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 Cello Music:
Kol Nidrei - Max Bruch
Javi Betancourt, cello
Kol Nidrei (Aramaic: כָּל נִדְרֵי) is an Aramaic declaration recited in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur. Strictly speaking, it is not a prayer, although commonly spoken of as if it were. This dry legal formula and its ceremonial accompaniment have been charged with emotional undertones since the medieval period, creating a dramatic introduction to Yom Kippur on what is often dubbed "Kol Nidrei night”. It is written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. Its name is taken from the opening words, meaning all vows. The text proactively annuls any personal or religious oaths or prohibitions made upon oneself to God for the next year, so as to preemptively avoid the sin of breaking vows made to God which cannot be or are not upheld.
The term Kol Nidrei refers not only to the actual declaration, but is also popularly used as a name for the entire Yom Kippur evening service. Before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"), the congregation gathers in the synagogue. The Ark is opened and two people take from it two Torah scrolls. Then they take their places, one on each side of the cantor, and the three (symbolizing a beth din or rabbinical court) recite:
By the authority of the Court on High and by authority of the court down here, by the
permission of One Who Is Everywhere and by the permission of this congregation, we
hold it lawful to pray with sinners.
This invitation to outcasts is not specifically for Kol Nidre but for the whole of the Day of Atonement, it being obvious that when even sinners join in repenting, the occasion is worthy of Divine clemency. This announcement was introduced by Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (late 13th century), and endorsed by the Maharil (Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin, early 15th century).
The cantor then chants the passage beginning with the words Kol Nidre with its touching melodic phrases, and, in varying intensities from pianissimo (quiet) to fortissimo (loud), repeats twice (for a total of three iterations) (lest a latecomer not hear them) the following words (Nusach Ashkenaz):
All vows we are likely to make, all oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this
Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur, we publicly renounce. Let them all be
relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our vows,
pledges and oaths be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.
The leader and the congregation then say together three times, “May all the people of Israel be forgiven, including all the strangers who live in their midst, for all the people are in fault." (quoting Numbers 15:26.) The leader then says: "O pardon the iniquities of this people, according to Thy abundant mercy, just as Thou forgave this people ever since they left Egypt." And then the leader and congregation say together three times, "The Lord said, 'I pardon them according to your words.'" (quoting Numbers 14:20). The Torah scrolls are then put back in the Ark, and the customary evening service begins.
Even more famous than the text itself is the melody traditionally attached to its rendition in Ashkenazi congregations. It fulfils the counsel offered by Judah the Pious in the thirteenth century, "chant your supplications to God in a melody that makes the heart weep, and your praises of Him in one that will make it sing. Thus you will be filled with love and joy for Him that seeth the heart." A noted non-Jewish poet declared, "Such a mysterious song, redolent of a People's suffering, can hardly have been composed by one brain, however much inspired.” It is commonly said that the tune for Kol Nidre is missinai - unchanged since Moses climbed down from Mount Sinai.
The opening of Kol Nidre is what the masters of the Catholic plain-song term a "pneuma", or soul breath. Instead of announcing the opening words in a monotone or in any of the familiar declamatory phrases, it is prefixed by a long, sighing tone, falling to a lower note and rising again, as if only sighs and sobs could find utterance before the officiant could bring himself to inaugurate the Day of Atonement.
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch (1838-1920) was a German Romantic composer, teacher, and conductor who wrote over 200 works. Bruch had a long career as a teacher, conductor and composer, moving among musical posts in Germany: Mannheim, Koblenz, Sondershausen, Berlin, and Bonn. At the height of his career he spent three seasons as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society. He taught composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from 1890 until his retirement in 1910.
Kol Nidrei, Op. 47 (also known as All Vows, the meaning of the phrase in Aramaic), is a composition for cello and orchestra. Bruch completed the composition in Liverpool, England, in 1880 and published it in Berlin in 1881. It is styled as an Adagio on 2 Hebrew Melodies for Cello and Orchestra with Harp and consists of a series of variations on two main themes of Jewish origin. The first theme, which also lends the piece its title, comes from the Kol Nidre declaration. In Bruch's setting of the melody, the cello imitates the rhapsodic voice of the cantor who chants the liturgy in the synagogue. The second subject of the piece is quoted from the middle section of Isaac Nathan's arrangement of "O Weep for Those that Wept on Babel's Stream", a lyric which was penned by Lord Byron in his collection Hebrew Melodies.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Weep with Me - Rend Collective
Brooke Irigoyen, alto
“Weep With Me” is a song of lament by the Irish worship band Rend Collective. A lament is a song of raw, unedited, unpolished brokenness. We don’t sing a lot of them on Sunday mornings but we do find a lot of them right in the center of our Bibles - in the Psalms. God can handle your disappointment, frustration, lack of faith and even anger. A lament is an opportunity to bring the “what just got real” to the real God.
Weep with me, Lord will You weep with me?
I don't need answers, all I need Is to know that You care for me.
Hear my plea. Are You even listening?
Lord I will wrestle with Your heart, But I won't let You go
You know I believe. Help my unbelief.
Yet I will praise You. Yet I will sing of Your name.
Here in the shadows, Here I will offer my praise.
What's true in the light Is still true in the dark.
You're good, and You're kind, And You care for this heart.
Lord I believe You weep with me.
Part the seas, Lord, make a way for me
Here in the midst of my lament.
I have faith, yes I still believe That You love me.
Your plans are to prosper me.
You’re working everything for good Even when I can't see.
Turn my lament into a love song. From this lament, raise up an anthem.
Oh I'll sing it in the darkness.
Turn my lament into a love song, 'cause I love You Lord.
About the Choral Music:
My Song in the Night - Terre Johnson
My Song in the Night is a hauntingly beautiful southern folk hymn. Asaph's Psalm 77 contains this troubled plea, "Let me remember my song in the night. As he wrote, Asaph's life seemed to be nothing but night, gloom and trouble. God seemed deaf to his cries. His hand was weary, his soul discomforted. Unable to sleep he finally pleaded, "Let me remember my song in the night.” In that sense, it is so important to be able to remember and sing to yourself the strong and comforting hymns of corporate worship. Their message and the music that carries them are so important in those dark, dark nights in our lives. Asaph's prayer is not unfamiliar to many of us.
This folk song, based upon Asaph's cry in the night is one to remember when those dark nights come. It speaks of affliction, deserts and night. Yet in the midst of those dark nights, I can call to Jesus, my soul's delight and be comforted. Jesus is my Savior, my song in the night.
Dr. Terre Johnson (b. 1959) Is Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Houston Baptist University. He holds degrees from Troy University, Auburn University, and Florida State University. Dr. Johnson is nationally recognized as a leader in choral music, church music, and professional performance production. He has conducted choral groups in university, community, workshop, and church settings across the nation, and in international settings including Sydney, Vienna, Warsaw, and Rome. Dr. Johnson is the founder and conductor of the acclaimed Birmingham Chamber Chorus and the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra. Previously he was Conductor-in-Residence for Midamerica Productions in New York, and Music Director of the New Jersey Choral Society. He has served the American Choral Directors Association as National Chair for Music in Worship, National Chair for Lifelong Singing, and editor of its worship music publication.
O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night
Come to us with Thy tender love, my souls’ delight,
Unto Thee O Lord in affliction I call,
My comfort by day and my song In the night.
O why should I wander an alien from Thee,
Or cry in the desert Thy face to see,
My comfort and joy, my souls’ delight,
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night.
O Jesus my Savior, my song in the night,
Come to us with thy tender love, my soul’’s delight,
My comfort and joy, my soul’s delight,
O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night.
You Are There - Patti Drennan
Patti Drennan taught Choral Music for twenty-eight years in Norman, OK public pchools and was awarded the coveted “Director of Distinction Award” given yearly by the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association.An active composer and arranger, Drennan has published over 425 anthems. She has served as a clinician for school and church workshops, guest director at numerous churches, and adjudicator for choral contests in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. Drennan retired from teaching in 2004 in order to compose and stay active as a clinician and workshop presenter. For almost ten years she served as Music and Worship Arts Director at First Baptist Church, Norman.
She has adapted Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to a text by Herb Frombach that traces the entire passion story.
He prays in dark Gethsemane, “Oh, Father, take this cup from me.”
You are there listening as He prays; you are there when a kiss betrays.
Now journey on to Calvary and see the King in agony.
You are there when they crucify; you are there with Him when He dies.
The Son of God, without a sin was sent to take your sinful place,
Salvation wrapped in His own Son, a gift of God’s redeeming grace.
Come close and hear His final words. Behold your Savior’s dying breath.
His light is gone now here on earth, His destiny, a shameful death.
For you, redeeming grace.
About the Hymns:
Go to Dark Gethsemane
“Go to Dark Gethsemane” is a Lenten hymn that spotlights scenes from the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life. It takes us on a journey from the Garden of Gethsemane where we are charged to stand and watch, to the judgment hall and our denial of him, to the cross where we witness his death and his grace, and finally to his glorious resurrection and our redemption. We become part of the drama of Christ’s passion and resurrection.
The poet repeats the phrase “learn of” at the end of each stanza, charging us to apply each scene to our lives. James Montgomery uses repetition to draw attention to what he considers important about each scene and each stanza. “Learn of Jesus Christ to pray” encourages us to remember the scene of the garden and to go to God in fervent prayer. “Learn of Christ to bear the cross” is a charge to lay down our lives, take up the cross and follow Christ. “Learn of Jesus Christ to die” is a reminder of what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
James Montgomery( 1771-1854), considered one of the most important hymn writers of the English language, wrote this beautiful hymn in 1820. He was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Moravian missionary John Montgomery. When Montgomery was 5 years old, his parents moved him to a Moravian settlement at Bracehill, Ireland, near Ballymena in Antrim County. Soon after, his parents accepted a call to the mission field and left him behind in Bracehill. He never saw his parents again. They both died while in the Barbados Islands. At age 7, Montgomery was enrolled at Fulneck Seminary in Yorkshire, where he would remain for the next nine years. Struggling to meet the expectations of his instructors, he left the school at age 16 and became an apprentice at a chandler’s shop in Mirfield. After five years, he tired of the work and took an apprenticeship with Joseph Gales, the owner and publisher of the Sheffield Register. For two years he learned about the publishing business, and in 1794, when Gales was forced to flee the country to avoid imprisonment, Montgomery took over the Register and changed its name to the Sheffield Iris. Montgomery published and managed the Sheffield Iris for 32 years. He used the Iris as a tool to distribute the 360 hymns written throughout his life. His most well-known hymns are “Angels, From the Realms of Glory,” “Go to Dark Gethsemane,” “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” “Songs of Praise the Angels Sang” and “Stand Up and Bless the Lord.”
Montgomery’s “Go to Dark Gethsemane” is still one of his most widely used hymns, most often sung during Lent or during Holy Week. The first three stanzas are most commonly available in hymnals. The fourth stanza, though often omitted today, has been preserved in The United Methodist Hymnal. Even though the text is now over 185 years old, it has rarely been altered. Many hymns from this era use language that is no longer common in today’s hymns or speech. Hymnal editors typically remove antiquated language and replace it with modern equivalents, but this hymn has remained essentially intact. This beautiful somber hymn has stood the test of time. We benefit from the art and poetry of Montgomery still today.
What Wondrous Love is This
“What Wondrous Love Is This” is sometimes described as a "white spiritual", from the American South. Its text was first published in 1811, during the Second Great Awakening, and its melody is derived from an English popular ballad. The hymn's lyrics were first published in Lynchburg, Virginia in the c. 1811 camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. The lyrics may also have been printed, in a slightly different form, in the 1811 book Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected published in Lexington, Kentucky. In most early printings, the hymn's text was attributed to an anonymous author, though the 1848 hymnal The Hesperian Harp attributes the text to a Methodist pastor from Oxford, Georgia named Alexander Means. Camp meeting attendees during the Second Great Awakening would sing the hymns printed in these hymnals to a variety of popular melodies, including "The Ballad of Captain Kidd", which was well known at the time; this is likely how the text and melody came to be paired. The text and melody were first published together in The Southern Harmony, a book of shape note hymns compiled by William Walker. In 1966, the United Methodist Hymnal became the first standard hymnal to incorporate “What Wondrous Love Is This”. Today it is a widely known hymn included in many hymnals.
To Mock Your Reign, O Dearest Lord
Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) served as a Methodist minister in and around London from 1928 until his retirement in 1969. In 1969, he served on the planning committee for Hymns and Songs, a supplement to the hymnal of the British Methodist Church. His fellow committee members urged him to write hymns to “fill gaps” in subject matter. Thus began his long and fruitful career as a hymn writer.
Pratt Green wrote this haunting and beautiful text in 1972 in response to a letter from Francis Westbrook. Pratt Green and Westbrook, a composer, often worked together and wrote frequently to each other. Their correspondence is preserved in Pratt Green’s scrapbooks, which are held at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. In his letter, Westbrook asked Pratt Green to provide a new text for THIRD MODE MELODY by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). Westbrook noted that the text used in the English Hymnal (1906) was “impossible”; he wanted to compose an anthem from the “unearthly beauty” of this melody with a text that was “virile yet wistful.” The result was Pratt Green’s response to Westbrook’s request.
The text was paired first with THIRD MODE MELODY and published in Sixteen Hymns of Today (1978) by the Royal School of Church Music. In More Hymns for Today (1982), published by Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd., the hymn was given a new tune which combined the first four lines of ST. MARY with the second half of WIGTOWN to highlight the juxtaposition found in the text. In the UM Hymnal, it is set to KINGSFOLD, which suits the second half of each stanza better than the first. The two halves of each stanza are set in sharp contrast: a first half filled with images of Christ’s crucifixion, and a second half that expresses the hope of resurrection.
The opening lines of each stanza echo Matthew 27:27-32. The first stanza focuses on the crown of thorns, fashioned by the Roman soldiers to mock Christ. Pratt Green highlights the paradox in each stanza with the line, “They could not know, as we do now.” The crown becomes glorious as Christ’s “sorrows heal our own.” In the second stanza, Pratt Green turns to the purple cloak used by the soldiers, again to mock Christ. The paradox of this stanza is that “you will your robe of mercy throw, around our naked shame.” In the final stanza, the “sceptered reed” and mock adoration of the soldiers is set in paradox with the Kingdom which knows no end; “though empires rise and fall, your Kingdom shall not cease to grow till love embraces all.”
Pratt Green also highlights characteristics of Christ in each stanza with an oxymoron. In the first, Jesus is called “dearest,” even as he is being taunted on the road. In the second stanza, he is called “gracious,” though the soldiers are turning him into the punch line of a joke. In the third stanza, Jesus is called “patient,” as the soldiers pretend to bow to him.
The poetic device of hypotyposis—or lifelike description—is used as Pratt Green conveys the scene through vivid, yet simple words. In the first half of each stanza, it is easy to feel we are witnesses to the crucifixion; then we are reminded that this is not the end of the story. We examine the suffering of Christ; then we turn to the full narrative of the Bible and the hope of the resurrection. In this way we remember Christ’s healing sacrifice. We remember the unmerited mercy Christ gives. We remember that God’s Kingdom will not fall and will not cease to grow. We remember God’s love that embraces everyone.
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” is one of the great hymns of the church, perhaps the greatest passion hymn. It has an equally great history. It is based on a long medieval Latin poem, Salve mundi salutare, with stanzas addressing the various parts of Christ's body hanging on the Cross. The last part of the poem, from which the hymn is taken, is addressed to Christ's head, and begins "Salve caput cruentatum." The poem is often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).
Bernard of Clairvaux, saint, abbot, and doctor, fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the middle ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, iu Burgundy, in 1091. He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. Bernard had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who died in 1105), he chose a life of asceticism, and became a monk. He entered the monastery of Citeaux, the first Cistercian foundation, in 1113. Two years later he was sent forth, at the head of twelve monks, from the overcrowded abbey, to found a daughter institution in the Valley of Wormwood, the Abbey of Clairvaux. On the death of Pope Honorius II., in 1130, the College of Cardinals split without a clear choice of Pope. Bernard was instrumental in the restoration of Pope Innocent II to Rome, which greatly increased his influence in the Church. The summer of 1146 was spent traversing France and Germany to rouse the people to engage in the second crusade. In both countries the effect of his appearance and eloquence was marvellous, almost miraculous. The population seemed to rise en masse, and take up the cross. In 1147, the expedition started, a vast army, of which probably not a tenth ever reached Palestine. It proved a complete failure, and a miserable remnant shared the flight of their leaders, the Emperor Conrad, and Louis, King of France, and returned home, defeated and disgraced. The blame was thrown upon Bernard, and he soon died, weary of the world.
One of the hymns by which St. Bernard is best known as a writer of sacred poetry is "Salve mundi Salutore," an address to the various limbs of Christ on the cross. It consists of 350 lines, 50 lines being addressed to each. Many other hymns and sequences are attributed to St. Bernard. Hymns, translated from, or founded on, St. Bernard's, will be found in almost every hymnal.
The poem was translated into German by the Lutheran hymnist Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676). He reworked the Latin version to suggest a more personal contemplation of the events of Christ's death on the cross. It first appeared in Johann Crüger's hymnal Praxis pietatis melica in 1656. Although Gerhardt translated the whole poem, it is the closing section which has become best known, and is sung as a hymn in its own right. The German hymn begins with "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden".
Paulus Gerhardt studied at the University of Wittenberg, after which he was pastor at Mittenwalde, and then St. Nicholas’s Church in Berlin, then finally archdiaconus at Lübben. The outward circumstances of Gerhardt's life were for the most part gloomy. His earlier years were spent amid the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. He did not obtain a settled position in life till he was 44 years of age. He was unable to marry till four years later; and his wife, after a long illness, died during the time that he was without office in Berlin; while of the five children of the marriage only one passed the period of childhood. His latter years at Lübben as a widower with one surviving child were passed among a rough and unsympathising people.
Gerhardt ranks, next to Luther, as the most gifted and popular hymnwriter of the Lutheran Church. With a firm grasp of the objective realities of the Christian Faith, and a loyal adherence to the doctrinal standpoint of the Lutheran Church, Gerhardt is yet genuinely human; he takes a fresh, healthful view both of nature and of mankind. In his hymns we see the transition to the modern subjective tone of religious poetry. From the first publication of Gerhardt's hymns they at once came into favour among all ranks and creeds; and a large proportion are among the hymns most cherished and most widely used by German-speaking Christians at the present day.
The length of many of Gerhardt's hymns ("Ein Lämmlein" is 10 stanzas of 10 lines; "Fröhlich soil," 15 stanzas of 8 lines), and the somewhat intricate metres of others, have caused his hymns to be less used in English than otherwise might have been the case; but a considerable proportion have come in some form or other into English hymnbooks. A large selection, translated with scrupulous faithfulness but not retaining much of the lyric grace of the originals, was published by the Rev. John Kelly, in 1867, as Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs.
“O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” is a beautiful but free translation of the "Salve caput cruentatum". Gerhardt's version appeared in Crüger's Praxis (1656), in 10 stanzas of 8 lines, entitled, "To the suffering Face of Jesus Christ." Bernard's original is powerful and searching, but Gerhardt's hymn is still more powerful and more profound, as redrawn from the deeper spring of evangelical Lutheran, Scriptural, knowledge, and fervency of faith.
The hymn was first translated into English in 1752 by John Gambold (1711–1771), an Anglican vicar in Oxfordshire. His translation begins, "O Head so full of bruises." In 1830 a new translation of the hymn was made by an American Presbyterian minister, James Waddell Alexander (1804-1859). Alexander's translation, beginning "O sacred head, now wounded," became one of the most widely used in 19th and 20th century hymnals.
James Waddell Alexander, D.D., (1804-1859) was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rev. Archibald Alexander. He studied at Princeton, and was Professor of Rhetoric at Princeton, 1833; Pastor of Duane Street Presbyterian Church, New York, 1844; Professor of Church History, Princeton, 1849; and Pastor of 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, 1851. His works include Gift to the Afflicted, Thoughts on Family Worship, and others. His hymn translations were collected and published at New York in 1861, under the title, The Breaking Crucible and other Translations.
The music for the German and English versions of the hymn is by Hans Leo Hassler, written around 1600 for a secular love song, "Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret", which first appeared in print in the 1601 Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Gesäng. The tune was appropriated and rhythmically simplified for Gerhardt's German hymn in 1656 by Johann Crüger. Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used five stanzas of the hymn in the St Matthew Passion. He also used the hymn's text and melody in the second movement of the cantata Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV 159. The harmonization found in our hymnal is from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
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