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 Gottes Namen fahren wir - Johann Christoph Bach
“In Gottes Namen fahren wir” is found in varying forms from the 14th to 16th century, and was very much used by travelers on land and water, by the crusaders, at pilgrimages and processions, and for the sending out of missionaries. The oldest appearance is in a Munich manuscript of 1422. The melody dates to the 12th century.
In God’s name we go as one, His help and consolation with us,
That when we come down to the place, From all harm, God will protect us.
Kyrie eleison
We travel in the name of God and seek the help and grace of God.
And may the Father's goodness still protect us, body, soul, and will.
Kyrie eleison
May Christ our Guide and Escort be, stay by our side along the way,
and turn away the cunning foe and all that would God's Word oppose.
Kyrie eleison
The Holy Spirit shall uphold us with His gifts so manifold:
strength, comfort for our every need, who to our home with God will lead!
Kyrie eleison
Johann Sebastian Bach’s life was surrounded by Johann Christophs: an uncle, a cousin, an older brother, and a son. Here we have a chorale prelude by his 1st cousin once removed, who became the town organist in Eisenach in the year 1665 and court chamber musician there in 1700. Prior to Johann Sebastian, Johann Christoph (1642-1703) would have been considered the most famous musician of the Bach family. His work is of the highest quality and, in some instances, has been improperly attributed to Johann Sebastian himself (e.g. the motet Ich lasse dich nicht). Johann Christoph composed choral works (motets and cantatas) and works for organ (preludes and fugues). Johann Sebastian described his cousin as "the great and expressive composer," and performed his works often as did Carl Philipp Emanuel.
Toccata Pontificale - Gordon Young
Gordon Young (1919-1998) was born in McPherson, Kansas, and during his lifetime was recognized as one of this country's great church organists. He was a prolific and talented composer for both organ and choir, with nearly 1000 published works. During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.
About the Piano Music:
Tell Me the Story of Jesus - Lari Goss
The Sunday School movement of the 19th and 20th centuries provided the inspiration for many hymns. William Henry Parker (1845-1929) was the head of an English insurance company and a devoted member of Chelsea Street Baptist Church, Nottingham, where he taught Sunday school. Early in life, he had written verses and this led him to compose hymns for use in Sunday School. Thinking of the children in his classes who were always asking him to “tell us another story”, he wrote this text in 1885. The melody was added when a publisher ran a contest to find an appropriate tune for it. Fifteen of his Sunday School songs were published in the Sunday School Hymnary, 1905. This hymn first appeared among Methodists in the 1935 Methodist Hymnal under the heading “Hymns for Children.”
Tell me the story of Jesus, Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious, Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus, Sang as they welcomed His birth,
“Glory to God in the highest! Peace and good tidings to earth.”
Fasting alone in the desert, Tell of the days that are past,
How for our sins He was tempted, Yet was triumphant at last.
Tell of the years of His labor, Tell of the sorrow He bore;
He was despised and afflicted, Homeless, rejected and poor.
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him, Writhing in anguish and pain;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him, Tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender, Clearer than ever I see;
Stay, let me weep while you whisper, “Love paid the ransom for me.”
Tell how He’s gone back to heaven, Up to the right hand of God:
How He is there interceding While on this earth we must trod.
Tell of the sweet Holy Spirit He has poured out from above;
Tell how He’s coming in glory For all the saints of His love.
Lari Goss (1946-2015) began his career in music as a young boy with the Goss Brothers and spanned over 60 years. He was a Grammy Award recipient, won numerous Dove Awards, was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame along with several Lifetime Achievement Awards.
About the Choral Music:
Deep Peace – Benjamin Harlan
Dr. Benjamin Harlan has set this traditional Gaelic text. Harlan is a Professor of Church Music at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an internationally known arranger and composer of choral, keyboard and handbell works. He has received awards from ASCAP annually since 1990. Dr. Harlan is a member of ASCAP, American Choral Directors Association and the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference.
Deep peace of the running wave to you, Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the night to you, Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace, deep peace, deep peace of the Father’s love to you.
About the Hymns:
Gather Us In
Marty Haugen (b. 1950) is perhaps the most prolific and influential composer of liturgical music of his generation. His hymns, psalm settings and paraphrases, services set to music, and anthems are widely used in both Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations around the world. Haugen now has over 400 compositions in print. Though United Church of Christ by denominational affiliation, his music is widely used by Lutherans and Catholics where he makes regular appearances in congregations and conferences. Though he received a degree in psychology from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), he pursued a career in music.
“Gather us in” (1982) represents Mr. Haugen’s skill both as a poet and composer. As an opening hymn or an entrance song, it calls the ekklesia—Christian community or assembly—together. One of the themes of Vatican II is upon the community of believers and their work together for the kingdom of God. Haugen describes his inspiration for this hymn in an e-mail: “‘Gather Us In’ was written after I first heard the wonderful [former Jesuit Dutch theologian and poet Huub] Oosterhuis (b. 1933) text ‘What Is This Place?’ I wanted to craft something that might say a similar message to North American ears. I deliberately wrote it in second person to avoid gender issues and to more directly sing ‘to’ God rather than ‘about’ God. Ironically, that has been at times a problem for some, who would like God more carefully circumscribed and named.”
Lord, You Give the Great Commission
Jeffery W. Rowthorn (b. 1934) wrote this text in 1978 while he was Chapel Minister at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. The text was first published in Laudamus (1980), a hymnal supplement edited by Rowthorn and used at the Yale Divinity School. This powerful text about the various ministries of the Christian church has two striking features: each stanza includes a quotation of Christ's words (usually from Matthew), and a concluding refrain line turns each stanza into a prayer. Christ's words are applied to the tasks of God's people in the world with a fervent prayer that the Spirit will equip the saints to carry out these ministries faithfully.
Rowthorn graduated from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Union Theological Serninary in New York, and Cuddeson Theological College in Oxford. Ordained in 1963 in the Church of England, he served several congregations in England before immigrating to the United States, where he was chaplain at Union Theological Seminary and a faculty member in liturgics at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which he helped to establish. He was then elected Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The writer of several hymns, Rowthorn was also coeditor with Russell Schulz-Widmar of A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1991). Rowthorn has since moved to Paris, where he is Bishop in Charge of the American Churches in Europe.
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