August 12, 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:

The King of Love My Shepherd Is – Sam Batt Owens

“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” is an Anthony G. Petti (1932-1985) adaption of the 1868 Sir Henry W. Baker (1821-1877) paraphrase of Psalm 23. Baker took Holy Orders in the Church of England in 1844. He was closely associated with hymnody in the Church. Besides writing, translating, and composing a number of hymns, his most notable role was as Ed­it­or-in-Chief of the first edition of Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern (1861) which sold over 60 million copies.  “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” has proven to be his most enduring work. It is said that as he lay dying his final words were those of the 3rd stanza: "Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me; and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me." It is sung to the tune: St. Columba, a traditional Irish melody.

            The King of love my Shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never;

            I nothing lack if I am His, and He is mine forever.

            Where streams of living water flow my ransomed soul He leadeth,

            And, where the verdant pastures grow, with food celestial feedeth.

            Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, but yet in love He sought me,

            And on His shoulder gently laid, and home rejoicing brought me.

            In death’s dark vale I fear no ill with Thee, dear Lord, beside me;

            Thy rod and staff my comfort still, Thy cross before to guide me.

            Thou spread’st a table in my sight; Thy unction grace bestoweth;

            And oh, what transport of delight from Thy pure chalice floweth.

            And so through all the length of days Thy goodness faileth never;

            Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise within Thy house forever.

Sam Batt Owens (1928-1998) enjoyed a long career as a well-known organist, composer, and church musician. He received a B. Mus. in organ performance, from the Birmingham Conservatory of Music, a M. Mus. in organ performance and composition from Birmingham- Southern College, and a D.M.A. in organ performance and musicology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.  Owens taught at Birmingham Conservatory of Music, Birmingham Southern College, Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School, and Christ School for Boys in Arden, N.C. He held his fIrst position as an organist at age 12, and began solo organ performances at age 16. He wrote more than 200 choral, organ, instrumental and solo vocal compositions. He was one of the Episcopal Church's leading musicians. He was President of the Association of Anglican Musicians from 1989-1991. In 1996, he had left his position at St. Andrew's on-the-Sound in Wilmington, N.C., to become a consultant for parishes and dioceses in artistic matters and a crusader for fair compensation and recognition of church musicians. In his later years he taught congregations in smaller parishes how to be full participants in corporate worship, presenting "music in liturgy and how music upholds and supports corporate worship."

They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love – Lani Smith

Peter Scholtes (1938–2009) wrote the hymn "They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" while he was a parish priest at St. Brendan's on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960s. At the time, he was leading a youth choir out of the church basement and was looking for an appropriate song for a series of ecumenical, interracial events. When he couldn't find such a song, he wrote the now-famous hymn in a single day. It is inspired by John 13:35. It was released on an LP of the same name featuring the congregation of Scholtes' church singing this hymn and others.  His experiences at St. Brendan's, and in the Chicago Civil Rights movement, influenced him for the rest of his life.

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,
and we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

We will walk with each other, will walk hand in hand,
We will walk with each other, will walk hand in hand,
And together we'll spread the news, that God is in our land

We will work with each other, we will work side by side,
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll save each man's dignity, and guard each man's pride.

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come,
And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son
And all praise to the Spirit, that makes us one.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

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

About the Piano Music:

Let Streams of Living Justice Flow - Marianne Kim

Set to Gustav Holst’s THAXTED, “Let streams of living justice” was written by William Whitla (b. 1934) in 1989 as a response to the events in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, China; and dedicated to the mothers of the disappeared (in Argentina), the author’s home community of Holy Trinity in Toronto, and the people of Tiananmen Square. It was first published in Sing Justice, Do Justice (1998).

THAXTED is based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where he resided much of his life. He adapted the theme in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country" by Cecil Spring Rice but that was as a unison song with orchestra.  It did not appear as a hymn-tune called THAXTED until his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926.

Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth.
Give freedom’s light to captives; let all the poor have worth.
The hungry’s hands are pleading; the workers claim their rights,
The mourners long for laughter, the blinded seek for sight.
Make liberty a beacon, strike down the iron power.
Abolish ancient vengeance. Proclaim your people’s hour.

The dreaded disappearance of family and friend,
The torture and the silence – the fear that knows no end.
The mother with her candle, the child who holds a gun,
The old one nursing hatred – all seek release to come.
Each candle burns for freedom, each light’s a tyrant’s fall.
Each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.

For healing of the nations, for peace that will not end.
For love that makes us lovers, God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together: knit our lives as they are spun.
On your loom of life enrol us till the thread of life is run.
O great Weaver of our fabric, bind church and world in one.
Dye our texture with your radiance, light our colours with your sun.

Your city’s built for music: we are the stones you seek.
Your harmony is language. We are the words you speak.
Our faith we find in service, our hope in other’s dreams.
Our love in hand of neighbour. Our homeland brightly gleams.
Inscribe our hearts with justice, your way – the path untried:
Your truth – the heart of stranger, your life – the Crucified.

A Chicago‑based composer, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, Marianne Kim (b. 1972) has been noted for her vibrant performances and compositions in a wide diversity of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, R&B, and gospel, alongside traditional and contemporary church music.  Born and raised in Korea, Marianne studied piano and composition at Pusan High School of Arts and earned a BM in composition at Pusan National University. After working professionally for more than a decade in the United States, she returned to school and earned dual Masters of Music in jazz studies and organ performance with scholarships and prizes from Northern Illinois University.

About the Choral Music:

Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul – John W. Peterson

John Willard Peterson (1921-2006) is probably the most influential hymn writer of the latter part of the twentieth century and certainly among the most prolific. He wrote well over a thousand songs, as well as 35 cantatas and musicals. His songs are singable, and their declaration of Bible truth is clear and helpful.  As with many hymn writers, Peterson was sensitive to the spiritual application of events happening around him. Sometimes a random comment, or a meaningful phrase, gave him the idea of a song. On one occasion he was assisting with the music at the Montrose Bible Conference. In a morning meeting, time was given for testimonies. Peterson says: “An old gentleman rose to his feet to tell of the saving work of God in his heart. As he spoke, his face glowed, especially when he rehearsed the night when he came to Jesus Christ. “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul” was the way he explained it.”  John Peterson jotted down the phrase, and later that week wrote both words and music for a joy-filled gospel song.

Born in Lindsborg, Kansas, he served as an Army Air Force pilot flying the China Hump during World War II. Later, he attended Moody Bible Institute and served on the radio staff there for a number of years.  In 1953, he graduated from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and shortly thereafter settled in Pennsylvania to continue his song writing career. He then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where for over ten years he was President and Editor-in-Chief of Singspiration, a sacred music publishing company. While there, he compiled and edited a hymnal called Great Hymns of the Faith, 1961. He also served on the board of Gospel Films, Inc. of Muskegon, Michigan.  In 1986, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

            Heaven came down, heaven came down!

            O what a wonderful, wonderful day – Day I will never forget;

            After I’d wandered in darkness away, Jesus my savior I met.

            O what a tender compassionate friend – He met the need of my heart;

            Shadows dispelling, with joy I am telling, He made all the darkness depart!

            Now I’ve a hope that will surely endure After the passing of time;

            I have a future in heaven for sure, there in those mansions sublime.

            And it’s because of that wonderful day When at the cross I believed;

            Riches eternal And blessings supernal From His previous hand I received.

            Heaven came down and glory filled my soul, filled my soul,

            When at the cross the Savior made me whole; made me whole;

            My sins were washed away, washed away, And my night was turned to day,

            Heaven came down and glory filled my Soul! Filled my soul!

About the Hymns:

This is a Day of New Beginnings

Brian Arthur Wren (b. 1936) is Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Brian holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is a Minister of the United Reformed Church (UK). Wren provides an account of the composition of this text in notes provided in one of the collection of his texts, Faith Looking Forward (1983). The hymn was “written for a New Year’s Day service [1978] at Holy Family Church, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. In itself, the new year is an arbitrary convention, its newness a mere mark on the calendar. The recurrent awakening of life in nature is not a strong enough foundation for hope of real change. Yet by faith in the really new events of the Christian story, a day, or a month, or an hour can become charged with promise, and be a springboard to a changed life.”

As one of the leading hymnwriters of our time, Dr. Wren has contributed more hymns to the UM Hymnal (1989) than any other hymnwriter currently living. This text is supported by a melody composed by Dr. Young (b. 1926), one of the leading tune writers of this day.

Help Us Accept Each Other

Fred Kaan (1929-2009), though ordained in the United Reformed Church and serving in England, was a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands.  Carlton R. Young, editor of The UM Hymnal, says of Kaan, “His 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 that 15 languages. Kaan died at the age of 80 after a long struggle with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Though one of the most prophetic and vigorous voices in 20th-century hymnody has been silenced, we shall continue to sing his hymns.

Kaan explains the origins of the hymn, “Help us accept each other”: “This text was set in motion upon reading a Bible study article Mrs. Jackie Mattonen had written for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the USA. . . . It was almost accidentally and at the last moment included in the fourth edition of Cantate Domino [an ecumenical and cross-cultural hymnal published by the World Council of Churches in 1974], … and it so happened that my “Hymn of acceptance” was just the right length to fill the two blank pages that needed filling.”   The text appeared in Kaan’s collection Break Not the Circle (1975) for the first time in the U.S. This is one of the most powerful hymns on reconciliation and forgiveness composed in the last half of the 20th century. Romans 15:7 provides a scriptural basis for stanza 1: “Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to God’s glory.” The hymn also reflects Ephesians 4:15: “But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.” 

The hymn tune ACCEPTANCE, by John Ness Beck (1930-1987), was originally published as a four-part anthem to "Help Us Accept Each Other" (1977) by Fred Kaan. The tune features a consistently syncopated rhythmic pattern in each of its four lines.

The Good               The Bad                   The Ugly