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:
A Joyous Song from Arabia - Roberta Bitgood
This piece contains thematic material from two songs.
“Ala Delouna (Help Us)” is a popular Palestenian and Lebanese folk song. There are many version of this song, and the lyrics are full of idioms that do not appear to make sense when translated. Palestenians often dance the debke to this tune.
“Ah, Ya Zein (Oh, Thou Beautiful)” is an Iraqi folk song which is often sung by a tenor and vocal ensemble accompanied by an instrumental group. The instrument would probably be a qanun, a trapezoidal zither; a more ancient Arabian instrument, the 'ud, or more correctly, d-'ud, precursor of the Renaissance lute; a vertical flute, tuned to the Arab ladder of tones; and an instrument similar to an oboe. There is no harmony in Arabian music. The instruments and voices play in unison, sometimes an octave apart. Sometimes 4 octaves or, rarely, 5. “Ah Ya Zain” is performed with 15 repetitions. Seven are vocal with text; three are vocalise (no text); and five are instrumental.
Roberta Bitgood (Wiersma) (1908-2007) was an American organist, choir director, and composer. She was a pioneer of 20th-century American church music and the first woman to serve as national president of the American Guild of Organists. Roberta Bitgood was born in New London, Connecticut, and studied at the Williams Memorial Institute, Connecticut College for Women, and the Guilmant Organ School in New York City. She went on to receive a master's degree in music education from the Teacher's College at Columbia University, and a master's and doctoral degree in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary. Bitgood was the first woman, and twelfth individual in America to receive a doctorate in sacred music. After finishing her education, she played organ for a number of churches and synagogues in Bloomfield, NJ, worked at the Bloomfield College and Seminary, served as the Director of Music for the official chorus of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, and formed Glee Clubs at the local YMCA and YWCA. She later worked as the organist and music director for the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Buffalo, NY, Calvary Presbyterian Church, Riverside, CA, and First Congregational Church, Battle Creek, MI. In 1975, she was elected by write-in to serve as the President of the AGO. Bitgood became the first female President of the AGO, and was elected alongside Vice President Ruth Milliken of Norwalk, Connecticut and Secretary Barbara F. Mount of Freehold Township, New Jersey. As a result, 1975 saw the largest number of women to serve in top positions for the AGO, as well as the first three non-New York based members elected to national leadership.
The government of Iraq officially declared Christmas as a public holiday in 2008. Iraq celebrates Christmas more seriously than others, holding quiet celebrations in their homes.
A unique Iraqi tradition is to ignite a fire of dried thorns after the story of the Nativity is read, usually by one of the children. Iraqis believe the burning fire predicts the future in the forthcoming year.
Lebanon's Christmas spirit is widespread. Houses are decorated, streets and malls are lit up with trees and shops pull out all the "Christmas sales" stops. These can be found in all neighborhoods, Muslim and Christian alike. A tradition the Lebanese have is planting chickpeas or wheat grains in soaked cotton on Eid el-Burbara (Dec 4) and placing them under the Christmas tree when the shoots have grown. This represents the birth of Jesus Christ. Lebanon also recognizes Armenian Christmas, January 6th, as an official holiday.
In Bethlehem, Palestine, deep in the Grotto of the Nativity, where a 14-point silver star set into a marble slab marks the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born, the atmosphere of spiritual serenity seemed a world away from the swirling, and occasionally fractious, Christmas Eve crowds above. Midnight mass at St Catherine's was the finale to a day of celebration and ceremony in Bethlehem. Sweet piercing singing echoed around the grotto, beneath the 4th-century Church of the Nativity's cavernous nave, as midnight approached. Nuns and pilgrims perched on steep stone steps leading to the small chapel, most apparently locked in silent prayer. Many knelt to kiss the site where the newborn Jesus had lain in his crib. Outside the church, thousands of people, Christian and Moslem, packed Bethlehem's Manger Square, flanked by the Church of the Nativity at one end and St Omar's mosque at the other.
About the Choral Music:
Sweetest Music, Softly Stealing - Brad Nix
This lovely, tender hymn of praise celebrates the incarnation with attention to God’s desire to make all the nations one. The text was written by G. W. Brindley and published in Carols Old and Carols New (1916). Nothing is known about Brindley. No one even known what his full name was, but he wrote three carols found in the same 1916 book.
Brad Nix currently serves as Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Music Department at Sterling College, located in Sterling, KS. His responsibilities include overseeing the department, teaching applied and group piano, music theory, aural skills, and arranging. He has also taught music appreciation, music history, and piano pedagogy. Brad received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Brad remains an active recitalist, pedagogue, and freelance pianist. He makes frequent appearances as an adjudicator for local and statewide piano competitions and recently acted as the Georgia State Chair of the Music Teachers National Association Senior Performance Competitions.
Sweetest Music, softly stealing through the silence of the night;
to the shepherds, now revealing, Christ is born the Source of light.
Glory unto God the Father, who hath sent His only Son;
that He may all nations gather ‘round His feet and make them one.
Shepherds, to the stable hasten, there your Savior, Christ is born.
Son of Mary, lowly maiden, on this first glad Christmas morn.
He, from highest heaven descending, comes on earth your woes to heal,
that your every want attending, love of God He may reveal.
Glory unto God the Father, who hath sent His only Son;
that He may all nations gather ‘round His feet and make them one.
Joy to the World! - Matt Podd
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.
Matt Podd is a pianist, composer, arranger, and music director based in Brooklyn, NY. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Ithaca College. As a pianist Matt specializes in jazz, gospel, pop, musical theatre, and choral accompaniment. His devotion to craft and creativity shine in all of his music making, whether on-stage, or behind the scenes. Matt brings a joyful intensity to his music, specializing in jazz/blues, gospel, and groove. As both an improviser and classically-trained musician, Matt remains in demand as an active performer and collaborator with singers, musicians, and ensembles of all kinds. His setting of “Joy to the World” is an exhuberant jazz arrangement.
And heaven and nature sing, sing, sing!
Joy to the world, for the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room,
for the joy that you feel coming’ now from me to you.
So prepare your heart, and prepare it soon
for the joy that’s coming now from me to you.
And heaven and nature sing. Yes, heaven and nature will sing, sing, sing!
Joy to the world for the Savior reigns! Let all their songs employ.
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
will be echoing our song of joy with sweet refrains.
So prepare your heart, and prepare it soon
for the joy that’s coming now from me to you.
Repeat the sounding joy! Repeat the sounding joy, joy, joy!
Yeah we’re singin’ ‘bout joy to the whole wide world!
Repeat the sounding joy to the whole wide world!
Joy to the world!
Esta Noche - Andy Beck
This folk-carol originated in the Leon province in Spain and is known throughout the Spanish-speaking world for its melody and dance-like spirit.
Andy Beck is the Director of Choral Publications at Alfred Music. A prolific composer and arranger, he has over 450 popular choral works, vocal resources, and children’s musicals currently in print, including the highly regarded method books Sing at First Sight, Foundations in Choral Sight Singing and Vocalize! 45 Vocal Warm-Ups That Teach Technique. A quick search on YouTube will confirm that Andy's music is performed by singers worldwide. Mr. Beck is in demand as a guest conductor, choreographer, adjudicator, and clinician for music educators and students throughout the United States and beyond. In recent years, he has been a commissioned composer and/or guest conductor for honor choirs of all ages, including all-state groups throughout the Southeast. A fine tenor, Andy enjoys performing in and directing musical theatre, singing with the North Carolina Master Chorale Chamber Choir, and has been an Alfred Music studio singer since 1992. With a Bachelors degree in Music Education from Ithaca College and a Masters degree in Music Education from Northwest Missouri State University, Mr. Beck is fully committed to arts education, music literacy, and choral artistry. This passion is evident, not only in his own writing, but also in the high-quality publications available through the catalog he cultivates for Alfred Music.
Tonight a child is born amid the frost and ice.
If only I could, my child, dress you up in velvet.
Joy, joy, what pleasure!
Tonight a child is born in a manger in Bethlehem.
The virgin is washing him with a little bit of soap.
His hands are wounded, the hands of my heart.
The First One Ever - Linda Wilberger Egan
Baylee Davis, solo
Egan (b. 1946) received a bachelor’s degree in music education with a double major in voice and organ from Gettysburg College and is an alumna of the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music. She was director of Trinity Church (Episcopal) in Swarthmore, Penn., and a musician for the Well Woman Project, a project of Venture in Mission. She has served Lutheran, United Methodist and Presbyterian congregations, and is currently minister of music at Pohick Episcopal Church in Lorton, Va.
Egan has provided an account of the hymn’s creation: “The ballad was written after the first year [1980] of a three-year study of the Gospels. That year I was reading to discover Jesus’s relationship with the women he encountered, and their function in his ministry. That year was also the first year of the Rev. Elaine Kebba’s ministry at Trinity Episcopal Church, Swarthmore, Penn. Because of their contact with her, many women here had begun to expand their views of their own ministries. This song is a simple explication of three of the texts I had been thinking about. . . . It is an attempt to remind people of what they already know about three famous events in Jesus’s life.”
Each stanza begins with “The first one ever, oh, ever to know.” Stanza one explores the Annunciation from the angel Gabriel to Mary as told in Luke 1:26-38, thus Mary is the first to know of the birth of Jesus.
Stanza two alludes to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well as told in John 4:7-26. This woman perceived that Jesus was the Messiah. Egan notes: “Later in that year [1980] I became a musician for the Well Woman Project [of] the Diocese of Pa. Venture in Mission. Among its purposes is a search for liturgical expression consistent with the spiritual experience of women as well as men. . . . We take the woman at the well as a symbol because she listened to Jesus, she perceived that he was a prophet, she talked theology with him, and she preached about him so convincingly to the people of her city that they all came to see him.”
The third stanza reflects on the Resurrection morning when the three women, Mary, Joanna and Mary Magdalene, discovered that the tomb was empty (Luke 24:1-11). They were the first ones to experience the Resurrection and spread the Good News.
The first one ever, oh, ever to know of the birth of Jesus was the Maid Mary,
was Mary the Maid of Galilee, and blessed is she, is she who believes.
Oh, blessed is she who believes in the Lord, oh, blessed is she who believes.
She was Mary the Maid of Galilee, and blessed is she, is she who believes.
The first one ever, oh, ever to know of Messiah, Jesus, when he said, “I am he,”
was the Samaritan woman who drew from the well, and blessed is she,
is she who perceives. Oh, blessed is she who perceives the Lord,
oh, blessed is she who perceives. ’Twas the Samaritan woman who drew
from the well, and blessed is she, is she who perceives.
The first ones ever, oh, ever to know of the rising of Jesus, his glory to be,
were May, Joanna, and Magdalene, and blessed are they, are they who see.
Oh, blessed are they who see the Lord, oh, blessed are they who see.
They were Mary, Joanna, and Magdalene, and blessed are they, are they who see.
Hydom, Tiddlydom - Mark Burrows
The word “hydom” mimics the drone of bagpipes. The word “tiddlydom” represents the rhythm of the drum. This traditional Czech carol onomatopoetically recreates the sounds of these festive instruments with charm and brilliance. The English text recounts shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph, and the little child.
Mark Burrows received his undergraduate degree in music education from Southern Methodist University and his graduate degree in conducting from Texas Christian University. Mark is currently the Director of Fine Arts at First United Methodist Church – Fort Worth. He directs choral ensembles of all ages and oversees programs in visual arts and theater. Prior to his work in Fort Worth, Burrows was a music teacher at Stephen C. Foster Elementary School in Dallas, Texas.
Hydom, hydom, tiddlydom, dom, dom.
Shepherds in the fields at night all behold a wondrous sight.
Hear the song the angels sing. Hear the happy news they bring.
Hurry shepherds far and wide, gather near the baby’s side.
Play the pipe and beat the drum. Now a joyous time has come.
Peace so precious, love so small, sleeping in a cattle stall.
Gentle Joseph, Mary mild, tending to the little child.
Shepherds run to spread your cheer. Night is ending, hope is here.
Play the pipe and beat the drum. Now a joyous time has come.
Betelehemu - Andy Beck
This unique and energetic song was composed by a Nigerian drummer named Babatunde Olatunji. Born in the village of Ajido, in southwestern Nigeria, Olatunji was a member of the Yoruba people, who are known for their progressive drumming tradition.
Olatunji received a Rotary International Foundation’s scholarship in 1950 and relocated to the United States to attend Morehouse College. It was there that he met Dr. Wendell P. Whalum, the school’s Glee Club director, and the two collaborated on “Betelehemu.” Although the song is a Christmas carol by definition, it can be performed at various times of the year due its lyrics sung in the original Yoruba language.
Olatunji graduated from Morehouse, after which he launched a music career that saw him record dozens of albums with artists such as John Coltrane, Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder. His 1959 album, Drums of Passion, is credited with introducing Americans to world music and Olatunji went on to a respected career not only as an artist but as a music educator.
The English translation of the Yoruba text is:
We rejoice, for we have a trustworthy Father.
We rejoice, for we have a dependable Father.
Where was Jesus born? Where was he born?
Bethlehem, city of wonder,
that is where the Father was born for sure.
Praise, praise, praise be to you.
We thank thee for this day, gracious Father.
Praise be to the merciful Father, the Father who created us.
We Three Kings - Mark Clark and Steve Rue
"We Three Kings", also known as "We Three Kings of Orient Are" or "The Quest of the Magi", is a Christmas carol written by the Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr., who wrote both the lyrics and the music. It is suggested to have been written in 1857 but did not appear in print until his Carols, Hymns and Song in 1863. John Henry Hopkins, Jr., then an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church, was instrumental in organizing an elaborate holiday pageant (which featured this hymn) for the students of the General Theological Seminary in New York City in 1857 while serving as the seminary's music director. Although there is no scriptural basis for stating dogmatically that there were three wise men, the fact that three distinct gifts are mentioned has given rise to this traditional idea. Master artists throughout the centuries have depicted three wise men on camels as one of their favorite nativity themes.
Mark Clark lives and works in Nashville, TN, and is the resident composer at Mark of the Clark, Inc. Mark studied music at the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, CA. At Grove, Mark acquired the knowledge & invaluable "tools" needed to write authentic music in many styles. Mark can also write a BIO like this one and make it sound like it's in the third person. As a freelance musician, Mark has performed in countless club dates, live shows, and every major cruise line playing rock, country, and jazz. He has even been seen with some of those "Elvis" types, and has performed throughout the USA and abroad in venues originating from Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Nashville. Mark has over 20 years experience in writing custom music made to order, and possesses a command over a huge array of styles. Mark insists on using only the best musicians on his sessions.
Steve Rue is a pianist, composer and writer who is the producer and co-author of the Off Broadway Musical Ram in the Thicket, which opened at the Judith Anderson Theatre in New York City.
Together, they have created an arrangement of “We Three Kings” that is, well…different.
Follow the star, the yonder star.
We three kings of Orient are; Bearing gifts we traverse afar:
Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following that yonder star.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain, Gold I bring to crown him again.
King forever, ceasing never, over us he will reign.
Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light.
Follow the star, the yonder star.
We three Kings of Orient are.
Oo-ee star.
About the Hymns:
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Charles Wesley wrote “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Stanzas 1 and 2 recall Advent prophecies in the Old Testament; stanza 3 speaks of Christ's birth and kingdom, and stanza 4 is a prayer for Christ's rule in our hearts.
We express longing when we sing the words of Charles Wesley’s beautiful Advent hymn, for though we know that Christ goes with us and before us every day, we long for the day when we are with Him in all of the fullness and glory He will bring. We long for the day when we are with Him in a New Heaven and New Earth, when all things are made new. And just as a four-year-old crawls into his father’s arms after an extended absence, so too we long for the day when we will be at rest in Christ, enfolded in the embrace of our Savior.
HYFRYDOL is a Welsh hymn tune that appears in a number of Christian hymnals in various arrangements. Composed by Rowland Prichard, it was originally published in the composer's handbook to the children's songbook Cyfaill y Cantorion ("The Singers' Friend"). Prichard composed the tune before he was twenty years old. The best-known arrangement is probably that by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which he originally produced for his revision of the English Hymnal, and is the version which appears in our hymnal.
Star Child
New Zealander Shirley Erena Murray (b. 1931), one of the most accomplished living hymn writers in the English language, wrote this poignant text set to a beautiful melody by Carlton Young (b. 1926). The text "Star-Child, earth-Child" (1994) has a New-Age sound to it at first, but a closer examination of the words reveals a song rooted in Christian and human reality.
Shirley Murray, the wife of Presbyterian minister John Murray, studied Classics and French at the University of Otago in Dunedin in the far south of the lower island, where she was granted an M.A. with Honors. Her career has included experience as a teacher, researcher, and radio hymn program producer.
She began to write hymns in the 1970s to undergird the theology of her husband's progressive theology and the work of Amnesty International. The first independent publication of her hymns was In Every Corner, Sing (1987), a collection that featured many themes that she would continue to develop. Fellow New Zealander and hymn writer, Colin Gibson highlights these themes: "The search for peace, justice and human rights, inclusiveness, the honoring of women and the feminine element in spirituality, celebration of the natural world and the New Zealand environment, a call to social responsibility and a life of faith lived out with compassion and hopefulness.”
Murray reminds us that there are many among us for whom the joy of Christmas has never been experienced. She achieves this message through a series of short descriptive modifiers before "child." She catalogues children of all ages and stations of life: "street child, beat child," "hurt child, used child," "grown child, old child," "sad child, lost child.” All of these children are created in the image of the "Star-Child, earth-Child" of stanza one and the "Hope-for-peace Child" of stanza five. The refrain, "This year, let the day arrive," is a petition for the presence of the "Christ Child" for "everyone alive."
Carlton Young's musical setting captures the lyrical quality and warmth of a traditional Christmas carol. The beautiful melody becomes a vehicle for singing a message that fits our generation's stanza -- a worthy contribution to the great hymns of the church.
Since the turn of the century, Shirley Murray’s awards and honors are numerous, including the New Zealand Order of Merit (2001) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (2006). Her hymn "God, in your grace" was chosen as the theme song for the IX Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006), and she has been honored as a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (2009).
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
The carol we now know as "Hark! the herald angels sing" did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Wesley's original, written as a Christmas Day hymn and first published in 1739, is made up of ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now. It is interesting to note that in the original version of Wesley's, the heavens ring with the phrase "Glory to the King of kings," echoing Luke's "Glory to God in the highest heaven." George Whitfield, who had been a student with Wesley, changed this to "Glory to the newborn King" in 1753. His fairly revolutionary Calvinist position was not compatible with Wesley's gentler reforming approach, which eventually bore fruit in the Methodist movement that he and his brother John inspired, Whitfield maintained the four-line verses of Wesley's original, but changed the angels' emphasis: "Glory to the newborn King" means something slightly but significantly different from "Glory to the King of kings." In the Gospel account, the angels praise God, whereas in "Hark! the herald angels sing," they are inaccurately described as praising Jesus. Furthermore, Luke does not say that the angels "sing," and so it may well be that this reinterpretation by Whitfield has emphasized the popular but unscriptural picture of angels singing the Gloria. ("While shepherds watched" also implies that they sang.) Whitfield also cut the final verses, which are now largely forgotten:
Come, desire of nations, come, Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman's conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent's head.
Rise, the woman's conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent's head.
Now display thy saving power, Ruin'd nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join Thine to ours, and ours to thine.
Now in mystic union join Thine to ours, and ours to thine.
Adam's likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in thy love.
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, Form'd in each believing heart.
O, to all thyself impart, Form'd in each believing heart.
There is some real theological insight in these neglected verses. First of all we notice the Advent antiphon "Come, desire of nations, come," followed by a reference to the Fall, with the serpent bruising the heel of humanity and Adam bruising its head (Genesis 3:15). Wesley cleverly alters the meaning, asking that the serpent in us (sin) should be bruised (defeated) by Christ, the second Adam, who reinstates us as beloved sons and daughters of God. In the restoration of sinful humanity to a state of grace through the incarnation of Christ, the joining of divine and human nature is also achieved. Consequently, that which was lost (salvation) is gained and a new life is granted to all believers.
The familiar tune, MENDELSSOHN, is an adaptation of a melody from Felix Mendelssohn’s Festgesang for male chorus and orchestra.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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