In January 1870, with the combined lobbying of Cavaillé-Coll, Saint-Saëns, and Charles Gounod, the 25-year-old Widor was appointed as "provisional" organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, the most prominent position for a French organist. The organ at St-Sulpice was Cavaillé-Coll's masterwork; the instrument's spectacular capabilities proved an inspiration to Widor. Despite his job's ostensibly "provisional" nature, Widor remained as organist at St-Sulpice for nearly 64 years, until the end of 1933. He was succeeded in 1934 by his former student and assistant, Marcel Dupré.

In 1890, upon the death of César Franck, Widor succeeded him as organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire. The class he inherited was initially stunned by this new teacher, who suddenly demanded a formidable technique and a knowledge of J.S. Bach's organ works as prerequisites to effective improvisation. Later (1896), he gave up this post to become composition professor at the same institution. Widor had several students in Paris who were to become famous composers and organists in their own right, most notably the aforementioned Dupré, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, Darius Milhaud, Alexander Schreiner, Edgard Varèse, and the Canadian Henri Gagnon. Albert Schweitzer also studied with Widor, mainly from 1899; master and pupil later collaborated on an annotated edition of J. S. Bach's organ works published in 1912–1914. Widor, whose own master Lemmens was an important Bach exponent, encouraged Schweitzer's theological exploration of Bach's music.

Among the leading organ recitalists of his time, Widor visited many different nations in this capacity, including Russia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Switzerland. In addition he participated in the inaugural concerts of many of Cavaillé-Coll's greatest instruments, notably Notre-Dame de Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Près, the Trocadéro and Saint-Ouen de Rouen.

Well known as a man of great culture and learning, Widor was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1892, and reached the rank of a Grand-Officier de la Legion d'honneur in 1933. He was named to the Institut de France in 1910, and was elected "Secrétaire perpetuel" (permanent secretary) of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1914, succeeding Henry Roujon.

In 1921, Widor founded the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau with Francis-Louis Casadesus. He was the Director until 1934, when he was succeeded by Maurice Ravel. His close friend, Isidor Philipp gave piano lessons there, and Nadia Boulanger taught an entire generation of new composers.

Widor wrote music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles (some of his songs for voice and piano are especially notable) and composed four operas and a ballet, but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. These include: ten Organ Symphonies, three Symphonies for orchestra with organ, Suite Latine, Trois Nouvelles Pièces, and six arrangements of works by Bach under the title Bach's Memento (1925). The organ symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire.

It is unusual for a work written for one instrument to be assigned the term "symphony." However, Widor was at the forefront of a revival in French organ music, which utilized a new organ design pioneered by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll that was "symphonic" in style. The organ of the Baroque and Classical periods was designed to project a clear and crisp sound capable of handling contrapuntal writing. Cavaillé-Coll's organs, on the other hand, had a much warmer sound and a vast array of stops that extended the timbre of the instrument. This new style of organ, with a truly orchestral range of voicing and unprecedented abilities for smooth crescendos and diminuendos, encouraged composers to write music that was fully symphonic in scope.

Widor's best-known single piece for the organ is the final movement, Toccata, from his Symphony for Organ No. 5, which is often played as a recessional at wedding ceremonies and at the close of the Christmas Midnight Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica (Vatican City). Although the Fourth Symphony also opens with a Toccata, it is in a dramatically different (and earlier) style. The Toccata from Symphony No. 5 is the first of the toccatas characteristic of French Romantic organ music, and served as a model for later works by Gigout, Boëllmann, Mulet, Vierne and Dupré. Widor was pleased with the worldwide renown this single piece afforded him, but he was unhappy with how fast many other organists played it. Widor himself always played the Toccata rather deliberately.

About the Choral Music:

Trust and Obey – Vernon Whaley

This hymn was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals. Towner provided the following account cited by Moody’s musical partner, Ira D. Sankey, in his biography, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns: “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”

Sammis is said to have composed the lines of the refrain upon receiving the letter: “Trust and obey—for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” As is the case with most gospel songs, these lines provide the central theme around which all of the stanzas were written. The text and tune first appeared in the 1887 collection, Hymns Old and New, and has been included in countless hymnals since. Methodist hymnals in the United States have carried it since 1897. 

Dr. Vernon Whaley was born in Jacksonville, N.C. He sang in church as a child and played the trumpet in the high school band. He has produced over 100 recording projects from 1985-2005 and is the primary editor of two hymnals. He started and maintained the music publishing company, Integra Music Group, which specializes in producing major works for young voices. He has served as a Minister of Music at several churches. He has served as Music Department Chair at Welch College and has taught as an associate professor of music at Cedarville University. He has published several articles and books through Thomas Nelson, Prism Music, Baker Books, and Lifeway.

            When we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word, what a glory he sheds on our way!

            Wile we do his good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.

            Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

            But we never can prove the delights of his love Until all on the altar we lay;

            For the favor he shows and the joy he bestows Are for them who will trust and obey.

            Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

            Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet, or we’ll walk by his side in the way;

            What he says we will do, where he sends we will go.  Never fear, only trust and obey.

            Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

            To be happy in Jesus, simply trust and obey.

About the Hymns:

Give to the Wind Thy Fears

“Give to the winds thy fears” (“Befiehl du deine Wege”) represents a collaboration of two ministers in two different centuries—each among the most influential of their time. 

Next to Martin Luther, Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) is the most significant Lutheran hymn writer. He was educated at the University of Wittenberg. In 1642 he moved to Berlin to assume the position as a tutor for the children of Andreas Barthold, and married Barthold’s daughter Anna Maria in 1655. Following his ordination in 1651, Gerhardt served several congregations as pastor and deacon until he was appointed archdeacon and pastor of the congregation at Lübben. Gerhardt refused to sign an edict from Elector Frederick Wilhelm I forbidding Lutheran pastors to preach on the doctrinal differences between Lutheran and Reformed theology. As a result, he was deposed from his ministerial office and prohibited from performing any clerical functions. 

He began writing hymns during his years as a tutor, and following his marriage, began publishing them. Gerhardt published this hymn in 1656 during his first pastorate in the village church in Mittenwald. It originally was 12 stanzas long with eight lines per stanza. In 1739, John Wesley reduced the number of stanzas to eight, and divided them into two parts: Part one began with “Commit thou all thy griefs” and part two begins with “Give to the winds thy fears.” Hymnologist Albert Bailey notes: “No doubt [Gerhardt] repeated these lines to himself many a time in the after years when, one by one four of his five children died, his influential position in Berlin was taken away, and his wife succumbed after a long illness, leaving him with a single surviving son.” 

John Wesley (1703-1791) immersed himself the hymns of the Moravians while sailing to Georgia in October 1735. While on board the ship, the Moravians practiced their Singstunde (singing meetings). The German version of our hymn was contained in this collection, prompting Carlton Young to suggest that the “first stanza may have been a comfort to Wesley during the stormy voyage to Georgia.” Wesley immediately began translating German hymns and included some in the 1737 Collection of Psalms and Hymns published in Charlestown—the first hymnal published in the American colonies. This hymn was first published in Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) in 16 stanzas in four lines apiece under the heading “Trust in Providence. From the German.” 

No doubt this hymn served as a comfort to the Wesley brothers as they traveled into hostile towns to spread the gospel.  Mr. Bailey describes one such incident that happened in Devizes in February 1747: “The mob opposition was worked up by the local Anglican clergyman who went from house to house to make the absurd charge that he heard Charles preach blasphemy at the University. When the crowd got underway, the leaders proved to be led by ‘the chief gentleman of the town,’ accompanied by ‘the jealous curate, dancing for joy.’ They surrounded the house where Wesley and his aides were staying, they broke the windows, ripped off the shutters and drove the horses into the pond. Next day they got out the fire engine and deluged the house in which Wesley had taken refuge, flooding all the rooms and ruining the stock-in-trade of the shopkeeper on the street floor. Local leaders of the Methodist Society were ducked in the pond.” 
Though the circumstances that Gerhardt and the Wesleys faced were different, this hymn must have served as a source of comfort for two influential leaders in two different cultures, languages and centuries. 

Stand by Me

The Rev. Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933) was one of the eminent preachers of Methodism at the turn of the 20th century. Emory University hymnologist James Abbington has called Tindley a “pastor, orator, poet, writer, theologian, social activist, ‘father of African American Hymnody,’ ‘progenitor of African American gospel music’ and ‘prince of preachers.’”  Dr. Abbington comments that biographies often refer to Tindley’s slave background, but that an autobiographical reference in his Book of Sermons (1932) implies that he was never a slave. However, economic conditions were very difficult after the death of Tindley’s mother, forcing his father to “hire him out.” African American scholar Bernice Johnson Reagon notes, “This practice was not unusual for freed Blacks. Hired-out workers often labored alongside slaves, experiencing much of the reality of the slave plantation. The major differences were that there was some remuneration . . . and hired-out workers did get the opportunity to go home.”

Tindley moved to Philadelphia as a young person, attending school at night. He said, “I made a rule to learn at least one new thing—a thing I did not know the day before—each day.” He was self-taught, never graduating from college or seminary, yet acquiring and reading more than 8,000 books in his library. He learned Greek through Boston School of Theology and Hebrew through a synagogue in Philadelphia. Tindley was awarded two honorary Doctorates of Divinity from colleges in North Carolina and Maryland.  Granted a license to preach from Bainbridge Street Methodist Church in Philadelphia, where he was employed as a janitor between 1880-1885, Tindley became a member of the Delaware Annual Conference. In 1902 he was assigned to Bainbridge Street Methodist Episcopal Church, this time as its pastor.  His return to the congregation as pastor was not universally appreciated, since he had served more than 15 years as their janitor; but Bainbridge Street’s 150th anniversary journal notes that “All were pleasantly surprised, for as Tindley mounted the rostrum, wearing a Prince Albert coat—then the garb of many African American Protestant preachers—he had the dignified bearing acquired during his previous appointments. They were further surprised when Tindley delivered a masterful, soul-gripping sermon that brought loud amens and ‘Praise God’ exclamations from his listeners.” Tindley inherited an overcrowded church that continued to grow quickly under his leadership. The area was economically depressed, especially for African Americans during this time. Our hymn undoubtedly speaks to the difficulties that many of Tindley’s parishioners faced.

One of the most famous of his many gospel songs is “Stand By Me,” for which he composed both the words and the music. It was included in a collection of hymns that he published in 1905, New Songs of Paradise, No. 6.  Life was not easy for many people in the northeastern United States at the turn of the 20th century. The hymn’s opening stanza draws upon images from a narrative found in three of the Gospels in which Christ rebukes the winds and stills the raging waters. Later stanzas paint a realistic picture of life’s struggles through apocalyptic references such as “the midst of tribulation,” “the host of hell assail” and “the midst of persecution.”

In its final stanza, “Stand By Me” provides the assurance that Christ has the power to overcome all suffering on earth. Comfort will finally come as we approach “chilly Jordan” though Christ, the “Lilly of the Valley.”  The song appears to focus on the petition of an individual singer for the Lord to “stand by me.” But congregational singing, by its nature, unifies its participants. When sung by a community of believers, a petition in the first-person singular may be transformed by those gathered as the body of Christ. “Stand by me” becomes, in effect, “stand by us.”