September 30, 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:

I Need Thee Every Hour - Dale Wood

Annie S. Hawks’ (1836-1918) poems first began appearing in newspapers when she was 14 years old. She married Charles H. Hawks in 1857. They lived in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Hanson Place Baptist Church, where Robert Lowry was pastor. She wrote 400 hymns in her life, mostly for use in Sunday schools.

“I Need Thee Every Hour” was written by Hawks in 1872. She showed Lowry her poem, and he wrote the lyrics of the refrain and the tune. The song was first sung publicly at the 1872 meeting of the National Baptist Sunday School Association in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its first publication was in 1873 in a Sunday School hymnbook compiled by Lowry and William H. Doane, Royal Diadem for the Sunday School.

When this hymn was first published in 1873, this Bible verse was included underneath the title: “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5 KJV). Each of the first four stanzas of this hymn dwells on a different facet of our dependence on God: our need for His peace, our inability to resist temptation alone, our need to find true meaning in life, and our desire to see God's promises fulfilled. The fifth stanza is an intense plea for God's presence.

I need Thee every hour, Most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee;

Oh, bless me now, my Savior! I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, Stay Thou near by;

Temptations lose their power When Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, In joy or pain;

Come quickly and abide, Or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour, Teach me Thy will;

And Thy rich promises In me fulfill.

I need Thee every hour, Most Holy One;

Oh, make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

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.

Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major - J. S. Bach

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

We conclude our “Bach to School Celebration” with the Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major.

About the Piano Music:

This is My Father’s World - Lynette Maynard

This is My Father's World was written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858-1901), a minister from New York. When Babcock lived in Lockport, he took frequent walks along the Niagara Escarpment to enjoy the overlook's panoramic vista of upstate New York scenery and Lake Ontario, telling his wife he was "going out to see the Father's world". Shortly after his death in 1901, she published a compilation of Babcock's writings entitled Thoughts for Every-Day Living that contained the poem "My Father's World." The original poem contained sixteen stanzas of four lines each. In 1916, Franklin Sheppard chose only three verses of the sixteen when he set the poem to music to a tune entitled TERRA BEATA (Latin for "Blessed Earth"). Most sources state that Sheppard adapted the music from a traditional English melody that he learned from his mother as a child. 

Scripture references in the original poem include Psalm 33:5 "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love." and Psalm 50:12 "For the world is mine, and all that is it."  In ancient times, people believed that as the planets revolved in the universe, they made music or harmony. This is the belief Maltbie Babcock referred to in the line, “and round me rings the music of the spheres.” Though this belief has since been disproven, we know that objects in space do in fact emit sounds. Even more amazing, the ocean is also making noises at its very lowest and darkest depths - sounds which scientists are still unable to identify. The whole universe is singing a song of its creation, revealing something to us about He who created it.  The author shifts his focus in the final stanza from describing the visual and aural beauty of nature to the reality that all is not right with the world. Babcock observes “that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” The closing couplet, posing and answering a question, offers hope: “Why should my heart be sad?... God reigns, let the earth be glad.”

This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world. The birds their carols raise,

The morning light, the lily white Declare their maker's praise.

This is my Father's world. I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas.  His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world. Oh, let me never forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father's world. Why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is king, let the heavens ring, God reigns, let the earth be glad.

This is my Father's world.  He shines in all that's fair.

In the rustling grass, I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere.

Lynette Maynard is organist and pianist at Woodinville Community United Methodist Church, Woodinville, Washington.

About the Choral Music:

At the Name of Jesus – Cindy Berry

Since 1985, this gem has been a recognized standard in church choral literature. The text has been adapted from Philippians 2:6-11.  The appeal to humility (Phil 2:3) and to obedience (Phil 2:12) is rooted in christology, specifically in a statement about Christ Jesus (Phil 2:6–11) and his humbling of self and obedience to the point of death (Phil 2:8).  Therefore, the appeal is to have in relations among yourselves that same relationship you have in Jesus Christ, serving one another as you serve Christ (Phil 2:4).

Cindy Woods Berry was born in Houston, Texas and attended Houston Baptist University. She is a composer and arranger of numerous sacred choral works, children's musicals and piano collections. She frequently serves as a choral and keyboard clinician, leading "composer weekends" and various other workshops throughout the country. She has been the recipient of annual ASCAP Special Awards for many years.  Cindy and her husband Bruce (a Minister of Music) currently serve at First Baptist Church in Killeen, Texas. Cindy serves as a church pianist and director of the children's choir. Her goal as a musician is to always present her music as an offering of worship to God.

Jesus, though He was God, did not cling to his rights as God,

But laid aside His mighty power and glory.

Taking the form of a servant, and becoming like men.

He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, 

Even death on the cross!

         At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and in earth.

         Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

About the Hymns:

At the Name of Jesus

Hymns often magnify Scripture. Caroline Noel’s “At the Name of Jesus” does this for the great kenosis hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11. Kenosis, or the self-emptying of Christ, is the theme of this New Testament hymn.

This hymn conveys the essence of the entire earthly journey of Christ from his incarnation as an infant in Bethlehem, through his ministry and crucifixion, and concludes with his resurrection and ascension.

The Bible contains many canticles and hymns beyond the psalms. For example, Exodus, Deuteronomy and Luke include great canticles that contain a sense of the faith heritage to be remembered in coming generations. New Testament hymns are usually creedal in content—sung versions from the emerging Christian church about what it believes based on the witness of Christ’s life. Perhaps the most important of these is the hymn found in Philippians 2.

The confessional quality of this hymn is very apparent. Noel’s paraphrase draws its opening line from verse 10 of the text in the King James Version. The entire passage follows:  “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Born in London in 1817, Noel was the daughter of a vicar in the Church of England. She died in London in 1877. Though she began writing hymns at an early age, she stopped when she was 20 years old and didn’t resume hymn writing until 20 years later in 1857. The last 25 years of her life were spent as an invalid. The Name of Jesus and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely was published in 1861. Later editions were titled The Name of Jesus and Other Poems.  The original hymn contained eight stanzas. While no hymnal includes all eight stanzas, it is difficult to delete any without damaging the continuity of the narrative. The original stanza two (not included in the UM Hymnal), for example, establishes Jesus as a part of the Godhead with echoes of the Nicene Creed:

Mighty and mysterious in the highest height,

God from everlasting, very Light of Light;

In the Father’s bosom, with the Spirit blest,

Love, in love eternal, rest, in perfect rest.

The New Testament kenosis hymn is the genesis of many hymns throughout the centuries that focus on the name of Jesus and the comfort and power of that name.  Charles Wesley suggests the comfort of Jesus’ name in the third stanza of “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: “Jesus, the name that charms our fears. . . .” Later in the 18th century, the famous Anglican hymn writer John Newton began a well-known hymn, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear.” Eighteenth-century American hymn writer Edward Perronet begins his hymn in this vein: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”. Many references to Jesus’ name are found in the gospel song genre, for example, Gloria and Bill Gaither’s “There’s Something About That Name”.

While many hymns allude to one aspect of the Philippians passage, none of these hymns matches Noel’s poem for its thorough paraphrase of the entire biblical creed.

Eminent English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) wrote  KING’S WESTON for this text in 1931 for Songs of Praise Enlarged. The dignity of Vaughan Williams’ musical setting fits perfectly with the majesty of the scriptural paraphrase. Almost all hymnals now maintain this text/tune pairing.

Jesu, Jesu

Following African independence movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a number of Western missionaries encouraged the composition of Christian song in African idioms. Thomas S. Colvin (1925-2000) was one of these missionaries. Colvin was a pastoral missionary for the Church of Scotland in Ghana from 1958-1964 and Nyasaland (now Malawi) from 1954-'58 and 1964-'74. Trained as an engineer before studying theology at Trinity College in Glasgow, he was an active member of the ecumenical Iona Community for nearly 50 years.

In concert with his commitment to the rule of Iona Community members, Colvin's missionary ministry was characterized by justice issues such as Christian service committees, refugee resettlement and community development projects. Among his many activities, Colvin participated in community development training in parts of southern Africa and aided refugees from Mozambique seeking sanctuary in neighboring Malawi. These areas of service were the focus of Colvin's ministry, rather than the development of indigenous congregational song.

The songs collected by Colvin have been spread by members of the Iona Community around the world. Several of his texts set to African melodies have found a home in Western hymnals. Colvin nurtured new African congregational songs by adapting local melodies and writing new texts appropriate for African Christians and, as it turns out, Christians around the world. He introduced his hymns first to the Iona Community and then beyond in two collections, Free to Serve (1969) and Leap My Soul (1976). These collections were brought together in a single volume, Fill Us With Your Love (1983). A last volume, Come, Let Us Walk This Road Together, was added in 1997.

"Jesu, Jesu" is Colvin's most popular hymn. The melody is adapted from a Ghanaian folk song he heard during his years of service in that country. The tune name CHEREPONI comes from a town in northern Ghana, where the hymn was written. The composition of the hymn is symbolic of collaboration between two cultures. The text comes from a European Christian inspired by his service in Ghana. The melody comes from a West African country. In this composition, even the act of hymn singing may become a metaphor for neighborly relationships that are possible in Christ.