March 1, 2020

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:

Christe, Aller Welt Trost - J. S. Bach

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).   

“Christe, Aller Welt Trost” is the second of the three larger Kyrie settings in Bach’s organ mass.  The Clavier-Übung III, sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass, is a collection of compositions for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, started in 1735–36 and published in 1739. It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his musically most complex and technically most demanding compositions for that instrument.  The purpose of the collection was fourfold: an idealized organ programme, taking as its starting point the organ recitals given by Bach himself in Leipzig; a practical translation of Lutheran doctrine into musical terms for devotional use in the church or the home; a compendium of organ music in all possible styles and idioms, both ancient and modern, and properly internationalised; and as a didactic work presenting examples of all possible forms of contrapuntal composition, going far beyond previous treatises on musical theory.  Luther had written a greater and a smaller catechism. In the former he demonstrates the essence of the faith; in the latter he addresses himself to the children. Bach, the musical father of the Lutheran church, felt it encumbent on him to do likewise; he gave us a larger and smaller arrangement of each chorale.  

The Kyrie is the well-known German trope, “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit,” an anonymous contrafactum of the Latin trope, Fons bonitatis, first published in 1537. The anonymous text was published as Kyrie summum, deutsch in the Naumberger Gesangbuch of 1537 and the anonymous melody, in three continuous, unequal, trinitarian non-strophic stanzas, is from the Teutsch Kirchenamt (1525). Each stanza address a member of the Trinity, God the Father as maker and Preserver (Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit), Jesus Christ the Son as Mediator (Christe, Aller Welt Trost), and the Holy Spirit as guardian of the faith (Kyrie, Gott Heiliger Geist).

Kyrie, God, the Father everlasting,

great is Thy mercy, Thou, the Ruler and Creator of all things.

Have mercy!

Christ, Comforter of the world, Thou alone hast redeemed us, sinners,

Jesus, the Son of God, Thou art our mediator on the Throne of Heaven.

With panting hearts we cry unto Thee.  

Have mercy!

Kyrie, God, holy Spirit, comfort us, strengthen our faith,

that at the end of our lives we may happily depart from the world of sorrows.

Have mercy!

Processional - C. S. Lang

Craig Sellar Lang 1891-1971) was a New Zealand-born British organist, composer and music teacher.  Born in Hastings, New Zealand, CS Lang (known to his friends as "Robin") was educated at Clifton College and the Royal College of Music.  He was an ARCM and received his Doctor of Music from The University of Durham. 

In 1929 he was appointed Director of Music at Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex, where the choristers of Westminster Abbey were briefly evacuated to during the Second World War. Lang resigned from this post in 1945 in order to devote more time to examining and composition. His instructional works, aimed at students, were highly influential. Generations of organists were brought up on his Harmony at the Keyboard, Exercises in Score Reading, as well as his books entitled Exercises for Organists, designed to prepare organ students for the keyboard tests of the Royal College of Organists' diploma exams.  An obituary recorded his "personal magnetism" and determination to awaken "the budding musicianship of every sort of pupil".

CS Lang's choral music includes service settings (such as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B flat, Op.16), and anthems such as He shall give his angels charge over thee (1941). There are also many anthems for trebles' voices, composed for use at Christ's Hospital, as well as numerous secular choral works.  His best-known work is the Tuba Tune for organ, Opus 15, a favourite of recitalists. This dashing little piece, which owes its title to the boisterous melody sounded forth on the organ's tuba stop, begins in the style of Handel but, in its central section, has some brief key changes that could belong to no century except the 20th. Lang's numerous other works for organ include a lengthy Sonata in D minor (Op. 47, 1947), the Introduction and Passacaglia in A minor (Op.51, 1952), the Fugue-Trilogy on E.G.B. (Op. 58, 1952), and many hymn preludes and sets of preludes and fugues.

About the Piano Music:

In Remembrance of You - Paul Tate

Paul A. Tate, a graduate of the University of Georgia, is a professional musician living in Sugar Hill, Georgia. As an active workshop presenter and concert performer, Paul has released a dozen recordings and published over 100 original songs and arrangements. His liturgical compositions appear in a number of hymnal resources, and his voice has been heard around the world on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Jesus, hope for all, teach us to believe.

Reach us, hope for all, in water, wine, and wheat.

Jesus, Son of God, You are living Word.

Teach us, Son of God, to share what we have heard.

Jesus, Lamb of God, bearer of our sin,

Free us, Lamb of God, come heal us from within.

Gathered at table, gathered in love,

food for the the journey sent from above.

Strengthen and feed us in all that we do,

gathered at table in remembrance of You.

About the Choral Music:

God So Loved the World - John Stainer

Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) was an English composer and organist.  His work as choir trainer and organist set standards for Anglican church music that are still influential. He was also active as an academic, becoming Heather Professor of Music at Oxford.  Stainer was born in Southwark, London, the son of a cabinet maker. He became a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral when aged ten and was appointed to the position of organist at St Michael's College, Tenbury at the age of sixteen. He later became organist at Magdalen College, Oxford, and subsequently organist at St Paul's Cathedral. When he retired due to his poor eyesight and deteriorating health, he returned to Oxford to become Professor of Music at the university. 

Stainer's output of sacred music was extensive, including the Passion cantata or oratorio The Crucifixion (1887), the Sevenfold Amen, and numerous hymn tunes, including "Cross of Jesus", "All for Jesus" (both from The Crucifixion), and "Love Divine”. “God So Loved the World” is also part of The Crucifixion.  His settings for the Gloria and Sanctus were sung at the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.  His work as a composer was much esteemed during his lifetime but is not well known today. The Crucifixion is one of the few major works of his that is still regularly performed. He also made a lasting contribution to the music of Christmas in his Christmas Carols New and Old (1871), produced in collaboration with the Rev. H. R. Bramley, which marked an important stage in the revival of the Christmas carol. The book includes Stainer's arrangements of what were to become the standard versions of "What Child Is This", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", "Good King Wenceslas", "The First Nowell", and "I Saw Three Ships", among others. 

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;

but that the world through him might be saved.

God so loved the world.

About the Hymns:

Maker, in Whom We Live

"Maker, in whom we live" is well-known in the Methodist tradition. The text was written by Charles Wesley in 1747. Originally, Wesley titled the hymn "To the Trinity" and published it in the Hymns for Those that Seek and Those that Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ in 1747.  Wesley was one of the first to incorporate the idea of the Trinity in hymns and poetry. In each stanza, he described a member of the Trinity, with the final stanza focusing on God, the Three-in-One. The hymn entered the Methodist hymnal in 1821. It was omitted in the 1905 and 1935 editions but returned in 1966.

"Maker, In Whom We Live" first appeared in the 1822 hymnal titled A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The hymn, for the most part, remains in its entirety in today's modern hymnal. Despite some minor alterations in grammatical structure, there are really only two significant changes to the text. The principal changes were made in order to make the hymn's language more inclusive, avoiding male-only imagery for God. The original version begins with "Father" instead of "Maker." In the last stanza, Wesley originally wrote, "Let all the sons of men," which has now been changed to "Let all on earth below."

Each stanza in this hymn describes a member of the Trinity. The first stanza discusses angels and earth giving praise and singing to God, the Maker and Creator. The second stanza expresses praise to God the Son, who gives redeeming grace to all, even sinners. The third stanza conveys God as the Holy Spirit, with all energy and power, and expresses how we cannot explain God's love for us. The last stanza invites all to sing and praise God the Three-in-One. The first three stanzas have strong scriptural references. The first stanza refers to Acts 17:28 and Luke 2:14. The second stanza recalls Revelation 7:10 and the third stanza alludes to Titus 3:5.

The tune most commonly associated to this hymn is DIADEMATA, composed by George J. Elvey, during the Romantic Era, in 1868. In the 1878 hymnal, this hymn was paired with the tune WAUGH, and only contained the first two stanzas.

I Come with Joy

“I Come with Joy” was written in 1971 by Brian Wren (b. 1936), 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). His publications include What Language Shall I Borrow? - God-Talk in Worship: A Male Response to Feminist Theology (1989 and 2009), Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song (2000), Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship (2008), Hymns for Today (2009) and seven hymn collections totaling 250 hymns.

DOVE OF PEACE was first published in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835), a Sacred Harp collection, with the text “O Tell Me Where the Dove has Flown”.  It was originally the tune of a Catskill folk song, “The Darby Ram”.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

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