December 24, 2019 - Christmas Eve

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:

Puer Nobis Nascitur: Fanfare and Verset - 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.  Robert Cummings of the All Music Guide notes that, "Its text speaks of the birth of Christ and of his mission on Earth. The melody is glorious in its triumphant character and ecstatic devotional sense...a radiant hymn of strong appeal, brighter and more colorful than most of the chants emerging from and before the fourteenth century."

Percy Dearmer also translated the hymn for inclusion in the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols as "Unto Us a Boy is Born”.  Percival Dearmer (1867–1936) was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice. Dearmer also had a strong influence on the music of the church and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. His ideas on patterns of worship have been linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement, while Dearmer and Vaughan Williams' English Hymnal has been linked to the influence of both it and Christian Socialism. Dearmer was Canon of Westminster Abbey, from where he ran a canteen for the unemployed in the 1930s. 

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

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

Cradled in a stall was He 'Midst the cows and asses;

But the very beasts could see That He all men surpasses.

Herod then with fear was filled: "A prince," he said, "in Jewry!"

All the little boys he killed At Bethl'em in his fury.

Now may Mary's Son, who came Long ago to love us,

Lead us all with hearts aflame To the joys above us.

Omega and Alpha He! Let the organ thunder,

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

David Lasky received his Bachelor of Music in Music History and Literature and his Master of Music in Organ Performance from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.. Since 1981, he has been Organist/Director of Music at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Leominster, Massachusetts. He has performed solo recitals and in ensemble throughout New England.

In Dulci Jubilo - J. S. Bach

In dulci jubilo ("In sweet rejoicing") is a traditional Christmas carol. In its original setting, the carol is a macaronic text of German and Latin dating from the Middle Ages. Subsequent translations into English, such as J.M. Neale's arrangement "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" have increased its popularity, and Robert Pearsall's 1837 macaronic translation is a mainstay of the Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols repertoire.  The original song text, a macaronic alternation of Medieval German and Latin, is thought to have been written by the German mystic Heinrich Seuse circa 1328. According to folklore, Seuse heard angels sing these words and joined them in a dance of worship. In his biography (or perhaps autobiography), it was written:  “Now this same angel came up to the Servant (Suso) brightly, and said that God had sent him down to him, to bring him heavenly joys amid his sufferings; adding that he must cast off all his sorrows from his mind and bear them company, and that he must also dance with them in heavenly fashion. Then they drew the Servant by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus ...” 

The tune first appears in Codex 1305, a manuscript in Leipzig University Library dating from c.1400, although it has been suggested that the melody may have existed in Europe prior to this date. In print, the tune was included in Geistliche Lieder, a 1533 Lutheran hymnal by Joseph Klug. It also appears in Michael Vehe's Gesangbuch of 1537. In 1545, another verse was added, possibly by Martin Luther. This was included in Valentin Babst's Geistliche Lieder, printed in Leipzig. The melody was also popular elsewhere in Europe, and appears in a Swedish/Latin version in the 1582 Finnish songbook Piae Cantiones, a collection of sacred and secular medieval songs.  The tune appears in Michael Praetorius's Polyhymnia Caduceatrix & Panegyrica collection of 1619.

There have been a number of translations of the Latin/German poem into English. The most popular that keeps the macaronic structure is R. L. de Pearsall's 1837 translation, which retains the Latin phrases and substitutes English for German. A 2008 survey by BBC Music Magazine found this to be the second most popular choral Christmas carol with British cathedral organists and choirmasters.  Alternatively, a looser translation produced in 1853 by John Mason Neale titles the work "Good Christian Men, Rejoice". This translation is often criticised; Thomas Helmore made a mistake when transcribing the mensural notation of Piae Cantiones which led to the repeated "News, news" and "Joy, joy" phrase. In 1921, H. J. Massé wrote that it was an example of "musical wrong doing ... involving the mutilation of the rhythm of that grand tune In dulci jubilo to the English words Good Christian Men Rejoice. It is inconceivable that anyone of any real musical culture should have lent himself to this tinkering with a perfect tune for the sake of fitting it perforce to works of inferior merit." He goes on to cite a more appropriate English translation from 1567 by John Wedderburn as a more "worthy effort". Jeremy Summerley in his radio documentary series A Cause for Caroling is more complimentary, saying that the mistaken repeated note is what makes that version of the tune memorable.  Still another English translation, made in the 19th century by Arthur T. Russell and featured in several Lutheran hymnals, renders the work as "Now Sing We, Now Rejoice".

The Pearsall translation follows.  The English translation of the Latin portions of the text are provided in brackets.

In dulci jubilo [In quiet joy] Let us our homage show.

Our heart’s joy reclineth In praesepio. [in a manger]

And like a bright star shineth Matris in gremio [in the mother's lap]

Alpha es et O. [Thou art Alpha & Omega]

O Jesu parvule, [O tiny Jesus] I yearn for thee alway.

Listen to my ditty, O puer optima. [O best of boys]

Have pity on me, pity O princeps gloriae, [Prince of glory]

Trahe me post te. [draw me unto thee]

O patris caritas, [O father's caring] O nati lenitas, [O newborn's mildness]

Deeply were we stained Per nostra crimina, [by our crimes] 

But thou hast for us gained Coelorum gaudia. [heavenly joy]

O that we were there.

Ubi sunt gaudia [where be joys] If that they be not there.

There are angels singing Nova cantina. [new songs]

There the bells are ringing In regis curia. [at the king's court]

O that we were there.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.  He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.  Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity.  His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century.  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven,  Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music.  Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony".  He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time.  A highly devout Christian, Bach signed all of his compositions “soli Deo Gloria”  (to God alone be the glory).   

The Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") BWV 599−644 is a collection of 46 chorale preludes for organ. All but three of them were composed during the period 1708–1717, while Bach was court organist at the ducal court in Weimar. The remaining three, along with a short two-bar fragment, were added in 1726 or later, after Bach's appointment as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.  The collection was originally planned as a set of 164 chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year. The chorale preludes form the first of Bach's masterpieces for organ with a mature compositional style in marked contrast to his previous compositions for the instrument. Although each of them takes a known Lutheran chorale and adds a motivic accompaniment, Bach explored a wide diversity of forms in the Orgelbüchlein. As such, the Orgelbüchlein  is a collection of organ music for church services, a treatise on composition, a religious statement, and an organ-playing manual.

This setting features the chorale melody in canon, accompanied by triplet figures that bring to mind the rocking of the cradle.

Alleluias - Robert Lau

"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") is a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus, written by Martin Luther in 1534. The hymn is most often sung to a melody that first appeared in 1539 and that was likely composed by Luther as well. That version became a classic Christmas carol, and many composers referred to it in their compositions.  "Vom Himmel hoch" was first published as a hymn with 15 stanzas of four lines in the "Wittenberg hymnal" of 1535, under the header "Ein kinderlied auff die Weinacht Christi" ("A children's song on the Nativity of Christ"). In that publication, the text was coupled to the melody of the then well-known secular song "Ich kumm aus frembden Landen her." It was Luther's only contrafactum, reusing a tune of a secular composition for a religious text.  In 1539, the hymn was published with a new melody that was probably composed by Luther himself, in Geistliche lieder / auffs new gebessert vnd gemehrt /zu Witteberg. D. Marti. Luther. Viel Geistliche gesenge / von andern frommen Christen gemacht. Gedruckt zu Leyptzick durch Valten Schumann (Spiritual Songs / newly improved and extended / … made by other pious Christians …).

The traditional English lyrics are a translation made by Catherine Winkworth (with all 15 verses) in 1855:

From heaven above to earth I come To bear good news to every home;

Glad tidings of great joy I bring, Whereof I now will say and sing:

To you this night is born a child Of Mary, chosen virgin mild;

This little child, of lowly birth, Shall be the joy of all the earth.

This is the Christ, our God and Lord, Who in all need shall aid afford;

He will Himself your Savior be From all your sins to set you free.

He will on you the gifts bestow Prepared by God for all below,

That in His kingdom, bright and fair, You may with us His glory share.

These are the tokens ye shall mark: The swaddling-clothes and manger dark;

There ye shall find the Infant laid By whom the heavens and earth were made.

Now let us all with gladsome cheer Go with the shepherds and draw near

To see the precious gift of God, Who hath His own dear Son bestowed.

Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes! What is it in yon manger lies?

Who is this child, so young and fair? The blessed Christ-child lieth there.

Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest, Through whom the sinful world is blest!

Thou com’st to share my misery; What thanks shall I return to Thee?

Ah, Lord, who hast created all, How weak art Thou, how poor and small,

That Thou dost choose Thine infant bed Where humble cattle lately fed!

Were earth a thousand times as fair, Beset with gold and jewels rare,

It yet were far too poor to be A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.

For velvets soft and silken stuff Thou hast but hay and straw so rough,

Whereon Thou, King, so rich and great, As ’twere Thy heaven, art throned in state.

And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee To make this truth quite plain to me,

That all the world’s wealth, honor, might, Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,

Within my heart, that it may be A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

My heart for very joy doth leap, My lips no more can silence keep;

I, too, must sing with joyful tongue That sweetest ancient cradle-song:

Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto us His Son hath given!

While angels sing with pious mirth A glad new year to all the earth.

Robert C. Lau (b. 1943) holds degrees in music from Lebanon Valley College, the Eastman School of Music and Catholic University of America. Currently an adjunct member of the School of Humanities of Penn State Harrisburg, Dr. Lau was formerly a member of the faculty of Lebanon Valley College, chairing the Department of Music from 1978-89. An active composer, Lau has over 150 choral and organ works published by the leading music publishing companies of the United States. In addition to his work at Mount Calvary, he frequently adjudicates and conducts choral and orchestral festivals and workshops. Lau holds professional affiliations with the American Guild of Organists, the American Choral Directors Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and teaches in the Leadership Program for Musicians jointly sponsored by the national Episcopal and Lutheran churches.

Lau has inscribed this joyous setting with Luke 2: 13-14:

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and

saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

About the Choral Music:

Sanctus Noel - Patrick Liebergen

Based on the Sanctus from Franz Schubert’s German Mass, Liebergen has substituted a Christmas text.  He also incorporates a descant based on The First Noel.  Patrick M. Liebergen (b. 1949) was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was educated at St. Norbert College, DePere, Wiconsin, and received his Masters degree in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His Doctorate in the literature and performance of choral music was completed at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Liebergen currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Holy Child, Emmanuel;

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Praise the Lord! Noel!

Born a child of Mary, sent from God above;

Holy Lord eternal, King of peace and love.

Noel, noel, O sing we noel to the holy Child Emmanuel!

Noel, noel, O sing we noel!  Come priase the Lord, Emmanuel!

Sing with joy, give glory!  Sing, behold His holy name;

Light of God forever, Peace and love proclaim!

Were You There on that Christmas Night? – Natalie Sleeth

Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992) was born in Evanston, Illinois. In 1952, she received an Academic major in music theory and a BA in music theory at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In her later life she received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia Wesleyan College and from Nebraska Wesleyan College. She wrote over 180 works for organ for church and school. She was a member of the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX.

One of Sleeth's best-known anthems for choir is entitled "Joy in the Morning" and was written on the occasion of her husband's inauguration as the president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1977.  Another favorite is "In the Bulb There is a Flower", which was composed as an anthem for the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg FL It appears under the title "Hymn of Promise" in the United Methodist Hymnal  and has been translated into German for the Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-methodistischen Kirche (2002).   “Were You There on that Christmas Night?” was originally written for 2-part choir in 1976.  It has since been published for mixed choir with piano and handbells and has been arranged as a congregational hymn and appears in Worship and Rejoice.

Were you there, were you there on that Christmas night

When the world was filled with a holy light?

Were you there to behold, when the wonder foretold came to earth?

Did you see, did you see how they hailed Him King

With the gifts so rare that they chose to bring?

Did you see how they bowed as they praised Him aloud at His birth?

Did you hear how the choirs of Angels sang at the glory of the sight?

Did you hear how the bells of Heaven rang all through the night?

Did you know, did you know it was God’s own Son,

The salvation of the world begun?

Did you know it was love that was sent from above to the earth?

About the Hymns:

O Come, all Ye Faithful

The original text  of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” has been from attributed to various groups and individuals, including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by an order of monks, the Cistercian, German, Portuguese and Spanish orders having, at various times, been given credit.

The original text consisted of four Latin verses, and it was with these that the hymn was originally published. John Francis Wade (1711=1786) had written the hymn in Latin in 1744, and was first published in 1751. The Abbé Jean-François-Étienne Borderies wrote an additional three verses in the 18th century; these are normally printed as the third to fifth of seven verses, while another, anonymous, additional Latin verse is rarely printed. The text has been translated innumerable times, but the most used version today is the English "O Come, All Ye Faithful". This is a combination of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses and William Thomas Brooke's of the three additional ones, which was first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852. Oakeley originally titled the song “Ye Faithful, approach ye” when it was sung at his Margaret Church in Marylebone before it was altered to its current form. 

Silent Night

Over 180 years ago the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863), rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar.   On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome.

Today books, films and Internet sites are filled with fanciful tales purporting to tell the history of "Silent Night." Some tell of mice eating the bellows of the organ creating the necessity for a hymn to be accompanied by a guitar. Others claim that Joseph Mohr was forced to write the words to a new carol in haste since the organ would not play. A recent film, created for Austrian television places Oberndorf in the Alps and includes evil railroad barons and a double-dealing priest, while a recent book by a German author places a zither in the hands of Franz Gruber and connects Joseph Mohr with a tragic fire engulfing the city of Salzburg. You can read claims that "Silent Night" was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855.

The German words for the original six stanzas of the carol we know as "Silent Night" were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816, when he was a young priest assigned to a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria. His grandfather lived nearby, and it is easy to imagine that he could have come up with the words while walking thorough the countryside on a visit to his elderly relative. The fact is, we have no idea if any particular event inspired Joseph Mohr to pen his poetic version of the birth of the Christchild. The world is fortunate, however, that he didn't leave it behind when he was transferred to Oberndorf the following year (1817).  On December 24, 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend the poem and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas.  Later that evening, as the two men, backed by the choir, stood in front of the main altar in St. Nicholas Church and sang "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" for the first time, they could hardly imagine the impact their composition would have on the world.

Karl Mauracher, a master organ builder and repairman from the Ziller Valley, traveled to Oberndorf to work on the organ, several times in subsequent years. While doing his work in St. Nicholas, he obtained a copy of the composition and took it home with him. Thus, the simple carol, began its journey around the world as a "Tyrolean Folk Song."

Two traveling families of folk singers from the Ziller Valley, similar to the Trapp Family Singers of "The Sound of Music" fame, incorporated the song into their repertoire. According to the Leipziger Tageblatt, the Strassers sang the song in a concert in Leipzig in December 1832. It was during this period, several musical notes were changed, and the carol evolved into the melody we know today. On another occasion, according to an historical plaque, the Rainer Family sang the Christmas carol before an audience which included Emperor Franz I and Tsar Alexander I. In the year 1839, the Rainers performed "Stille Nacht" for the first time in America, at the Alexander Hamilton Monument outside Trinity Church in New York City.
Joseph Bletzacher, the Court Opera singer from Hannover, reported that by the 1840s, the carol was already well known in Lower Saxony. "In Berlin," he says, "the Royal Cathedral Choir popularized it especially. It became in fact the favorite Christmas carol of the artistically appreciative King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who used to have the Cathedral Choir sing it for him during the Christmas season each year."   During his lifetime, Franz Xaver Gruber produced a number of orchestral arrangements of his composition. The original guitar arrangement is missing, but five other Gruber manuscripts of the carol exist. The manuscript by Joseph Mohr (ca. 1820) is for guitar accompaniment and is probably the closest to the arrangement and melody sung at Midnight Mass in 1818.

Perhaps this is part of the miracle of "Silent Night." The words flowed from the imagination of a modest curate. The music was composed by a musician who was not known outside his village. There was no celebrity to sing at its world premiere. Yet its powerful message of heavenly peace has crossed all borders and language barriers, conquering the hearts of people everywhere.

Joy to the World

Our Christmas season would hardly seem complete without the singing of Joy to the World, the most joyous of the carols. Yet Isaac Watts, its author, never intended it to be a Christmas carol at all. Rather, it was a part of his Psalms of David Imitated, published in 1719, which contained paraphrases of many of the Psalms in New Testament language.

The story of the hymn, Joy to the World, is the story of the author, Isaac Watts (1675-1748), who is universally acknowledged as "The Father of English Hymnody". He has earned the title, not because he was first to write English hymns, but because he gave impetus to hymnody and established its place in the worship of the English church.  For over one hundred years, congregational singing had been strictly limited to the Psalms of the Old Testament in poetic form. Many of these rhymed Psalms were so unnatural that Samuel Wesley, father of the famous brothers Charles and John, called them "scandalous doggerel," and his opinion was shared by many.

The birth of Isaac Watts to a dissenting deacon and the daughter of a Huguenot refugee was followed by fourteen years of persecution and hardships for the entire family. Perhaps this suffering was responsible for Isaac Watts’ ill health, for he grew only to a height of just over five feet and was weak and sickly all his life.  Though weak in body, the boy was strong in mind and spirit and early in life showed promise of poetic capability. After one Sunday morning service, Isaac, then fifteen years old, complained of the atrocious worship in song. One of the deacons challenged him: "Give us something better, young man." His answer was to write hundreds of hymns that are still sung today.

 Joy to the World is the "imitation" of the last half of Psalm 98. The author transformed the old Jewish psalm of praise for some historic deliverance into a Christian song of rejoicing for the salvation of God that began to be manifested when the Babe of Bethlehem came "to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found." This is one of the most joyous hymns in all Christendom because it makes so real what Christ’s birth means to all mankind.  The tune to which the hymn is sung is attributed to George Frederick Handel and bears resemblance to phrases of his great oratorio, Messiah. Notably the first four tones match the beginning of the chorus, "Lift Up Your Heads.”

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

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