April 7, 2019

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:

Adoro te devote - Alfred Fedak

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy.

He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism; of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle—whom he called "the Philosopher"—and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. His best-known works are the Disputed Questions on Truth (1256–59), the Summa contra Gentiles (1259–65), and the Summa Theologiae (1265–74). His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle also form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.

At the age of five, Thomas began his early education at Monte Cassino but after the military conflict between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilled into the abbey in early 1239, Landulf and Theodora had Thomas enrolled at the studium generale (university) recently established by Frederick in Naples. It was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. It was also during his study at Naples that Thomas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order to recruit devout followers. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia.

At the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order. Thomas’s decision did not please his family.  In an attempt to prevent Theodora's interference in Thomas's choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. However, while on his journey to Rome, per Theodora's instructions, his brothers seized him as he was drinking from a spring and took him back to his parents at the castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano.  Thomas was held prisoner for almost one year in the family castles at Monte San Giovanni and Roccasecca in an attempt to prevent him from assuming the Dominican habit and to push him into renouncing his new aspiration. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomas's release, which had the effect of extending Thomas's detention. Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans. At one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend, Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate.  By 1244, seeing that all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the family's dignity, arranging for Thomas to escape at night through his window. In her mind, a secret escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans. Thomas was sent first to Naples and then to Rome to meet Johannes von Wildeshausen, the Master General of the Dominican Order.

The Catholic Church honors Thomas Aquinas as a saint and regards him as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. In modern times, under papal directives, the study of his works was long used as a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (philosophy, Catholic theology, church history, liturgy, and canon law).

Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools.”  The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Thomas to be "one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world".

"Adoro te devote" is one of the five Eucharistic hymns, which Aquinas composed and set to music for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, instituted in 1264 by Pope Urban IV as a Solemnity for the entire Roman Catholic Church.  Since the beginning of its composition and it being set to music, the "Adoro te devote" was chanted as an Eucharistic Hymn during the Saint Mass in honorem SS. Sacramenti (in honour of the Most Blessed Sacrament), as it was written in the Latin manuscripts. So it was also chanted for the Eucharistic adoration.  Aquinas seems to have used it also as a private prayer, for a daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  The "Adoro te devote" is one of the medieval poetic compositions, being used as spoken prayers and also as chanted hymns, which were preserved in the Missale Romanum published in 1570 following the Council of Trent (1545–1563).

(For more information on the life, ministry, teaching, and miracles of this great man of the church, see the excellent article at Wikipedia.)

The paraphrase of the Latin text found in our hymnal is:

Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face;

Here would I touch and handle things unseen,

Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,

And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the bread of God,
here drink with Thee the royal wine of heav'n;
here would we lay aside each earthly load,
here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv'n.

This is the hour of banquet and of song;
this is the heav'nly table spread for me;
here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong
the brief, bright hour of fellowship with Thee.

Too soon we rise, the symbols disappear;
the feast, though not the love, is past and done;
gone are the bread and wine, but Thou art here,
nearer than ever, still my Shield and Sun.

Feast after feast thus comes, and passes by;
yet passing, points to the glad feast above;
giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,
the Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.

Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953) holds degrees from Hope Colege and Montclair State College.  A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he is Minister of Music at United Reformed Church, Somerville, New Jersey.

Fanfare and Chorale on the Agincourt Hymn - Charles Callahan

The Agincourt Carol (sometimes known as the Agincourt Song, the Agincourt Hymn, or by its chorus and central words, Deo gratias Anglia) is an English folk song written some time in the early 15th century. The carol is one of thirteen on the Trinity Carol Roll, probably originating in East Anglia.  The tune has been given various texts over centuries, beginning with the Latin original through to one of its more often used translations by Benjamin Webb (1819-1885), "O Love, How Deep How Broad, How High!" Other texts include one titled "God of our fathers, known of old" by Rudyard Kipling, 1897, as well as titles such as "Jehovah, my God, on Thy Help I Depend" (1912), "O God, thy soldiers' great reward”, and the Lenten hymn “The Glory of These Forty Days.”

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise,
for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed.

Alone and fasting Moses saw the loving God who gave the law,
and to Elijah, fasting, came the steeds and chariots of flame.

So Daniel trained his mystic sight, delivered from the lions' might,
and John, the Bridegroom's friend, became the herald of Messiah's name.

Then grant us, Lord, like them to be full oft in fast and prayer with thee;
our spirits strengthen with thy grace, and give us joy to see thy face.

O Father, Son and Spirit blest, to thee be every prayer addressed,
who art in threefold name adored, from age to age, the only Lord.

Charles Callahan (b. 1951) is one of America’s leading organist-composers.  A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Catholic University of America.  In recognition of his service to the church and his commissioned compositions for Papal visits to the U.S., he was awared the Papal Honor of Knighthood in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 1999.  In addition to compositions and performances, Charles Callahan is a noted educator and author whose two books on American organ-building have become standard reference works.

About the Piano Music:

I Like to be Told - Fred Rogers

Fred Rogers was the creator of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as well as the host of all 895 episodes, the composer of its more than 200 songs, and the puppeteer who imagined 14 characters into being. More importantly, he changed the face of children’s television and transformed the way we think about the inner lives of young children.

Fred McFeely Rogers (1928-2003) earned his bachelor's degree in music composition at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in 1951. While a college senior studying music composition at Rollins College, Fred arrived home to see this wonderful new technology in his family’s living room. He instinctively understood the power of the new medium and especially how it could be used to serve children, rather than the slapstick and nonsense that was on the air. From that moment, he knew what he was called to do.

Immediately upon graduation, he was hired by NBC television in New York as an assistant producer for “The Voice of Firestone” and later as floor director for “The Lucky Strike Hit Parade”, “The Kate Smith Hour”, and the “NBC Opera Theatre”. Rogers was married in 1952 to Joanne Byrd, a concert pianist and fellow Rollins graduate.

In November, 1953, at the request of WQED Pittsburgh, the nation's first community-sponsored educational television station, Rogers moved back to Pennsylvania. The station was not yet on the air, and Rogers was asked to develop the first program schedule. One of the first programs he produced was THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. It was a daily, live, hour-long visit with music and puppets and host Josie Carey. Rogers served as puppeteer, composer, and organist. In 1955, THE CHILDREN'S CORNER won the Sylvania Award for the best locally produced children's program in the country. It was on THE CHILDREN'S CORNER that several regulars of today's MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD made their first appearances -- among them, Daniel Striped Tiger. X the Owl, King Friday XIII, Henrietta Pussycat, and Lady Elaine Fairchilde.

During off-duty hours, Rogers attended both the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development. He graduated from the Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963 with a charge to continue his work with children and families through the mass media. Later that year, Rogers was invited to create a program for the CBC program in Canada, which the head of children's programming there dubbed MISTEROGERS. It was on this series that Rogers made his on-camera debut as the program's host. When he and his wife and two sons returned to Pittsburgh in 1966, he incorporated segments of the CBC into a new series which was distributed by the Eastern Educational Network. This series was called MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. With graduate studies in child development as well as his divinity degree, Fred was well-prepared to speak directly to his pre-school audience.  “I’ll never forget the sense of wholeness I felt when I finally realized, after a lot of help from a lot of people, what, in fact, I really wasn’t. I was not just a songwriter or a language buff or a student of human development or a telecommunicator, but someone who could use every talent that had ever been given to me in the service of children and their families.” 

In 1968 it was made available for national distribution through the National Educational Television (NET) which later became Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).  In 1969, he famously testified before a Senate subcommittee that was considering cutting funding for public television. Senator John Pastore was in charge of the proceedings, and after two days of hearings, he remained distinctly unimpressed. Then Fred spoke.

In 1968, Rogers was appointed Chairman of the Forum on Mass Media and Child Development of the White House Conference on Youth. Besides two George Foster Peabody Awards, Emmys, "Lifetime Achievement" Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the TV Critics Association, Fred Rogers received every major award in television for which he is eligible and many others from special-interest groups in education, communications, and early childhood. In 1999, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. His life and work have been the subject of feature articles in national publications, including LIFE, Reader's Digest, Parents, Esquire, Parade, and TV Guide. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, recognizing his contribution to the well-being of children and a career in public television that demonstrates the importance of kindness, compassion and learning. On January 1, 2003, in his last public appearance, Fred Rogers served as a Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, and tossed the coin for the Rose Bowl Game.

Fred Rogers was the composer and lyricist of over 200 songs, the author of numerous books for children.  His last book, The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, was praised by Publishers Weekly for the "qualities of warmth and attentiveness that translate very well into this brief yet thorough parenting guide.”  Fred Rogers received more than 40 honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Yale University, Hobart and William Smith, Carnegie Mellon University, Boston University, Saint Vincent College, University of Pittsburgh, North Carolina State University, University of Connecticut, Dartmouth College, Waynesburg College, and his alma mater, Rollins College.

Fred was chairman of Family Communications, Inc. the nonprofit company that he formed in 1971 to produce MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD and that has since diversified into non-broadcast materials that reflect the same philosophy and purpose: to encourage the healthy emotional growth of children and their families. MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD is the longest- running program on public television. Today Family Communications, Inc. is called The Fred Rogers Company in honor of its founder. 

I like to be told when you’re going away,

When you’re going to come back, and how long you’ll stay.

How long you will stay, I like to be told.

If it’s going to hurt, if it’s going to be hard,

If it’s not going to hurt, I like to be told.

It helps me to get ready for all those things,

All those things that are new.

It trust you more and more each time that I’m 

Finding those things to be true.

I like to be told ‘cause I’m trying to grow,

‘Cause I’m trying to learn and I’m trying to know.

I like to be told.

About the Choral Music:

Create in Me a Clean Heart - Joseph Martin

The text is taken directly from Psalm 51: 10-13, Psalm of David which originated when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone to Bathsheba. Once confronted with his sin, David recognized his inability to be purified through his own actions. A call for God to create a new heart and renewal for the spirit that is dark and low.  A plea to not be cast away as is deserved, but rather that God would restore and uphold.  He desires this that he may once again be a teacher and instructor to sinners.  This may sound like David is making a deal with God.  “Lord, forgive me and I’ll be a missionary!”  No, David is not making a deal.  The natural progression for one forgiven should be from confession to purification to proclamation.  David desires to be able to live beyond his error, learn from it, and help others to find their way back to God when they err as well. 

This text has appeared in hymnals since before 1850.  It is currently found in 29 hymnals and has been set to at least 12 different tunes.  

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.

Joseph Martin (b. 1959 ), a native of North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Subsequently he earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. Joseph taught for five years in the Piano Pedagogy Department of the University of Texas.. He is a member of the staff of Shawnee Press as Director of Sacred Publications, with responsibilities for overseeing the editorial and creative direction of the company’s sacred publications and also coordinating the recording and production aspects of future sacred publishing efforts. Joseph has performed solo piano recitals and has been the featured artist with symphony orchestras in the United States and Mexico. As winner of the Nina Plant Wideman Competition, he performed with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. His solo recital in Ex-convento del Carmen was broadcast nationally throughout the country. Though he continues to perform in concert, he now devotes his efforts to playing in churches and for conferences of church musicians Recognized throughout the United States for his many choral compositions, over 1200 compositions are currently in print and the list continues to grow.

About the Hymns:

This is a Day of New Beginnings

Brian Arthur Wren (b. 1936) is Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Brian holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is a Minister of the United Reformed Church (UK). Wren provides an account of the composition of this text in notes provided in one of the collection of his texts, Faith Looking Forward (1983). The hymn was “written for a New Year’s Day service [1978] at Holy Family Church, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. In itself, the new year is an arbitrary convention, its newness a mere mark on the calendar. The recurrent awakening of life in nature is not a strong enough foundation for hope of real change. Yet by faith in the really new events of the Christian story, a day, or a month, or an hour can become charged with promise, and be a springboard to a changed life.”

As one of the leading hymnwriters of our time, Dr. Wren has contributed more hymns to the UM Hymnal (1989) than any other hymnwriter currently living. This text is supported by a melody composed by Dr. Young (b. 1926), one of the leading tune writers of this day.

Hymn of Promise

From time to time, a choral anthem inspires a hymn. "Hymn of Promise" was first conceived as an anthem in 1985, performed at the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg, Florida, during a festival concert on Natalie Sleeth's music. Long known as a composer of anthems, especially for children, Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992) contributed one of the favorite new hymns to The United Methodist Hymnal.

Sleeth was as native of Evanston, Illinois. She began piano study at the age of four and gained much of her musical experience by singing in choral ensembles during her earlier years. Studying music theory, piano, and organ at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she received her B.A. in 1952.  Married to Ronald E. Sleeth, a United Methodist clergyman and professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, she served as music secretary at Highland Park United Methodist Church from 1969-1976. During this time, she studied music theory with Jane Marshall and audited a course in choral arranging taught by Lloyd Pfautsch at SMU. Choristers Guild published her first anthem, "Canon of Praise," in 1969, the highest selling anthem in the history of this publisher. Her choral works for all ages number more than 200.  Sleeth received honorary doctorates from West Virginia Wesleyan College (1989), and Nebraska Wesleyan College (1990). Some of her compositions are described in her devotional book, Adventures for the Soul (1987).

Sleeth had the ability to compose both texts and music. Though "Hymn of Promise" has become a favorite hymn for funerals, it was written at a time when the author states that she was "pondering the ideas of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Inspired by a T.S. Eliot line, the germ of the hymn grew from the idea "in our end is our beginning," the phase that begins the third stanza of the hymn.  While it carries the promise of spring and the hope of Easter in its beautiful metaphors, it is a very appropriate hymn for funeral and memorial services. Shortly after its composition, the composer’s husband was diagnosed with what turned out to be a terminal malignancy. Ronald Sleeth requested that "Hymn of Promise" be sung at his funeral service.

A wonderful child-like simplicity permeates "Hymn of Promise." Natalie Sleeth had a gift for composing texts on complex theological ideas that were still accessible to children. Her melodies seemed totally natural and therefore effortless for people to learn. "Hymn of Promise" is one of the most memorable hymns written by an American United Methodist in the last part of the twentieth century, and it promises to be sung for many years to come.

Composer R. G. Huff, who attended her funeral in Denver, Colorado, describes her impact on him in Worship Matrix, an online hymnal companion for the hymnal Celebrating Grace (2010): "In March 1992, I attended the memorial service of Natalie Sleeth at Wellshire Presbyterian Church in Denver, across the street from the church I served there. I had been a pen-pal of sorts with her for several years and wanted to be there for the celebration of her contribution to church music, especially the music of children. For a full hour before the funeral, the church’s choir, soloists and organist performed her songs, hymns and anthems. It was a great tribute to her writing legacy. Of course, this was one of the songs we heard that day…Like the theologian she was, Natalie Sleeth moved on to worship: songs rising from silence, words seeking melodies, darkness becoming light, hope becoming evident in future days.  Finally – and this relates to the afternoon in March 1992 – she expressed how life moves into death, death gives way to eternity, and ultimate victory comes for those whose doubt has evolved into belief.”