August 5, 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:

What a Friend We Have in Jesus – Dale Wood

Irish born Joseph M. Scriven (1819-1896) was 25 years old, in love and to be married. The day before his wedding his fiance died in a tragic drowning accident. Heartbroken, Joseph sailed from his homeland to start a new life in Canada. While in Canada working as a teacher, Joseph received word from Ireland that his mother was ill. He could not go to be with her, so he wrote a letter of comfort and enclosed one of his poems entitled “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.

Many years later a friend was sitting with Joseph, as he was very ill. During this visit, the friend was very impressed when he ran across his poems, including “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. As a result of this visit, almost 30 years after his letter of comfort to his mother, Joseph's poems were published in a book called Hymns and Other Verses. Soon thereafter, noted musician

Charles C. Converse (1834-1918) put music to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. Well-known musician and revivalist Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908) was a great admirer of Joseph Scriven. In 1875, Sankey came upon the music and words for “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and included it as the last entry in Sankey's Gospel Hymns Number 1.

The hymn also has many versions with different lyrics in multiple languages, such as the Japanese version "Itsukushimi Fukaki" (lit. "Deep Affection"), or a version sung during World War I with the line "When this bloody war is over" in place of the original title.  The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal notes, "In spite of the fact that this hymn, with its tune, has been criticized as being too much on the order of the sentimental gospel type, its popularity remains strong, and the hymn retains a place in modern hymnals." 

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.

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.

Fugue – Jean Francois Dandrieu

Jean-François Dandrieu (c. 1682- 1738) was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist.  He was born in Paris into a family of artists and musicians. A gifted and precocious child, he gave his first public performances when he was 5 years old, playing the harpsichord for King Louis XIV of France, and his court. In 1700, aged 18, he started playing the organ at the Saint-Merri church in Paris and became its titular organist in 1705. In 1721 he was appointed one of the four organists of the Chapelle royale of France. In 1733, he became the organist of the (now destroyed) church of St Barthelémy in the Île de la Cité. 

During his lifetime, only a small number of harpsichord and chamber works were published.  A volume of organ pieces was published posthumously in 1739. Dandrieu also published an academic treatise on accompaniment (Principes de l'accompagnement) in 1718, which now serves as an important source of information on the musical practice of the era.  Dandrieu's harpsichord writing is reminiscent of that of François Couperin, but with more effective use of counterpoint, which reminds the listener of German Baroque music.

About the Piano Music:

Blest Be the Tie that Binds – Stan Pethel

John Fawcett (1740-1817) was born into a poor family in Yorkshire, England, and was orphaned at age 12.  To survive, he accepted a lengthy apprenticeship to a tailor.  While still in his teens, he heard the great George Whitfield preach and became a Christian.  Fawcett became active in a Baptist church and was often asked to speak.  At age 25 (and newly married), he was invited to serve as pastor of a small church at Wainsgate.  The poor people of that little village were able to pay very little, and much of Fawcett's pay came as potatoes and other produce.  Once his wife, Mary, began having children, they found it difficult to survive.

Fawcett learned that the pastor of a large Baptist church in London was retiring, and he let the church know that he would be interested in serving them.  They called him to be their pastor at a much larger salary, so John and Mary packed their household and prepared to move.  But, as the story is told, Mary told John that she didn't think she could leave these people whom they had both learned to love, and John admitted that he shared her sentiment; so, the two of them unpacked the wagon and told the London church know they wouldn't be coming.

Fawcett, who wrote a number of hymns during his lifetime, wrote the hymn, "Blest Be the Tie," to convey his sentiments and those of his wife to the poor people among whom they had chosen to live.  Fawcett served that little church for the rest of his life –– 54 years in all.

 Lowell Mason arranged DENNIS and first published it in The Psaltery (1845), a hymnal he compiled with George. Webb. Mason attributed the tune to Johann G. Nageli (1773-1836) but included no source reference. Nageli presumably published the original melody as the setting for "0 selig, selig, wervor dir" in his Christliches Gesangbuch (1828). Nageli was an influential music educator who lectured throughout Germany and France. Influenced by Johann Pestalozzi, he published his theories of music education in Gangbildungslehre (1810), a book that made a strong impact on Lowell Mason. Nageli composed choral works, including settings of Goethe's poetry. He received his early instruction from his father, then in Zurich, where he concentrated on the music of ]. S. Bach. In Zurich, he also established a lending library and a publishing house, which published first editions of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and music by Bach, Handel, and Frescobaldi.  The tune name DENNIS is thought to refer to a town in Massachusetts.

Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne, We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, Our comforts, and our cares.

We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart, And hope to meet again.

Dr. Stan Pethel is Chair of the Fine Arts at Berry College near Rome, Georgia. He has been on the music faculty there since 1973. In addition to his duties as Chair of Fine Arts at Berry College Dr. Pethel teaches music theory, composition and arranging, world music, and low brass lessons. He is a widely published composer and arranger with over 1000 works in publication with 26 different publishers. His writing includes works for choir, piano, organ/piano duet, symphonic band, jazz ensemble, orchestra, handbells, solo instrument and piano, and various chamber music ensembles. He is a regular recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award.

About the Vocal Music:

Let Us Break Bread Together – William Cutter

          Anna Gann & Paul Burnett, duet

Some of the stanzas of this African American spiritual 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 the cup together on our knees, let us drink the cup 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. 

William Cutter has served as director of choral studies and professor of core studies in theory at Boston Conservatory. In 2001, Cutter founded the Conservatory's Vocal/Choral Intensive, a summer program for high-school singers, and he continues to serve as an artistic codirector, along with Patty Thom.  In addition to his work at the Conservatory, Cutter is director of choral programs at MIT. Since 1993, he has been the assistant conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

About the Hymns:

O Church of God, United

"O Church of God, United" was composed for a hymn search conducted by The Hymn Society of America (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada) for the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Evanston, Illinois, on the campus of Northwestern University, August 15-31, 1954, on the theme, "Jesus Christ – the Hope of the World." This contest attracted nearly 500 submissions. Though the hymn did not win the competition, its merit was recognized, appearing in the July 1954 issue of The Hymn, the journal of the Society, and included in a small collection entitled Eleven Ecumenical Hymns; written at the invitation of The Hymn Society of America in recognition of the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Evanston. Illinois. August, 1954.  The author, Frederick B. Morley (1884-1969) was born in Canada and educated at Syracuse University and Boston University School of Theology. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1915 and served churches in New Jersey and New York.

Published in a chapel hymnal for the Duke of Würtemberg (Gesangbuch der Herzogl, 1784), ELLACOMBE (the name of a village in Devonshire, England) was first set to the words "Ave Maria, klarer und lichter Morgenstern." During the first half of the nineteenth century various German hymnals altered the tune. Since ELLACOMBE's inclusion in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, where it was set to John Daniell's children's hymn "Come, Sing with Holy Gladness," its use throughout the English-speaking world has spread.

Many Gifts, One Spirit

Reverend Alvin Allison "Al" Carmines, Jr. (1936-2005) was a key figure in the expansion of Off-Off-Broadway theatre in the 1960s. Carmines attended Swarthmore College, majoring in English and philosophy, and then Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, earning a Bachelor of Divinity in 1961 and a Master of Sacred Theology in 1963.  Carmines was hired by Howard Moody as an assistant minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square Park, New York, to found a theater in the sanctuary of the Greenwich Village church in conjunction with playwright Robert Nichols. He began composing in 1962 and acted as well. His Bible study group grew into the Rauschenbusch Memorial United Church of Christ, with Carmines as pastor.

Carmines is perhaps best remembered in the church for the hymn "Many Gifts, One Spirit" #114 in the United Methodist Hymnal. He was commissioned by the United Methodist Women to write this hymn for their General Assembly in 1974.

July 29, 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:

What a Fellowship, What a Joy Divine – Carlton Young


“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” was published in 1887 with music by Anthony J. Showalter and lyrics by Showalter and Elisha Hoffman.  Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including "Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.

Anthony J. Showalter received letters from two friends who had lost their wives about the same time. He wrote back to express his sympathy, and included a verse of Scripture: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 KJV). As he thought about that text, he wrote the music and refrain to this hymn. He asked Elisha Hoffman to write the stanzas. The hymn was first published in 1887 in The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp, and Evangelistic Meetings, for which Showalter was an editor.  The text has three stanzas and a refrain. The theme of the text is the peace that comes from knowing that God will protect us, and how that knowledge removes our fears.

What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms;
what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms

Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, safe and secure from all alarms;
leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Carlton R. Young (b. 1926), was born in Hamilton, Ohio and served in the Air Force during World War II. A teacher, editor, composer and conductor, has the unique distinction of serving as editor of two revisions of hymnals for Methodists: The Methodist Hymnal, 1966; and The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989. Dr. Young, known to his friends as "Sam", has served on the faculties and directed graduate studies in church music at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University; and Scarritt College; and is emeritus Professor of Church Music at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He is a Past-President and Fellow of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and the first American to be named an honorary member of The British Methodist Church Music Society. He is the author of Music of the Heart: John and Charles Wesley on Music and Musicians (1995).  Founder of the Agape catalog for Hope, he has a choral series of anthems (The Carlton Young Choral Series) to his credit and continues to write and compose.

Processional for a Joyful Day – Dale Wood

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.

About the Piano Music:

My Lord, What a Morning – J. Bert Carlson

The 1790 U.S. census reported over 700,000 African-American slaves. The majority embraced Christianity with its promise of a life beyond suffering and hate. As a result, they created and performed songs, particularly the spiritual, combining European chromatic-scale melody lines with African rhythms and harmonies.  Thus, the spiritual is among the most important, vibrant, and enduring elements of American culture andis our first wholly American musical form. 

Slaves held informal, possibly secret, prayer meetings. Recalled former slave Wash Wilson: “Sometimes us sing and pray all night.” The spirituals sung in these meetings drew from hymns, the Bible, sermons, and African styles of singing. Most slaves could not read, so the spirituals helped to teach them the Bible. 

The spiritual “My Lord, What a Morning!”  proclaims that Jesus will return, just as he left, in his physical bodily form, on a cloud, and “wake the nations underground”—the dead—in supreme victory over the bitter cruelty of the grave (Acts 1:1-11) and was essentially derived from the hymn “Behold the Awful Trumpet Sounds.”  The original hymn, first published in Richard Allen’s 1801 hymnal, show where the slave composer received his inspiration:

Behold the awful trumpet sounds,
The sleeping dead to raise,
And calls the nations underground:
O how the saints will praise! …
The falling stars their orbits leave,
The sun in darkness hide:
The elements asunder cleave,
The moon turn’d into blood! …

Although the original hymn lies forgotten, the spiritual has maintained its popularity, with its uplifting view of a new world to come.

My Lord what a morning, When the stars begin to fall

You'll hear the trumpet sound, To wake the nations underground,
Look in my God's right hand When the stars begin to fall.

You will hear the sinner cry, To wake the nations underground,
Looking to my God’s right hand, When the stars begin to fall.

You will hear the Christian shout, To wake the nations underground,
Looking to my God’s right hand, When the stars begin to fall.

J. Bert Carlson (b. 1937), retired pastor, holds a Master of Music from Duquesne University School of Music and has served as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Whiting, NJ since 1997. Carlson wears many diverse hats as a piano teacher, organ recitalist, tenor soloist, musical director, and conductor as well as cofounder of the Chicago Oratorio Society and clinician for numerous workshops with an emphasis on choral methods, organ and hymn composition. His prodigious list of publications includes anthems, vocal songs, organ works, and piano works.

About the Cello Music:

Le Cygne – Camille Saint-Saens

     Javier Betancourt, cello

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835- 1921), also known by his nom de plume, Sannois, was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist of the Romantic era. Saint-Saëns' large body of music achieved a degree of commercial success as well as critical acclaim, so that he became one of the most popular composers in France during his lifetime. He started out as a child prodigy performer on both organ and piano, and soon began composing. Saint-Saëns earned the Legion d'honneur in 1868 for his work.  In performance, Saint-Saëns is said to have been "unequalled on the organ", and rivaled by only a few on the piano. However, Saint-Saëns's concert style was restrained, subtle, and cool; he sat unmoving at the piano. His playing was marked by extraordinarily even scales and passagework, great speed, and aristocratic refinement.

Le cygne, or The Swan, is the 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instruments but remains best known as a cello solo.  The slow cello melody is accompanied by almost constant broken chord figurations on the pianos. When performed as a separate movement, not in the context of The Carnival, The Swan is frequently played with accompaniment on only one piano. This is the only movement from The Carnival of the Animals that the composer allowed to be played in public during his lifetime. He thought the remaining movements were too frivolous and would damage his reputation as a serious composer. 

About the Hymns:

For the Beauty of the Earth

Folliott Piermont (1835-1917) was born in Bath, England and was a lay member of the Anglican Church. Following his graduation from Queen's College, Cambridge, he taught the classics for a time at Somerset College, later becoming a freelance writer. During his 82 years of life, Pierpoint published seven volumes of poems and hymn texts, many of them showing his love for nature. He is most remembered for this beautiful hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth.

Piermont was about 29 years old when he wrote the text for this joyful hymn.  It was a lovely day in late spring.  While enjoying the surrounding area of his native city of Bath, in England, he was inspired by the beautiful countryside with its winding cool and peaceful river, Avon, in the distance. The tuneful songbirds, the wind whispering over a vibrantly colored hillside, all seemed to be praising the Creator with their unrestrained gladness and peace.  Overwhelmed with emotion, he expressed his feelings of gratitude in the penning of this sacred song.  The text was inspired by Hebrews 13:15:  "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."  It first appeared in 1864 in a book of Eucharistic hymns and poems entitled Lyra Eucharistica, Hymns and Verses on The Holy Communion, Ancient and Modern, with other Poems with the title "The Sacrifice of Praise".

An early form of the tune DIX was composed by Conrad Kocher (1786-1872). Trained as a teacher, Kocher moved from Germany to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a tutor at the age of seventeen. But his love for the music of Haydn and Mozart impelled him to a career in music. He moved back to Germany in 1811, settled in Stuttgart, and remained there for most of his life. The prestigious Cotta music firm published some of his early compositions and sent him to study music in Italy, where he came under the influence of Palestrina's music. In 1821 Kocher founded the School for Sacred Song in Stuttgart, which popularized four-part singing in the churches of that region. He was organist and choir director at the Striftsckirche in Stuttgart from 1827 to 1865. Kocher wrote a treatise on church music, Die Tonkunst in der Kirche (1823), collected a large number of chorales in Zions Harfe (1855), and composed an oratorio, two operas, and some sonatas. William H. Monk created the current form of DIX by revising and shortening Conrad Kocher's chorale melody for “Treuer Heiland, wir sind hir,” found in Kocher's Stimmen aus den Reiche Gottes (1838). Monk's tune was published in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, of which Monk was music editor.

Spirit Song

John Wimber (1934-1997), one of the 20th century's leading charismatic pastors, is known primarily as a founder of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. He was educated at Fuller Theological Seminary and graduated from Azusa Pacific University. He served first as pastor to the Society of Friends in Yorba Linda, Calif., beginning in 1970, and then moved in 1978 to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif.  In 1982, he became senior pastor of the Vineyard Fellowship in 1983. 

"Spirit Song," written in 1979, is the most lasting musical contribution from Wimber. It appears widely in hymnals and is one of the more popular new hymns in The United Methodist Hymnal.  The song encourages an intimate relationship between the singer and Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If the singer will surrender "all the things that hold you," the Holy Spirit will descend "like a dove... upon your life and make you whole." 

July 22, 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:

Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held – Johann Christoph Oley

Johann Scheffler (1624-1677) was born in Silesia. His father, Stanislaus Scheffler, was a member of the Polish nobility, but had been forced to leave his fatherland because of his adherence to Lutheranism. Johann was thus educated as a strict Lutheran. After passing through the St. Elisabeth's Gymnasium at Breslau, he attended at the University of Strassburg to study medicine. He went to Leyden and Padua, where he graduated with a Ph.D. and M.D.  Thereafter he returned to Silesia and, was appointed private physician to Duke Sylvius Nimrod of Württemberg-Oels. The Duke was a staunch Lutheran, and his court preacher, Christoph Freitag, administered the ecclesiastical affairs of the district according to the strictest Lutheran churchly orthodoxy. Scheffler had become acquainted with the writings of Jakob Böhme, and had become a personal friend of Abraham von Frankenberg, the editor of Böhme's works. He soon found that the spiritual atmosphere of Oels did not suit him. His own leanings at this time were distinctly to Mysticism and Separatism. He withdrew from public worship, from confession, and from the Holy Communion. When he wished to publish his poems, and submitted them for this purpose to Freitag, he was refused permission to print them on the grounds of their mystical tendencies. He resigned his post and went to Breslau where he became acquainted with the Jesuits, and through them was introduced to the study of the mediaeval mystics of the Roman Catholic Church.  He was formally received into the Roman Catholic communion, and at his confirmation on that day at St. Matthias's Church in Breslau, he took the name of Angelus, probably after a Spanish mystic of the 16th cent, named John ab Angelis.  The Emperor Ferdinand III conferred on him the title of Imperial Court Physician, but this was purely honorary, and Scheffler remained at Breslau. He entered the order of St. Francis, was ordained priest at Neisse in Silesia, and was appointed Rath and Hofmarschall to his friend Sebastian von Rostock, the newly created Prince Bishop of Breslau. After the Bishop's death in 1671, Scheffler retired to the monastery of St. Matthias in Breslau,

Scheffler's most important hymnological work is his Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirten-Lieder, der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche, gesungen von Johann Angelo Silesio, und von Herrn Georgio Josepho mit aussbündig schönen Melodeyen geziert, &c.  These hymns are the work of a true poet, almost perfect in style and in beauty of rhythm, concise and profound; the fruits indeed it may be said of Mysticism, but of Mysticism chastened and kept in bounds by deep reverence and by a true and fervent love to the Saviour. Scheffler holds a high place among German sacred poets, and is the finest of the Post-Reformation Roman Catholic hymn-writers.

In some English books Scheffler appears as a composer of hymn-tunes. This is a mistake, for the melodies in the Heilige Seelenlust are by Georg Joseph, a musician living at that time in Breslau.

“Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held”, founded on Matthew 16:24, has been characterised as a masterpiece of Scriptural didactic poetry. It was published in Scheffler's Heilige Seelenlust  in 6 stanzas, titled "She [the Soul] encourages to the following of Christ."   “Come, follow me, our Lord doth call” is a good translation of four stanzas by A. T. Russell, as in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book, 1848.

            “Come follow me,” our Lord doth call, “self and the world forsaking:

            My path pursue: O come ye all, your cross upon you talking.

            I am the Light, and I the Way, So shall you not in darkness stray.

            “My heart is all humility; My soul with love o’erfloweth,

            Sweet peace on you, peace from on high, My every word bestoweth.

            All ill to shun, - to cleanse the heart, - Such knowledge do my lips impart.

            “I am the refuge of the soul; I am the gate of heaven;

            Is danger near? I all control; To guide you, I am given.

            I go before you.  Shame to those Who fear with me to meet their foes.”

            Then let us each his cross sustain, Our Savior’s path pursuing;

            Each willingly endure the pain, With Him our strength renewing.

            For ne’er to him who fears the strife, will Jesus give the crown of life.

Johann Christoph Oley (1738-1789) was a German organist and composer. There is some evidence that he studied with J.S. Bach for a short time in 1749.  In 1755, he became organist of the church in Bernburg, but moved to the church of St Stephan in neighboring Aschersleben in January 1762, because of its superior organ. To augment his salary, he assumed the duties of assistant schoolmaster as well.  Contemporaries praised Johann Christoph Oley’s skill on the keyboard and organ, and his compositions attracted some interest. His organ writing reminded Johann Friedrich Agricola, another Bach pupil, of the glories of an earlier age.  

Tuba Tune – C. S. Lang

The Tuba is the one of most powerful organ stops. While some authorities describe this chorus reed as a large-scaled Trumpet, others characterize its tone as being more “closed” than that of the Trumpet. Indeed, Bonavia-Hunt states that some Tubas are close-toned, while others are free-toned in the French manner. The closed-toned variety was developed in England, first introduced in 1825 under the name Ophicleide by William Hill, and later perfected by Henry Willis. A minimum of 8" to 10" of wind is required (compared to 3-4” for the rest of the organ), and higher pressures are common. It is constructed in the manner of a large-scale Trumpet, though often with closed shallots. Double-length resonators are often used, even triple-length in the treble. It is most commonly found at 8' pitch.

Craig Sellar Lang 1891-1971) was a New Zealand-born British organist, composer and music teacher.  Born in Hastings, New Zealand, CS Lang (known to his friends as "Robin") was educated at Clifton College and the Royal College of Music.  He was an ARCM and received his Doctor of Music from The University of Durham. In 1929 he was appointed Director of Music at Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex, where the choristers of Westminster Abbey were briefly evacuated to during the Second World War. Lang resigned from this post in 1945 in order to devote more time to examining and composition. His instructional works, aimed at students, were highly influential. Generations of organists were brought up on his Harmony at the Keyboard, Exercises in Score Reading, as well as his books entitled Exercises for Organists, designed to prepare organ students for the keyboard tests of the Royal College of Organists' diploma exams.  An obituary recorded his "personal magnetism" and determination to awaken "the budding musicianship of every sort of pupil".

CS Lang's choral music includes service settings (such as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B flat, Op.16), and anthems such as He shall give his angels charge over thee (1941). There are also many anthems for trebles' voices, composed for use at Christ's Hospital, as well as numerous secular choral works.  His best-known work is the Tuba Tune for organ, Opus 15, a favourite of recitalists. This dashing little piece, which owes its title to the boisterous melody sounded forth on the organ's tuba stop, begins in the style of Handel but, in its central section, has some brief key changes that could belong to no century except the 20th. Lang's numerous other works for organ include a lengthy Sonata in D minor (Op. 47, 1947), the Introduction and Passacaglia in A minor (Op.51, 1952), the Fugue-Trilogy on E.G.B. (Op. 58, 1952), and many hymn preludes and sets of preludes and fugues.

About the Piano Music:

Children’s Song Medley – Mark Hayes

The song “Jesus Loves the Little Children” has been listed as a hymn, a prayer, and a nursery rhyme. It is one of the first songs small children learn in church, perhaps second only to Jesus Loves Me.

The tune was written by George Frederick Root as an 1864 Civil War tune titled “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching.”  Root (1820-1895) studied in Boston, New York, and Paris. He became an established music educator and composer, noted for sacred and patriotic music. Among his credits are “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Just Before the Battle, Mother,” “The Shining Shore,” and “The First Gun Is Fired” which was written in April 1861 after the firing on Fort Sumter.

In 1853, with William Bradbury, Root established the New York Institute for “affordable instruction and especially quality teachers of music.” The Institute was in business until 1871 when it was destroyed by fire. Named after George Frideric Handel, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970

Later the words of “Jesus Love the Little Children” were written for the tune by one of Root’s favorite lyricists, Clare Herbert Woolston. There is little information about Chicago-born C. Herbert Woolston (1856-1927). However, the songwriter is said to have been inspired by Matthew 19:14 where Jesus says, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” In this verse, the disciples were afraid the children would bother Jesus, but Jesus wants children to come to him.

Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world

Red, brown, yellow, black and white: They are precious in His sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus died for all the children, All the children of the world

Red, brown, yellow, black and white: They are precious in His sight.

Jesus died for all the children of the world.

Jesus rose for all the children, All the children of the world

Red, brown, yellow, black and white: They are precious in His sight.

Jesus rose for all the children of the world.

"I'll Be a Sunbeam" (also called "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam") is a popular children's Christian hymn composed by Nellie Talbot; it is sung to music composed in 1900 by Edwin O. Excell. Published in Chicago by Excell in his Praises in 1905, the words and music were anthologized at least three more times in other hymnals before 1923. Virtually nothing is known about lyricist Nellie Talbot; attempts to search census records suggest that she may have been born in Missouri in 1874 and was living in Chicago in 1910, but these identifications are speculative. Edwin Othello Excell (December 13, 1851 – June 10, 1921), commonly known as E. O. Excell, was a prominent American publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was born in Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio and attended public schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After marrying in 1871 near Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania, he relocated to that state and supported his family for several years as a plasterer, bricklayer, and singing instructor.^[7] His focus was turned to sacred music through his experience leading songs at revivals and worship services of Methodist Episcopal churches, first in East Brady and then, starting in 1881, Oil City, Pennsylvania. Between 1877 and 1883 he studied music formally at the Normal Musical Institutes of George F. Root where he also received vocal training under Root's son, Frederick. He moved to Chicago, base of Root's operations, in 1883 to pursue music publishing in earnest.Excell compiled or contributed to about ninety secular and sacred song books and is estimated to have written, composed, or arranged more than two thousand of the songs he published.  The music publishing business he started in 1881 and that eventually bore his name was the highest volume producer of hymnbooks in America at the time of his death.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, To shine for Him each day;
In every way try to please Him, At home, at school, at play.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.

Jesus wants me to be loving, And kind to all I see;
Showing how pleasant and happy His little one can be.

I will ask Jesus to help me To keep my heart from sin,
Ever reflecting His goodness, And always shine for Him.

I’ll be a sunbeam for Jesus; I can if I but try;
Serving Him moment by moment, Then live with Him on high.

The author of the hymn “Praise Him, Praise Him, All Ye Little Children” is unknown.  The tune, BONNER, was written by Carey Bonner (1859-1938), who entered the Baptist ministry after studying at Rawdon College, and held pastorates at Sale, Manchester and Portland, Southampton. He was Secretary of the Sunday School Union and edited words and music of the Garland of New Sunday School Music (issued in parts, 1881 and 1882; complete edition 1886), and the S. S. Hymnary, 1905; and the music of the Christian Endeavour Hymnal, 1896, and the Junior Hymnal, 1906.

Praise him, praise him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love;
Praise him, praise him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love.

Love him, love him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love;
Love him, love him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love.

Thank him, thank him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love,
Thank him, thank him, all ye little children, God is love, God is love.

Mark Hayes is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling over 1,000 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds.  Mark received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in Piano Performance from Baylor University in 1975. He has conducted the SWACDA and MCDA Community and Church Honor Choir, and served as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, featuring his Te Deum and Magnificat. In 2010, Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies awarded Mark the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music. Mark arranged and orchestrated the music for Civil War Voices, which won six awards including "Best Musical" in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York. He conducted the world premiere of his work for chorus, orchestra and narrator, The American Spirit, at Lincoln Center in May 2011 and the world premiere of his Requiem in Lincoln Center in May 2013.  Whether concertizing on the other side of the globe or composing at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark is blessed to live out his mission "to create beautiful music for the world".

About the Choral Music:

Swing Low – Dick Anthony

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is among the most treasured and widely recognized African American spirituals.  It was placed in the National Archives by the Library of Congress and identified as one of the “Songs of the Century” by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.  It was first recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1909.  But while the spiritual’s music and lyrics are widely known, the song’s history is a bit cloudy. According to many accounts, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was one of the spirituals born from the experience of slaves in the first decades of the 19th century.  Composed by unknown slaves over time and passed orally from community to community, the song allegedly voiced slaves’ hopes that ultimately they would find comfort in a heavenly home. 

Yet some music historians have added another layer to this account of the song’s origins.  They have argued that “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was one of the spirituals that conveyed a secret meaning to slaves.  Slave spirituals did a lot more than offer a promise of eventual redemption; they also offered specific strategies needed to escape.  For example, “Wade in the Water” taught runaway slaves how to throw off the bloodhounds sent to track them down.  “Follow the Drinking Gourd” provided slaves with an elaborate coded map that would lead them to the North and freedom: the refrain told them to keep their eye on the Big Dipper (the drinking gourd) as the stars marking the edge of its cup pointed to Polaris, the North Star.   According to these historians, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” was another in this collection of coded spirituals.  In fact, according to some, it was one of Harriet Tubman’s favorites.  The heroic conductor on the Underground Railroad made her own escape to freedom in 1849.  She returned south the next year to lead her sister and her two children north.  Over the next ten years, she made another 18 trips into slave states and escorted an estimated 300 slaves to freedom.  Legend has it that slaves sang “Swing low sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home” to announce that Tubman or another “conductor” would be arriving soon to lead them to freedom.

Yet while Tubman’s heroics were real, not everyone is convinced that the spiritual played a part in her adventures.  In fact, most music historians now believe that the song’s writer is not even unknown.  The composer, “Uncle Wallis” Willis, was a slave in Mississippi before the Civil War.  But his owner was not your typical Southern planter—Britt Willis was a Choctaw Indian.  Britt Willis was among the Choctaws forced to move west, and he took his slaves, including Wallis, with him.  In the Oklahoma Territory, Britt succeeded in rebuilding his life on a large plantation near Doaksville, and it is quite possible that Wallis wrote “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” while living as a slave there.  Ironically, though, the song circulated first among young Choctaw boys, not among slaves.  Britt hired Wallis out to the Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boys’ school, and this song was one of several that that Wallis sang to entertain the students.  In fact, according to some accounts, the song was not widely circulated among African Americans until after the Civil War, when the superintendent of the Spencer Academy, Alexander Reid, shared the song with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

The song’s power may lie in that it was born in the convergence of two great tragedies within American history: the horrors of African slavery and the injustice of Native American removal. Its prayer that someday the singers would find a resting place could as easily speak to one mistreated people as the other.

Dick Anthony (b. 1932) born into a Baptist family which was very involved with religious music.  His aunt was the organist for the Waukegan church his family attended and both of his parents were members of the church choir.  He began studying music at age seven; his parents hoped he would be able to play for church services. He graduated in 1949 from Waukegan Township High School, attended Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota, and majored in vocal performance at American Conservatory of Music, Chicago. Anthony worked as a radio presenter with Jack Wyrtzen's "Word of Life" radio broadcasts and "Songtime" weekly show on the ABC television network from New York City. He worked with gospel songwriter John W. Peterson on a daily radio program called "Cheer Up.  Anthony published more than 30 collections of original compositions and arrangements for various vocal and instrumental groups.  In 1995 Anthony retired to Fort Worth, Texas where he served for 14 years as organist at Birchman Baptist Church. In 2015, Anthony was recognized for his years of work with Moody Radio with a Media Award from the National Religious Broadcasters.

            Swing low, sweet chariot, Comin’ for to carry me home!

            I looked over Jordan, and what did I see? A band of angels comin’ after me.

            If you get to heaven before I do, Tell all my friends that I’m a-comin’ too.

About the Hymns:

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

"The Hymn of Joy" (often called "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" after the first line) is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of musically setting it to the famous "Ode to Joy" melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's final symphony, Symphony No. 9.   Van Dyke wrote this poem in 1907 while staying at the home of Williams College president Harry Augustus Garfield. He was serving as a guest preacher at Williams at the time. He told his host that the local Berkshire Mountains had been his inspiration. The lyrics were first published in 1911 in Van Dyke's Book of Poems. 

Van Dyke wrote of this hymn: “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.”  This hymn is generally considered by hymnologists to be one of the most joyous expressions of hymn lyrics in the English language.

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. In 1908–09 Dr. van Dyke was an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors.  Among his popular writings are the two Christmas stories, The Other Wise Man (1896) and The First Christmas Tree (1897). Various religious themes of his work are also expressed in his poetry, hymns and the essays collected in Little Rivers (1895) and Fisherman’s Luck (1899).

You Are Mine

David Robert Haas (b. 1957) is an American author and composer of contemporary Catholic liturgical music.  Haas studied vocal music performance and conducting at Central Michigan University, and has his degree in theology and music from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. In addition to serving in parish liturgical ministry in Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota over the years, he also served as composer-in-residence at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, Minnesota; and was also campus minister and artist-in-residence at Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where he taught in the music and theology departments. In 1999, Haas began the program MUSIC MINISTRY ALIVE!, a five-day liturgical program for youth and adult leaders that takes place on the campus of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He has produced over forty-five original collections and recordings of liturgical music.  He is also the author of over 20 books on the topics of liturgy, music ministry, spirituality, religious education, and youth ministry.  Haas lives in Eagan, Minnesota, where he is the director of the Emmaus Center for Music, Prayer and Ministry. In the fall of 2011, Haas began work at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a member of the Campus Ministry team there and is leader of the liturgical choir that sings at prayer gatherings throughout the school year. Haas is active as a cantor at St. Cecilia's Parish in St. Paul.

Haas has drawn the text for “You are Mine” from Isaiah 43.  An oracle of salvation, God gives his people a word of assurance and hope. Do not be afraid, “I will lift you from fear”. But perhaps even more than that, He not only declares that He created and formed us, but He also “summoned you by name, you are mine” says the Lord.  This salvation story discussed in Isaiah is no doubt a recollection of the Exodus and God’s saving act to bring the people through the rivers, but the rivers would not sweep over them. God’s saving act, which brings His people from the bondage to freedom, ultimately in the promised land.  God will bring us, whom he created, and formed, and has summoned by name, from the bondage of this earth to the promised land. And the first reminder is that “when we pass through the waters (the Jordan), He will be with us. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. And when we walk through the fire, we shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”  God makes a decisive statement of fact for those who belong to the House of God, “You are mine!”