May 3, 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 Piano Music:

A Shepherd’s Medley - Paul Tate

This is a medley of three hymns that are all settings of  Psalm 23.

The text of "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" first appeared in Hymns for the Young, 1830, which was edited by Dorothy Ann Thrupp (1779-1847). Although no author's name appears with the text, it is thought that Thrupp wrote it, since she often published hymns anonymously, under the pseudonym "Iota," or simply using her initials “DAT”.   The tune we sing today, BRADBURY, was written by William Bradbury expressly for this text and appeared in his Sunday School collection, Oriola, 1859. Bradbury was a protege of the great music educator, Lowell Mason. Bradbury sang in Mason's Bowdoin Street Church choir and Boston Academy of Music as a youth, and later started similar church and school music programs in New York where he served as organist at First Baptist Church. Beyond his work as an educator and church musician, Bradbury studied composition in Europe, founded the Bradbury Piano Company with his brother, and edited a number of music books. Bradbury is probably most famous for writing the music to "Jesus Loves Me.”

Savior, like a shepherd lead us, Much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us, For our use Thy folds prepare:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.

We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, Be the guardian of our way;
Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, Seek us when we go astray:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray.

Thou hast promised to receive us, Poor and sinful though we be;
Thou hast mercy to relieve us, Grace to cleanse, and pow'r to free:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Early let us turn to Thee.

Early let us seek Thy favor, Early let us do Thy will;
Blessed Lord and only Savior, With Thy love our bosoms fill:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Thou hast loved us, love us still.

Marty Haugen (b. 1950) was raised in the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in Minnesota, and also writes contemporary hymns and liturgies for the Lutheran church despite being a member the United Church of Christ. Despite being a non-Catholic, his music has found favor in the both liberal Roman Catholic and Protestant congregations. Haugen holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Luther College and an M.A. degree in Pastoral Studies from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. For the past 25 years Haugen has pursued a career as a liturgical composer and workshop presenter.

His best-known works are two Lutheran liturgies, "Holden Evening Prayer" and "Now the Feast and Celebration", and settings of the Catholic mass, the most widely-know being the Mass of Creation. He has also composed dozens of other works, including liturgy settings, choral arrangements, sacred songs, and hymns, including "Here in this Place (Gather Us In)", "Canticle of the Sun", "We Are Many Parts", "We Remember", and "Shepherd Me, O God," as well as several psalm settings and paraphrases.

“Shepherd Me, O God” was originally a responsorial which is used in alternatum with the reading or chanting of Psalm 23 from the Psalter. Later, Haugen added verses which are a paraphrase of Psalm 23.

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.

God is my shepherd, so nothing shall I want,

I rest in the meadows of faithfulness and love,

I walk bu the quiet waters of peace.

Gently you raise me and heal my weary soul,

You lead me by pathways of righteousness and truth,

My spirit shall sing the music of your name.

Though I should wander the valley of death,

I fear no evil, for You are at my side,

Your rod and Your staff, my comfort and my hope.

You have set me a banquet of love in the face of hatred,

Crowning me with love beyond my power to hold.

Surely Your kindness and mercy follow me all the days of my life;

I will dwell in the house of my God forevermore.

Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1985, Francis Patrick O’brien has spent all of his priesthood in parish and campus ministry, where, along with his sacramental and parochial duties, he has frequently served as music director and composer. He is currently pastor of St. Matthias Parish in Marlborough, MA, a western suburb of Boston.  O’brien began working in music ministry at age thirteen as accompanist for the children’s choir in his home parish. During those years, Fran began composing for liturgy.  Fran’s compositions for worship are born out of over 35 years of experience as accompanist, choir director and presider. His compositions, beginning with You Are All We Have and Shepherd of My Heart, in 1991, are known for their strong melodies and solid texts. He is a frequent presenter of workshops and concerts throughout the New England area as well as with NPM and GIA. His commissions include works for Form Reform, the NCEA and the Archdiocese of Boston in celebration of its bicentennial year.

My shepherd is the Lord, for nothing shall I want;

green are the pastures where I'm led to repose.

Near waters still and deep God will refresh my soul.

I am led onward in ways true to the Name.

Guide me, O shepherd of my heart;

lead me homeward through the dark, into everlasting day.

Show me the way of truth and light; keep me always in your sight.

May my life never part from the shepherd of my heart.

If I should walk one day into the vale of darkness,

no evil shall I fear with God at my side.

There with your crook and staff you give me strength and comfort;

you spread a banquet in the sight of my foes.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup is overflowing;

goodness and kindness crown the days of my life.

Within the Lord's own house I dwell in peace forever;

within the house of God my soul is at rest.

Lead me homeward through the dark, into everlasting, everlasting. 

Show me the way of truth and light; keep me always in your sight. 

May my life never part from the shepherd of my heart.

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.

O Christ the Same - Marianne Kim

Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) wrote this text the opening of the Cambridge University Mission in what was then Jamaica Road, South East London, in November 1972. Given plenty of notice, the words were written over a year earlier, at Sevenoaks, Kent, in September 1971. Dudley-Smith had lived in a small flat at the Cambridge University Mission, later renamed The Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, when he was Head of the Mission. He based this text on Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today…”

It is sung to the tune LONDONDERRY AIR, better known as the tune of the traditional Irish folk song, “O Danny Boy”.  

O Christ the same, through all our story’s pages,

Our loves and hopes our failures and our fears

Eternal Lord the King of all the ages

Unchanging still amid the passing years,

O Living Word, the source of all creation

Who spread the skies and set the stars ablaze,

O Christ the same who wrought our whole salvation,

We bring our thanks for all our yesterdays.

O Christ the same, the friend of sinners sharing,

Our inmost thoughts the secrets none can hide,

Still as of old upon Your body bearing

The marks of love in triumph glorified,

O Son of Man who stooped for us from heaven,

O Prince of life in all Your saving power,

O Christ the same to whom our hearts are given,

We bring our thanks for this the present hour.

O Christ the same, secure within whose keeping

Our lives and loves our days and years remain,

Our work and rest our waking and our sleeping,

Our calm and storm our pleasure and our pain,

O Lord of love for all our joys and sorrows,

For all our hopes when earth shall fade and flee,

O Christ the same beyond our brief tomorrows,

We bring our thanks for all that is to be.

A Chicago-based composer, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, Marianne Kim (b. 1972) has been noted for her vibrant performances and compositions in a wide diversity of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, R&B, and gospel, alongside traditional and contemporary church music.  Born and raised in Korea, Marianne studied piano and composition at Pusan High School of Arts and earned a BM in composition at Pusan National University. After working professionally for more than a decade in the United States, she returned to school and earned dual Masters of Music in jazz studies and organ performance with scholarships and prizes from Northern Illinois University.

Thee We Adore - David Angerman

St. Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274), confessor and doctor, commonly called The Angelical Doctor, “on account of," says Dom Gueranger, "the extraordinary gift of understanding wherewith God had blessed him," was born of noble parents. The exact date of his birth is not known, but most trustworthy authorities give it as 1227. At the age of five, he was sent to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino to receive his first training, which in the hands of a large-hearted and God-fearing man, resulted in so filling his mind with knowledge and his soul with God, that it is said the monks themselves would often approach by stealth to hear the words of piety and wisdom that fell from the lips of the precocious child when conversing with his companions. After remaining at Monte Cassino for seven years, St. Thomas, "the most saintly of the learned, and the most learned of the saints," went to the University of Naples, where he was induced to petition for admission into the Dominican order, though he was not more than seventeen years of age. His mother was so against this that she caused him to be waylaid on the road to Paris  and to be kept in prison for more than two years, during which time his mother and brothers attempted to turn him away from religion.

At last, the Dominicans' influence with the Pope induced him to ask the Emperor Frederick to order Thomas’ release.  He was sent to Rome, then to Paris, and thence to Cologne. At Cologne, his studies were continued under the celebrated Albertus Magnus, with whom, in 1245, he was sent by the Dominican Chapter once more to Paris for study, under his direction, at the University. In 1248, when he had completed his three years' curriculum at Paris, St. Thomas was appointed, before he was twenty-three years of age, second professor and “magister studentium,” under Albertus at the new Dominican school at Cologne. There he attained a great reputation as a teacher; he preached and wrote.  His sermons also at that time enabled him to attract large congregations into the Dominican church. His writing and preaching were very influencial. So much so that Louis IX. insisted upon St. Thomas becoming a member of his Council of State, and referred every question that came up for deliberation to him the night before, that he might reflect on it in solitude. At this time he was only thirty-two years of age.

In 1259 he was appointed, by the Dominican Chapter at Valenciennes, a member of a Commission, in company with Albertus Magnus and Pierre de Tarentaise, to establish order and uniformity in all schools of the Dominicans. In 1261 the Pope, Urban IV., immediately upon his election to the Pontifical throne, sent for St. Thomas to aid him in his project for uniting into one the Eastern and Western Churches. St. Thomas in that same year came to Rome, and was at once appointed by the General of his Order to a chair of theology in the Dominican College in that city, where he obtained a like reputation to that which he had secured already at Paris and Cologne. Pope Urban offered him, first the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and then a Cardinal's hat, but he refused both. After lecturing, at the request of the Pope, with great success at Vitervo, Orvieto, Perugia, and Fondi, he was sent, in 1263, as "Definitor," in the name of the Roman Province, to the Dominican Chapter held in London. In 1269 he was summoned to Paris—his last visit— to act as "Definitor" of the Roman Province at the General Chapter of his Order, and he remained there until 1271. In 1272, after visit¬ing Rome on the way, he went to Naples to lecture at the University. He remained at Naples until he was summoned, in 1274, by Pope Gregory X., by special bull, to attend the Second Council of Lyons, but he died in route at barely forty-eight years of age. 

St. Thomas was a most voluminous writer, his principal work being the celebrated Summa Theologiae, which, although never completed, was accepted as such an authority as to be placed on a table in the council-chamber at the Council of Trent alongside of the Holy Scriptures and the Decrees of the Popes. Though not a prolific writer of hymns, St. Thomas has contributed to the long list of Latin hymns some which have been in use in the services of the Church of Rome from his day to this. They are on the subject of the Lord's Supper. The best known are:—
Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis Mysterium; Adoro te devote latens Deitas; Sacris sollemniis juncta sint gaudia; Lauda Sion Salvatorem; and Verbum supernum prodiens. 

Adoro te devote is one of five hymns St. Thomas Aquinas composed Pope Urban IV's (1261-1264) request when the Pope first established the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. The hymn is found in the Roman Missal as a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass.  The translation by James Russell Woodford follows:

Thee we adore, O hidden Savior, thee, 

who at this blessed feast art pleased to be;
both flesh and spirit in thy presence fail, 

yet here thy presence we devoutly hail.

O blest memorial of our dying Lord, 

who living bread to all doth here afford!
O may our souls forever feed on thee, 

and thou, O Christ, forever precious be!

Fountain of goodness, Jesus, Lord and God, 

cleanse us, unclean, with thy most cleansing blood;
increase our faith and love, that we may know
the hope and peace which from thy presence flow.

O Christ, whom now beneath a veil we see,
may what we thirst for soon our portion be,
to gaze on thee unveiled, and see thy face,
the vision of thy glory and thy grace.

David Angerman (b. 1955) has been Director of Music and organist at Bethany Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, since 1980. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education Degree and Master of Church Music Degree from Baylor University and a Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance from the University of Texas in Austin.  As a composer he has to his credit more than 100 published works including choral and handbell music as well as organ and piano solos. He has also written the music for several youth and children's musicals, and co-authored, along with Joseph Martin and Mark Hayes, KEYS FOR THE KINGDOM, a piano method for the Christian student, published by Shawnee Press. Many of his published works have been awarded Editor's Choice designations.

Nearer, My God, to Thee - Heather Sorenson

"Nearer, My God, to Thee" was written by the English poet and Unitarian hymn writer Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848) at her home "Sunnybank", in Loughton, Essex, England. In 1841, she published her longest work, Vivia Perpetua, A Dramatic Poem. In it, a young wife who refuses to submit to male control and renounce her Christian beliefs is put to death. She contributed to the Westminster Review, including a critique of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry, and wrote political verses, some for the Anti-Corn Law League. Her work often advocated equal treatment for women and for the working class.  At the solicitation of her pastor, she also contributed 13 hymns to the compilation prepared by him for the use of his chapel, published 1840-41, in two parts, six in the first and seven in the second part. Of these, the two best known, ” Nearer, my God! to Thee" and "He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower”, are in the second part. For this work, her sister, Eliza, wrote 62 tunes. Her only other publication, a catechism for children, entitled The Flock at the Fountain, appeared in 1845.  A Unitarian in belief, she was hampered in her career by deafness that she had inherited from her father and, inheriting their mother's feebleness, both sisters yielded to disease in middle age. Her hymn "Nearer, my God! to Thee" was introduced to American Christians in the Service Book, published (1844) by Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D.D., of Boston, Massachusetts, from where it was soon transferred to other collections.

It retells the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it..

It was first set to music by Adams's sister; however, in the United Kingdom, the hymn is usually associated with the 1861 hymn tune HORBURY by John Bacchus Dykes, named for a village near Wakefield, England, where Dykes had found "peace and comfort”.  In the rest of the world, the hymn is usually sung to the 1856 tune BETHANY by Lowell Mason.

The hymn has an interesting and varied history.

"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is associated with the sinking of the RMS Titanic, as some survivors later reported that the ship's string ensemble played the hymn as the vessel sank. For example, Violet Jessop said in her 1934 account of the disaster that she had heard the hymn being played; Archibald Gracie IV, however, emphatically denied it in his own account, written soon after the sinking, and wireless operator Harold Bride said that he had heard "Autumn", by which he may have meant Archibald Joyce's then-popular waltz "Songe d'Automne" (Autumn Dream). Feature films based on the Titanic disaster depict the band playing various versions of the hymn or other music. The 1929 film Atlantic, and the 1943, 1953, and 1997 films titled Titanic all used the "Bethany" version. The Titanic 1996 miniseries featured "Autumn" instead. The 1958 film A Night to Remember used the "Horbury" version.  Wallace Hartley, the ship's band leader, who went down with the ship (as did all other musicians on board), liked the hymn and had wished to have it performed at his funeral. As a Methodist Briton, he was familiar with both the "Horbury" and "Propior Deo" versions but would not likely have used "Bethany". His father, a Methodist choirmaster, used the "Propior Deo" version at church. His family were certain that he would have used the "Propior Deo" version, and it is this tune's opening notes that appear on Hartley's memorial and that were played at his funeral. However, a record slip for a 1913 Edison cylinder recording of "Nearer, My God, to Thee", featuring the "Bethany" version, states that "When the great steamship 'Titanic' sank in mid-ocean in April 1912, it was being played by the band and sung by the doomed passengers, even as the boat took her final plunge." George Orrell, the bandmaster of the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, who spoke with survivors, related: "The ship's band in any emergency is expected to play to calm the passengers. After the Titanic struck the iceberg the band began to play bright music, dance music, comic songs – anything that would prevent the passengers from becoming panic-stricken... various awe-stricken passengers began to think of the death that faced them and asked the bandmaster to play hymns. The one which appealed to all was 'Nearer My God to Thee’."  "Nearer, My God, to Thee" was sung by the doomed crew and passengers of the SS Valencia as it sank off the Canadian coast in 1906, which may be the source of the Titanic legend.

Another tale, surrounding the death of President William McKinley in September 1901, quotes his dying words as being the first few lines of the hymn. At 3:30 pm, in the afternoon of 14 September 1901, after five minutes of silence across the nation, numerous bands across the United States played the hymn, McKinley's favorite, in his memory. It was also played by the Marine Band on Pennsylvania Avenue during the funeral procession through Washington and at the end of the funeral service itself, and at a memorial service for him in Westminster Abbey, London. The hymn was also played as the body of assassinated American President James Garfield was interred at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, and at the funerals of former U.S. Presidents Warren G. Harding and Gerald R. Ford, and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands

The Confederate army band played this song as the survivors of the disastrous Pickett's Charge (in the Battle of Gettysburg) returned from their failed infantry assault. The Rough Riders sang the hymn at the burial of their slain comrades after the Battle of Las Guasimas.

CNN's founder Ted Turner, at the launch of the channel in 1980, promised: "We won't be signing off until the world ends. ... We'll be ... covering it live. ... [And] when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer My God to Thee' before we sign off." Turner commissioned a video recording of the hymn for this purpose, played by a military marching band, which he sometimes played for reporters. In 2015, the video, tagged in CNN's database as "[Hold for release] till end of world confirmed", was leaked on the Internet.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me;

Still all my song shall be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,

Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;

Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God, to Thee.

There let the way appear steps unto heav'n;

All that Thou sendest me in mercy giv'n;

Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee.

Then with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,

Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;

So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee.

Or if on joyful wing, cleaving the sky,

Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upwards I fly,

Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

There in my Father's home, safe and at rest,

There in my Saviour's love, perfectly blest;

Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee.

This jazz version is by Heather Sorenson.  Sorenson entered the church music industry in her twenties, and her name quickly became a welcomed fixture in the publishing world.  Diversity is the characteristic that makes Heather somewhat of an anomaly in the industry: she easily maneuvers both the traditional and contemporary genres of Christian music, often combining the two for a unique blend that has become her artistic fingerprint. Initially recognized for her skill as a pianist, Heather is now known for her compositions in choral anthems, solo piano collections, and orchestrations. She taught all elementary levels of music at Grace Academy of Dallas for 4 years, served as an adjunct music professor at Baylor University, and has served on many master class panels in piano and songwriting. Heather regularly is a guest speaker and conductor at churches across America and leads scores of sessions each year at various worship conferences, schools, and universities. Heather makes her home in the Dallas, TX area with her beloved (and very vocal) beagle, Lucy. 

About the Hymns:

Christ is Alive

Brian 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.  Wren wrote this text in England, during April of 1968. Wren writes: 

It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God's love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing.

First published in the British supplement New Church Praise (1975), the text was revised by Wren in 1978.  "Christ Is Alive" is a joyful celebration of Christ's resurrection and of his personal rule in a human world in which pain, war, and injustice abound. Christ’s transcendent and immanent reign is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will ultimately bring about a new creation.

TRURO is an anonymous tune, first published in Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, (second vol., 1789) as a setting for Isaac Watts' "Now to the Lord a noble song." Virtually nothing is known about this eighteenth-century British editor of the two-volume Psalmodia Evangelica, a collection of three-part psalm and hymn tunes for "Churches, Chapels, and Dissenting Meetings in England, Scotland, and Ireland." The tune is named for an ancient city in Cornwall, England, famous for its cathedral and for its pottery.

Where He Leads Me

Earnest W. Blandy, a Salvation Army officer, wrote this song in 1890, after choosing between a comfortable post at an established church, and an alternate assignment to the New York City waterfront and slum called "Hell’s Kitchen." He chose the latter.  No other biographical information on Rev. Blandy has survived.  The text is based on Matthew 16:24:  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”

The melody was composed by pastor and evangelist John S. Norris, who died in 1907.  Norris was born on the Isle of Wight, which is in the English Channel off the southern coast of England. His family emigrated to Canada. In 1868, a few years after the Civil War ended, he was ordained into the Methodist Church ministry. However, 10 years later he joined the Congregational Church and pastored churches in Canada and the United States. Little is known of his ministry. His only legacy is the soulful tune of this simple song of invitation and consecration.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

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