December 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:

In the Bleak Midwinter - Franklin Eddings

"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti.  This exquisitely melancholy and evocative carol imagines the Nativity in a snowy Northern landscape, yet few carols can express the quiet heart of Christmas more movingly.  

Christina Georgiana Rossetti (1830-1894) was the author of three collections of mostly religious poetry and four devotional books.  Her deep faith is thought to be partially the result of the solace that she found in writing as a result of her poor health from age sixteen.  Her most famous hymns are the Christmas texts, "Love Came Down at Christmas" composed in 1885 and "In the Bleak Midwinter," the latter first published as the poem "A Christmas Carol" in Scribner’s Monthly in January 1872. It first appeared as a hymn in The English Hymnal (1906), where it was paired to a tune by the famous English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934). Now, over 100 years later, we sing this hymn in virtually the same form as it appeared in 1906. In the first memorable stanza, Rossetti creates a dreary and desolate image of the world into which the infant Jesus appeared by drawing on the experience of a British winter. She is not suggesting that it literally snowed in Bethlehem, but is drawing on a long-established literary idea of associating snow with Christ's birth. The famous seventeenth-century poet, John Milton, used the winter imagery in his poem, "On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity," as a pure covering to hide the sin of the world.  Rossetti exploits this metaphor in the opposite way in her opening stanza. The Incarnate One, the Light of the World, brought warmth into the most forlorn and dreary of sinful situations.

This arrangement uses the tune written by Harold Darke in 1911, which was named the best Christmas carol in a poll of some of the world's leading choirmasters and choral experts in 2008.

In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,  Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter  A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,  Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel Which adore.

Angels and archangels May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim Thronged the air,

But only His mother In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Beloved With a kiss.

What can I give Him, Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man I would do my part,

Yet what I can I give Him, Give my heart.

A fixture in Utah music circles for 60 years, Franklin Eddings (1933-2014) brought the gift of music to thousands of piano, organ, and accordion students along the Wasatch Front.  He produced over 250 compositions and arrangements in his career.  He grew up in Salt Lake City and attended West High school. He then attended the University of Utah where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Arts and Master of Education. Franklin enlisted in the Army in 1952, serving in counter-intelligence.  Franklin Eddings was been a devoted member of the LDS Church all his life, a specialist in genealogy, and early in his career, an employee of the LDS Church Genealogy Department.

Toccata on “Puer Nobis Nascitur” - David Lasky

"Puer nobis nascitur", usually translated as "Unto Us is Born a Son", is a medieval Christmas carol found in a number of manuscript sources - the 14th-century German Moosburg Gradual and a 15th-century Trier manuscript.  The Moosburg Gradual itself contained a number of melodies derived from the 12 and 13th century organum repertories of Notre Dame de Paris and the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges, suggesting that its antiquity may be much greater.

The song was first published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a volume of 74 medieval songs with Latin texts collected by Jaakko Suomalainen, a Finnish Lutheran cleric, and published by T.P. Rutha, a Catholic printer.  The song book had its origins in the libraries of cathedral song schools, whose repertory also had strong links with medieval Prague, where clerical students from Finland and Sweden had studied for generations. Songs from Piae Cantiones continued to be performed in Finland until the 19th century.

The book became well known in Britain after a rare original copy of Piae Cantiones owned by Peter of Nyland was given as a gift to the British Minister in Stockholm. He subsequently gave it to John Mason Neale in 1852, and it was from this copy that Neale, in collaboration with Thomas Helmore published songs in two collections in 1853 and 1854 respectively, although this carol was not included in either.

The carol became popular as a processional hymn following a translation by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1859-1934) first published in 1902. Percy Dearmer also translated the hymn for inclusion in the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols as "Unto Us a Boy is Born”.  Both translations are commonly used.

Unto us a Boy is born, King of all creation:

Came He to a world forlorn, The Lord of every nation.

Christ, from heav'n descending low, Comes on earth a stranger;

Ox and ass their Owner know Now cradled in a manger.

This did Herod sore affray, And did him bewilder,

So he gave the word to slay, And slew the little childer.

Of his love and mercy mild Hear the Christmas story:

O that Mary's gentle Child Might lead us up to glory!

Omega and Alpha He! Let the organ thunder,

While the choir with peals of glee Rends the air asunder.

David Lasky has been Organist and Director of Music at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Leominster, Massachusetts since 1981.  He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Music History and Literature at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 1979, and earned a Master of Music degree in Organ Performance, also at UMass/Lowell, in 1981. In 2005, he earned his Master of Arts degree in Church Music and Liturgy from the Rensselaer Program of Church Music and Liturgy at Saint Joseph College, Rensselaer, Indiana.  Lasky has performed as an organ soloist and in ensembles throughout Massachusetts, and has performed recitals at Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, both in Washington DC, and at Saint Mary Cathedral in Lafayette, Indiana. He has taught classes and workshops on improvisation and service playing for the American Guild of Organists and for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.  David Lasky is very active as a composer and arranger of sacred organ and choral music, with about 375 pieces of music published.  He taught as an adjunct professor at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts (1989-1990), and in the Music Theory department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1991-1992).

About the Piano Music:

The First Noel -  Lura Foster

Although no Christmas season would be complete without “The First Noel”, very little is known about its origin. It is believed to have had its rise in France during the fifteenth century. Noel is a French word originating from Latin meaning "birthday." The song is thought to have been brought across the channel to England before 1823 by the wandering troubadours. The carol under the English form, "Nowell," became a great favorite for Christmas Eve, especially in the west of England. This was when the entire village gathered for singing and celebrating the bringing in of the Yule log. At this time carols were thought of as popular religious songs meant to be sung outside the church rather than within.

"The First Noel" portrays in vivid narrative style the story of the birth of Christ. All stanzas are needed to complete the entire event when the hymn is sung. The sixth stanza, which has been omitted from our current hymnal, urges us to join together to sing praises to God for the marvels of His creation and for the salvation provided through Christ's shed blood and reminds us that Christ came to redeem the whole world. 

The First Noel the angel did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields as they lay, keeping their sheep, On a cold winter's night that was so deep.

They looked up and saw a star Shining in the east beyond them far,
And to the earth it gave great light, And so it continued both day and night.

And by the light of that same star Three wise men came from country far;
To seek for a king was their intent, And to follow the star wherever it went.

This star drew nigh to the northwest, O'er Bethlehem it took it rest,
And there it did both stop and stay Right over the place where Jesus lay.

Then entered in those wise men three Full reverently upon their knee,
and offered there in his presence Their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense.

Then let us all with one accord Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made heaven and earth of naught, And with his blood mankind hath bought.

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. 

About the Vocal Solo Music:

The Shepherd’s Pipe Carol - John Rutter

Michelle Corazao, soprano

The "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" was composed by John Rutter in 1966 when he was 18 and studying as an undergraduate at Clare College at the University of Cambridge.  Rutter stated that he believed his inspiration for writing it came from when he sang as a boy soprano during the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and heard pipe music as the title character headed for Bethlehem with the Biblical Magi.

The carol was first performed by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge conducted by Rutter at a Christmas concert.  A few days later, David Willcocks, the director of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, requested a copy of Rutter's manuscript for the "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" and made calls to EMI for the "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" to be published in 1967.  It was Rutter's first composition to be published. Rutter and Willcocks later formed a publishing partnership and helped to compile the Carols for Choirs series of hymnals from the second edition for the Church of England.

Prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union, choirs in the Baltic states reportedly circulated photocopies and faxes of the "Shepherd's Pipe Carol" to be sung as a sign of resistance to Soviet control.

The lyrics of the "Shepherd's Pipe Carol", set after the annunciation to the shepherds, are in third person about a shepherd boy playing pipe music on the way to Bethlehem.The boy later states in the carol that he will perform his music for the baby Jesus when he reaches the stable where the Star of Bethlehem was located.

Born in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter (b. 1945) grew up living over the Globe pub on London's Marylebone Road. He was educated at Highgate School, and as a chorister there took part in the first (1963) recording of Britten's War Requiem under the composer's baton.  He served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979 and led the choir to international prominence.  In 1981, Rutter founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works).  In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. In 2008, he was made an honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple while playing a significant role in the 2008 Temple Festival.

Going through the hills on a night all starry On the way to Bethlehem,

Far away I heard a shepherd boy piping on the way to Bethlehem.

Tell me, shepherd boy piping tunes so merrily on the way to Bethlehem,

Who will hear your tunes on these hills so lonely on the way to Bethlehem?

Angels in the sky brought this message nigh: Dance and sing for joy

that Christ the newborn King is come to bring peace on earth,

and he’s lying cradled there at Bethlehem.

None may hear my pipes on these hills so lonely on the way to Bethlehem,

But a King will hear me play sweet lullabies When I get to Bethleham.

Angels in the sky, came down from on high,

Hovered over the manger where the babe was lying

cradled in the arms of his mother Mary, sleeping now at Bethlehem.

Where is this new King, shepherd boy piping merrily, Is he there at Bethlehem?

I will find him soon by the star shining brightly in the sky o’er Bethlehem.

May I come with you, shepherd boy piping merrily, Come with you to Bethlehem?

Pay my homage too at the new King’s cradle, Is it far to Bethlehem?

Angels in the sky brought this message nigh:

Dance and sing for joy that Christ the infant King is born this night

in lowly stable yonder, Born for you at Bethlehem.

About the Hymns:

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

The opening lines of this favorite Christmas hymn echo Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. . .” (KJV). Immediately, the hymn writer established a cosmic connection between the heavenly chorus and our hope for peace on earth. While many Christmas carols recount in one way or another the Christmas narrative, Wesley provides a dense theological interpretation of the Incarnation.  Wesley begins not with the prophets, the Annunciation to Mary, the journey to Bethlehem or the search for a room, but in media res – in the middle of the action. Rather than citing the final phrase of Luke 2:14 – “good will toward men” (KJV) – he offers his theological interpretation – “God and sinners reconciled.” This is indeed a stronger theological statement.  “God and sinners reconciled” was a natural interpretation since the hymn was written within a year of Charles Wesley’s conversion. It first was published under the title “Hymn for Christmas Day” in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) in ten shorter stanzas, each stanza half the length of the stanzas we sing today. The hymn that we now sing is the result of many alterations by numerous individuals and hymnal editorial committees.

Changes in hymn texts are quite common. The average singer on Sunday morning would be amazed (or perhaps chagrined) to realize how few hymns before the twentieth century in our hymnals appear exactly in their original form. Perhaps the most notable change in this hymn was Wesley’s first line. The original read, “Hark how all the welkin rings!” “Welkin” is an archaic English term referring to the sky or the firmament of the heavens, even the highest celestial sphere of the angels. This term certainly supported the common eighteenth-century notion of the three-tiered universe, where the top tier includes the celestial beings, the lowest tier the normal activities of humanity (birth, death, marriage, work, sickness) and the natural created order (rain, drought, natural disasters), and the middle tier where celestial beings influence the activities of beings and events on earth with their superhuman powers.

Gratefully, George Whitefield (1740-1770), a powerful preacher and friend to the Wesley brothers, made several changes to this hymn in his Collection (1753). He eschewed the original first line for the scriptural dialogue between heaven and earth. Wesley scholar and professor at Perkins School of Theology, Dr. Ted Campbell, comments on Whitefield’s modification of the first line with his characteristic humor: “I have wondered if anybody but Charles knew what a welkin was supposed to be. Maybe John looked at the draft version and said, ‘It’s ever so lovely, Charles, but whatever on earth is a ‘welkin'?’ So, all the more reason to give thanks for the editorial work of George Whitefield.”  The familiar first line we now sing sets up the opening stanza as an expansion of the song of the angels in Luke 2:14. Rather than exerting influence in the form of spirits, demons, or other beings said to inhabit the middle zone of the three-tiered universe, God, through the Incarnation, comes directly to earth in human form, the “Word made flesh . . . [dwelling] among us . . . full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, KJV). The change in the opening line is perhaps the most significant alteration of the many that have taken place in this hymn over the centuries.

The second most significant change from the original is the addition of the refrain, reiterating the first phrase of Luke 2:14. This came about for musical reasons. Almost exactly 100 years after the hymn’s composition, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) composed a cantata, Festgesang (1840), celebrating the 400th anniversary of the invention of moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg. A chorus from this cantata was adapted and paired with Wesley’s text in The Congregational Psalmist (1858) by an English musician and singer under Mendelssohn, William H. Cummings (1831-1915). A famous and influential hymn collection, Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), carried this arrangement and helped to standardize its form and promote its broader use. Pairing the tune MENDELSSOHN with Wesley’s text caused two additional changes from the original. Two of Wesley’s short stanzas were combined into one to fit the longer tune; a refrain, repeating the first two lines of stanza one, was added to accommodate the tune. There is no doubt that most of the alterations to Wesley’s original text combined with Mendelssohn’s rousing tune have helped to make this one of the most festive and popular of all Christmas hymns.

The final four stanzas of Wesley’s original are usually omitted. This is understandable as they are theologically and biblically dense with allusion and, perhaps, not as poetic as the oft-quoted stanzas. Yet they give us insight into Wesley’s theology of the Incarnation:

Come, Desire of nations, come, Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving power, Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love.

Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart

The allusions to Scripture and various Wesleyan theological concepts are many. A few must suffice. “Desire of nations” is a reference drawn from Haggai 2:7: “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come . . ..” Handel incorporated this passage into Messiah (1741) in a bass solo in the Christmas portion of the oratorio. John Mason Neale, translating the Latin hymn Veni, veni Emanuel in the middle nineteenth century, cited this reference into the final stanza of his hymn: “O come, Desire of nations, bind/in one the hearts of all mankind.”

Wesley often used the words, “mystic union,” a Moravian concept that he incorporated into Wesleyan theology in the second stanza cited above. In the third stanza above, we are reminded of imago Dei in the phrase, “Stamp Thine image in its place,” taking on the image of God in place of that of sinful Adam, a reference to the Wesleyan concept of sanctification.

“Hark! the herald angels sing” highlights the virgin birth, the universal application of the coming of “th’incarnate Deity” to all nations, and that Christ, who was “pleased with us in flesh to dwell,” gives humanity a “second birth.” The “second” or “new birth” was essential to Wesleyan theology in light of a controversy with the Moravians. The importance of this was illustrated in John Wesley’s sermon, “The Marks of the New Birth” that provides extensive scriptural basis for his view.

The final stanza in most hymnals paraphrases the beautiful biblical citation from Malachi 4:2: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (KJV).

Each Christmas season we are invited by this venerable hymn to join the angels in swelling the cosmic chorus:

With th’angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Refrain: Hark! the herald angels sing,“Glory to the new-born King!”

Angels We Have Heard on High

The French people love to sing at Christmas! Chants de Noël (Christmas Carols) from France may be found in most English-language hymnals. In Luke 2:14 we find the canticle of the angel’s song—one of the most famous and frequently sung of the Christmas canticles. The refrain of “Angels we have heard on high” is taken directly from this verse.

Reflecting a common theme found throughout the history of Christian hymnody, a cosmic chorus resounds in the first stanza. The chorus begins in heaven with the angels. Then the “mountains in reply” echo back in response—antiphonally, symbolizing the participation of earth.

The entire hymn is a traditional French carol that originated as early as the eighteenth century, and was published in North America in Nouveau recueil de cantiques (New Hymnal) for the Diocese of Quebec in 1819. Several versions, or translations, of the text can be found, but they all stem from the same source and are inspired by Luke 2:6-20.  The original hymn appeared in French – “Les anges dans nos campagnes” – in eight stanzas arranged in a dialogue form alternating between the shepherds (Bergers) in stanzas one, three, and six, and the women (Femmes de Bethlehem) in stanzas two, four, and seven. All sing together in stanzas five and eight.

The carol first entered into Methodist hymnals in 1935 in an anonymous version from the play, The Nativity. It uses the text, “Hearken all! what holy singing now is sounding from the sky!”  The melody is the same, but the harmonization was modified in the 1966 Methodist Hymnal by the well-known anthem composer Austin C. Lovelace (1919-2010). The 1966 Methodist Hymnal also changed the text to “Angels we have heard on high” because of the popularity of the text used in anthems at the time.  The English translation by James Chadwick (1813-1882), Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, was taken from Crown of Jesus (1862), subtitled, “a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction.” The carol was found in the section headed “The Twelve Mysteries of the Sacred Infancy” with the title “Christmas Hymn,” reduced to four stanzas in English.

Technically, this is a macaronic carol because it uses two languages: the local vernacular and Latin. The carol uses the effect of a refrain and is one of the few texts that congregations sing regularly in Latin: “Gloria in excelsis Deo!”  It is unusual for congregations to sing a long melisma (many notes on one syllable) and enjoy it.  The melisma on the refrain adds to the joyful, celebratory feel of the entire hymn.