October 14, 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:

We Are All One in Mission - Mark Sedio

Rusty Edwards (b. 1955) provides Christians with a hymn that articulates a contemporary vision of the mission of the church. He was born in Dixon, Ill. Following graduation from Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Nebraska, Dr. Edwards taught school at St. Boniface in Elgin, Neb.  His theological education includes a master of divinity degree from Luther Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary), a doctorate in creative ministry from the Graduate Theological Foundation at Notre Dame, Ind., and a certificate from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.  Following his ordination in 1985, he served Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Moline, Ill., until 1991. He currently serves as senior pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rockford, Ill. He is also the pastoral advisor for Rockford Lutheran High School and is on the board of the Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity. 

“We All Are One in Mission” was written in 1985. The unity of the church, local and universal,

is at the heart of this hymn. It is not the responsibility of only missionaries or ordained clergy to practice mission in all of its forms, but is integral to the service of all in the church who are united by Christ and have a sense of his “resurrected Justice.” “We All Are One in Mission” is found in Dr. Edwards’ first collection of hymns, The Yes of the Heart: Faith, Hope and Love Songs (Hope Publishing Co., 1993), as well as in numerous recent hymnals. It is the most published of his hymns, appearing in over two dozen collections and hymnals, and according to the author is “rather unique, because it has been published with 10 different tunes.” 

We all are one in mission, We all are one in call,

Our varied gifts united By Christ, the Lord of all.

A single, great commission Compels us from above

To plan and work together That all may know Christ's love.

We all are called for service To witness in God's name.

Our ministries are different, Our purpose is the same:

To touch the lives of others By God's surprising grace

So ev'ry folk and nation May feel God's warm embrace.

We all behold one vision, A stark reality:

The steward of salvation Was nailed upon a tree.

Yet resurrected Justice Gives rise that we may share

Free reconciliation And hope amid despair.

Now let us be united And let our song be heard.

Now let us be a vessel For God's redeeming Word.

  We all are one in mission, We all are one in call,

Our varied gifts united By Christ, the Lord of all.

Mark Sedio serves Cantor at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. In addition, he has held teaching positions both at Augsburg College and Luther Seminary. Sedio is an active recitalist, clinician, conductor and composer, having presented hymn festivals and workshops throughout North America and Europe. Over 125 of his compositions for organ, piano, choral and instrumental ensembles are available from a number of publishers. A number of his hymn tunes, texts and harmonization appear in various denominational hymnals and supplements. A love of foreign language acquisition and linguistics combined with interest in folk music and styles has led to a keen interest in global church music. He holds a B.A. in music from Augsburg College and an M.A. in choral music from the University of Iowa. He has studied in the M.Div. program at Luther Seminary and the liturgical studies program at St. John’s University. A charter member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Sedio served on the organization’s founding board and as its first Director of Ecclesiastical Concerns. He chaired the worship committee for the 2008 national convention of the American Guild of Organists.

Trumpet Tune with Echos - John Stanley

This month, we are exploring our roots and our vision as a church.  And our roots begin with John Wesley, so I asked, what postludes did John Wesley hear when he went to church?  English composers of his time and earlier, of course.

Trumpet tunes were a very common form during the English Baroque.  You are probably all familiar with the two by Jeremiah Clarke that are frequently used at weddings.  Virtually every English composer of the period wrote several trumpet tunes.

John Stanley (1712-1786) had the misfortune to fall on a marble hearth with a china basin in his hand at age 2, an accident which left him almost blind.  He began studying music at the age of seven, under the guidance of Maurice Greene, composer and organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, "with great diligence, and a success that was astonishing". When he was fourteen, he was chosen as organist at St Andrew's, Holborn, and at the age of seventeen became the youngest person ever to obtain the Bachelor of Music degree (B.Mus.) at the University of Oxford.  In 1734 he was appointed organist to the Society of the Inner Temple, a position which he held until his death in 1786. It was at the ancient Temple Church that his brilliant playing upon the organ and harpsichord attracted the attention of many fine musicians including George Frideric Handel, who regularly visited the church to hear him. Stanley was also an outstanding violinist.

Though virtually blind, Stanley had a remarkable memory which helped him direct many of Handel's oratorios and to enjoy music-making and card games with his many friends. If he had to accompany a new oratorio he would ask his sister-in-law to play it through just once – enough to commit it to memory. He frequently played the organ at the Vauxhall Gardens and was first choice to play at charity events and at the launch of any newly built church organs. He even found time to teach. His oratorio Jephthah was first performed in 1757.  After Handel's death, in 1760 Stanley began a partnership with the composer John Christopher Smith and later with Thomas Linley, in order to continue with the series of oratorio performances at Covent Garden. Handel had been a Governor of the Foundling Hospital, London. The Hospital's Chapel organ was Handel's gift, and Handel himself directed eleven performances of Messiah there, so raising 7,000 pounds for the charity. Continuing yet again in Handel's footsteps, Stanley was elected a governor of the Hospital in 1770, and he directed the annual performance of Handel's Messiah in aid of the hospital funds.

Stanley's works include the opera Teraminta, the dramatic cantata The Choice of Hercules, twelve other cantatas with texts by John Hawkins, the oratorios Jephtha, The Fall of Egypt and Zimri, and instrumental music, notably three volumes of voluntaries for organ (1748, 1752, and 1754). Nearly all of the voluntaries feature a short, slow introduction followed by either a solo-stop movement (such as the so-called trumpet voluntaries) or a fugue. Some of the former have been arranged in modern times for string chamber orchestra and trumpet.

About the Piano Music:

The Cry of the Poor - Laura Wesson

“The Cry of the Poor” is a responsorial psalm based on Psalm 34 by John Foley, S.J.

John Foley, S.J., (b. 1939) is an American Jesuit priest who is a composer of Catholic liturgical music and a professor of liturgy.  Much of Foley's early work on liturgical music was as a member of a group called the St. Louis Jesuits, composed of fellow Jesuit seminarians, with whom he released several albums. He also released several solo collections of liturgical music. Both the solo and the group efforts were released through publishers OCP (formerly Oregon Catholic Press), National Association of Liturgical Resources and GIA Publications.

Foley earned a doctorate in liturgical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. In 1993 he returned to Saint Louis University where he founded the Stroble Center for Liturgy, of which he has served as director since its founding.

The Lord hears the cry of the poor.  Blessed be the Lord.

I will bless the Lord at all times with praise ever in my mouth.

Let my soul glory in the Lord, who will hear the cry of the poor.

Let the lowly hear and be glad.  The Lord listens to their plea,

And to hearts broken, God is near, who will hear the cry of the poor.

We proclaim your greatness, O God.  Your praise ever in our mouth.

Every face brightens in Your light, for you hear the cry of the poor.

About the Choral Music:

Hymn medley:

Take My Life and Let it Be

Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879) originally composed her text in eleven couplets as a hymn of "self-consecration to Christ" on February 4, 1874. She told the following story about writing this hymn:

I went for a little visit of five days [to Areley House, Worcestershire, in December 1873]. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. [God] gave me the prayer, "Lord, give me all this house." And He just did! Before I left the house, everyone had got a blessing. The last night of my visit. . . I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart, one after another, till they finished with "Ever, only, all, for Thee."

The text is a "catalog" hymn that lists aspects of our lives and offers them in Christ's service.  "Take My Life and Let It Be" was first published in the 1874 appendix to Charles B. Snepp's Songs of Grace and Glory (1872). A twelfth couplet was added at some later point, producing the six stanzas published in the Psalter Hymnal.

Although her formal education was sporadic because of poor health, Havergal learned six foreign languages, including Greek and Hebrew, and was well read in many subjects. She began writing poetry at an early age and was also an accomplished singer and pianist. The daughter of a clergyman, she had a conversion experience at the age of fourteen and was confirmed in the Church of England in 1853. Taking seriously her own words "take my silver and my gold," she sent all her jewelry to the Church Mission Society to be sold. She also supported other charitable organizations. Her more than one hundred hymns were originally published in leaflets and later gathered into seven collections: Ministry of Song (1869), Twelve Sacred Songs for Little Singers (1870), Under the Surface (1874), Loyal Responses (1878), Life Mosaic (1879), Life Chords (1880), and Life Echoes (1883), as well as in one large volume, Poetical Works (1884).

My Hope is Built

Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15. Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. The hymn "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" was published anonymously in several hymn collections before first being attributed to Edward Mote in a collection of approximately 100 of his hymns published in 1837 under the title Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals.  Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term “gospel hymn” appears. Mote's original title was "The Immutable Basis for a Sinner's Hope" in this collection.  The refrain of "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and builds around the metaphor of Christ as a rock with a firm basis (1 Corinthians 10:4).

Spirit of the Living God

This is one of the most long-lasting and widely used choruses in Christian worship. Every aspect of the song embodies a simple sincerity.  The melody encompasses only five notes, and three of the four lines repeat the same nine words. Yet for many, the straightforward petitions of this song draw the singer into an attitude of prayer.

During January and February of 1926, the George T. Stephans Evangelistic Party conducted a citywide revival in the tabernacle in Orlando, Fla.  Daniel Iverson, a Presbyterian minister from Lumberton, N.C., spent several days in Orlando visiting with the Stephans team. The day he arrived, he was greatly impressed by a message on the Holy Spirit given by Dr. Barron, a physician from Columbia, S.C.  Later that day Iverson went to the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, sat down at the piano, and wrote this song.  Miss Birdie Loes, the pianist for the Stephans team, wrote it out on manuscript paper.  E. Powell Lee, the team song leader, was immediately impressed and taught it to the people that evening in the tabernacle, and used it throughout the campaign.

While the inspiration for the hymn is not known for certain, it is likely that Iverson knew a hymn by Adelaide Pollard (1862-1934), “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” based on Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel” (KJV).  The first stanza of Pollard’s hymn uses similar language (“Mold me and make me”). The final stanza also contains a petition to the Spirit (“Fill with thy Spirit”).  Pollard’s hymn was written about 25 years before Iverson’s 1926 composition.

The authorship of “Spirit of the Living God” was lost for a time because the song could so easily be taught without music or even printed words. It first appeared in Revival Songs (1929) in a slightly revised version.  Southern Baptist gospel song composer B.B. McKinney made slight alterations and published it again in his Songs of Victory (1937).   E. Powell Lee, the song leader for the Stephans evangelistic team, brought Iverson’s name to light and his name was restored to the song in later printings of the Baptist Hymnal in the 1960s.

About the Hymns:

Lead On, O King Eternal

When Ernest Shurtleff’s seminary class was preparing for their graduation in 1887, they turned to Ernest, who had written two volumes of poetry, and asked him to write a hymn for their graduation ceremony.  He wrote “Lead on, O King Eternal” for that occasion.

This hymn is really a prayer — a prayer for God’s guidance.  It speaks of marching and “fields of conquest” and “battle song” — not because it celebrates war, but because it acknowledges the daily struggle in which good people must engage against evil.  It looks forward to the celebration of victory — not with clashing swords and stirring drums, but with “deeds of love and mercy” — acknowledging that Christ calls us to conquer the world by demonstrating love and showing mercy rather than by using force.  This hymn acknowledges the difficulties of the Christian life — standing armed only with holiness against “sin’s fierce war.  It acknowledges the reality of the cross, but celebrates the reality of the crown — the reward of those who are faithful — and closes, “Lead on, O God of might!”

Seek Ye First

"Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God." was written in 1972 by Karen Lafferty.  The following is an excerpt from an interview in Reformed Worship magazine.

I was raised in a Christian home, but like many young people I wanted to discover life for myself and did some drifting. I was working as a nightclub entertainer in New Orleans when a friend came to visit me and got me back on the right track. I decided to pursue entertainment for the time being—to try to be salt and light in the entertainment world. So I moved to California.  Soon I did find a church, Calvary Chapel, and at my first service I met a lot of other young musicians.  At this time "Maranatha! Music" was part of Calvary Chapel. It was very small yet and had produced only one album, An Everlasting Jesus Music Concert. At the chapel we had a special fellowship for musicians which taught us principles on how to serve through music. Most of us were especially interested in contemporary Christian music, music that would reach young people.  I stayed with Maranatha! Music for about eight years. In 1980, and out of that relationship came Musicians for Missions. Youth with a Mission is very involved with the idea of cross-cultural missions. Even though we dealt with a subculture of young people who all liked the same kind of music, there were still many cultural differences. I felt I had to live outside of the U.S. to really learn what it is to be in another country. And under the umbrella of Youth with a Mission, I was able to organize Musicians for Missions.

Back in 1971, I had quit my entertainment job and was trying to support myself with teaching guitar lessons. I had three students! When my savings were all gone and I had no money to make my car payments, I became very discouraged and confused.  One evening I went to a Bible study at church, and we talked about Matthew 6:33.1 was tremendously encouraged and challenged by the words about Christ's kingdom. So I went home, wrote the tune, recorded it on a tape recorder, and then sang this little descant part.  I taught the song at church the next week, and it caught on right away. The Lord really paved the way for me with that song. "Seek Ye First" has opened doors for me all over the world. And because it's in so many hymnbooks, about 40 percent of my mission support comes from that song!