June 7, 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:

Holy, Holy, Holy - Lari Goss

Reginald Heber  (1783-1826) wrote this text for Trinity Sunday, the day for which lectionary in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer prescribes the reading of Revelation 4. Using reverent and apocalyptic language, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" alludes to Revelation 4:6-11; 5:13; 15:2-4; and Isaiah 6:1-3 to sing the great majesty of the triune God. Note the cosmic scope of the text: human beings (st. 1), saints and angels in glory (st. 2), and all creation (st. 4) praise the name of the Lord. Though God's holiness, love, and purity are cloaked in mystery, we can still experience God's mercy and mighty power, and we can participate in praising God.  It references the Sanctus, which is often called the "Holy holy holy" in English. The name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.

It was first published in the third edition (1826) of  A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury  and was also published posthumously in Heber's Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Services of the Year (1827). The unusual single rhyme (all on the "ee" sound) and the uneven number of syllables in some lines have not detracted from the hymn's popularity.  It was soon adopted by hymn-book compilers, and is the best known and most widely used of the author's hymns.

John Bacchus Dykes composed the tune NICAEA for this hymn in 1861. The tune name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man, Thy glory may not see:

Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea;

Holy, Holy, Holy! merciful and mighty,

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Lari Goss is best known within the Christian music industry in the areas of music production, orchestral arranging and keyboard artistry. Whether arranging for ten or 100 pieces, his music is consistently noted by the dimension of unparalleled quality, undergirding power and heartwarming richness it lends alongside the other musical components of a project. When music to stir the heart and emotions of the listener is the requirement, Lari is widely recognized as the arranger of choice. In addition to being one of gospel music's most respected producers and arrangers, Lari also is an accomplished artist in his own right. He has recorded several successful piano/keyboard albums and has written scores of songs, including the widely performed and recorded "Cornerstone". His keyboard style is distinctive and unique and his "Goss Sound" is legendary in the recording industry. Besides his musical vocation, Lari also uses his industry networking for philanthropic purposes hosting the Lari Goss Invitational, a charity golf tournament that in previous years has benefited the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. The notoriety he has received from his keyboard artistry as well as his producer/arranger credentials have developed into an ever-increasing demand across the United States for Lari's involvement as a speaker/teacher at various music symposiums and seminars. He is an Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, where he teaches graduate level courses one day a week in Orchestration and Recording Studio Accompanying. 

O Day of Peace - William Ringham

Carl Pickens Daw Jr. (b. 1944) was born in Louisville, Ky. He holds a doctoral degree in English from the University of Virginia and the masters of divinity degree from the University of the South. He has been the executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada since 1996. An Episcopal priest, Dr. Daw has served congregations in Virginia, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Daw began writing hymns as a consultant member of the Text committee for The Hymnal 1982, the current hymnal of the Episcopal Church. Since that time, he has been recognized as one of the leading hymn writers in North America, with texts in most denominational and ecumenical hymnals published on this continent.

Episcopal hymnologist Raymond Glover provides the background for the composition of this hymn: “[It] was created in response to two special requests received by the Standing Commission of Church Music during its preparation of The Hymnal 1982 . . . the General Convention’s Joint Commission on Peace . . . and an appeal from many sources, request[ing] the inclusion of [Charles Hubert Hasting Parry’s] tune “Jerusalem”. . . . To satisfy both of these appeals, the Commission called on [Dr. Daw], a Consultant to the Text Committee . . . to compose a text on the theme of peace that could be sung to the popular Parry tune.”

Dr. Daw was influenced in his composition by the book Turning to Christ by Urban T. Holmes III, one of his seminary professors. Daw’s] attention was drawn to Isaiah 11:6-8, and the heart of the hymn [focused on] the peaceable kingdom, paradise regained. The second stanza was drawn from this prophetic passage of Scripture. Daw describes his thinking about the hymn: “This hymn deals with two aspects of peace: pax, an understanding of peace based on the cessation of conflict, and shalom, the condition of living abundantly in harmony and mutual goodwill. . . . Although this hymn affirms that peace is always God’s gift, it also recognizes the importance of human responsibility in preparing an environment in which peace can flourish.”

The tune JERUSALEM plays prominently in the interpretation and success of this text. For British singers, this tune has a long history having been paired with a William Blake poem on social justice, the first line of which was drawn form the author’s Preface to his book Milton.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918), music scholar and professor of composition and music history at the Royal College of Music, wrote a setting for Blake’s text that became so popular that the hymn became an unofficial British national anthem.  Dr. Daw succeeds admirably in composing a text with a majesty that matches Parry’s music. The most important words of each stanza—“grace” in stanza one and “peace” in stanza two—coincide powerfully with the apex of the melody. In doing so, he provides English-speaking Christians worldwide with perhaps the finest hymn on peace in the closing decades of the 20th century.

O day of peace that dimly shines through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,

Guide us to justice, truth, and love, delivered from our selfish schemes.

May swords of hate fall from our hands, our hearts from envy find release,

Till by God’s grace our warring world shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace.

Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb, nor shall the fierce devour the small; 

As beasts and cattle graze, a little child shall lead them all.

Then enemies shall learn to love, all creatures find their true accord;

The hope of peace shall be fulfilled, for all the earth shall know the Lord.

William Ringham holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Indiana University, where he also studied composition. He has performed as a piano soloist in concerts across the U.S. and Mexico. During many years of teaching music and serving various congregations as organist and conductor, Ringham continued to compose and arrange for the groups he was leading. After retiring from teaching, he turned his full attention to his writing, first publishing in 2000. A member of ASCAP, AGEHR, and ACDA, he has received consecutive annual ASCAP awards since 2003. In 2013, Ringham retired from his position of Director of Music at Mission Del Sol Presbyterian Church in Tempe, Arizona.

Reflections - David Angerman

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.

Come, Join the Dance of Trinity - Zach Unke

Today is the day that we name and celebrate the many names for God – we celebrate God who exists in Three Persons, we celebrate the One in Three, the Holy one of Israel, the God of our Ancestors, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Savior, the Messiah – all attempts at describing who our God is by name. But trying to define our God by words, can be a little confusing sometimes. Because all of them fall short of a total and complete definition at any one time. So over time we have developed a doctrine known as the Trinity – to talk about how the divine enters our world, encircles our lives and enters our very lives. Ultimately our God, who exists as Three, is not something to be described, but instead is something that must be experienced. You have to experience God as Father, The Son as Savior, and the Spirit as wind in order to understand God who is in Three.  Come and join the dance – the dance of our God in three persons, dancing with us through life. The song is all about this invitation and how God invites us in Three into the wonder and mystery of their work in community – Three working as One, and One working at three to share love, hope, and joy with the world.

In the beginning of Time – God the Father, the Creating God, made room for you in the wider creation and called forth life in which God took delight.  Indeed all of creation is marked by God’s fingerprints as he formed order out of chaos. In the beginning God began to dance with the universe, and you are part of that dance, a dance that is surrounded by the love and hope of a God who looked at all of creation and said it was, “good.”

The voice that spoke into chaos at the beginning of time, now speaks aloud again in wind and tongues of flame as the people are sent to proclaim the Good News of God’s redeeming grace; sin no longer has us bound, death no longer has us bound – indeed our God is alive and moving among us and we are free to now join in the Spirit that dances through this world. The Spirit continues to embolden our proclamation of the gospel in the church and in the world as we seek to share the Good News of God’s love to the ends of the earth. No longer are we confined to the upper room like the disciples in fear, the Spirit has come into our lives and freed us to move and dance and invited us to participate in the work of the Trinity as God works to redeem all of creation.

Ultimately our words are often not enough – because the Trinity is something that you have to experience. Jesus says it’s like being born from above and adopted into the Dance by God who then encircles our lives with love, redemption, grace, and hope – this is the work of the Trinity in our world. It’s not word’s of a doctrine, but an experience of Community – of the three who are one, of the church, of the Spirit, of God. Our Triune God makes room for us at the table in creation, encircles our lives with love and forgiveness by sending us his son, and invites us ultimately to join in the Dance to spread the Good News into all the world. It’s God alive and at work in our world and in our community and those aren’t words we can express, but only experience – sometimes the only way to express it is to join the dance, sing, and praise.

“Come, Join the Dance” is by Richard Leach (b. 1953), an American hymn writer and poet. He received a B.A from Bowdoin College, and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a United Church of Christ pastor in Connecticut. He began writing hymns in 1987. In 1999, he left the ministry of the United Church of Christ and became a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is a member of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.  Richard Leach is one of the best writers of hymn texts at the end of the 20th century. 

Thought by some scholars to date back to the Middle Ages, KINGSFOLD is a folk tune set to a variety of texts in England and Ireland. The tune was published in English Country Songs (1893), an anthology compiled by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams  introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal (1906) as a setting for Horatius Bonar's "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”.

Come, join the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun—

the interweaving of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son.

The universe of space and time did not arise by chance,

but as the Three, in love and hope, made room within their dance.”

Come, see the face of Trinity, newborn in Bethlehem;

then bloodied by a crown of thorns outside Jerusalem.

The dance of Trinity is meant for human flesh and bone;

when fear confines the dance in death, God rolls away the stone.

Come, speak aloud of Trinity, as wind and tongues of flame

set people free at Pentecost to tell the Savior's name.

We know the yoke of sin and death, our necks have worn it smooth;

go tell the world of weight and woe that we are free to move!

Within the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun,

we sing the praises of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son.

Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free,

to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity.

A native of Tacoma, Washington, Zach Unke grew up playing the piano and began playing in church as a second grader and accompanied several services as well as choir and classroom singing.  He studied piano both at Lakeland College and Martin Luther College.  He has played for several art openings, the 2008 Unity Music Festival in Sheboygan, and at both The Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, WI and The American Club in Kohler, WI. He says: “I grew up as a church pianist.  I write music for the church pianist.  My goal is to create music that excites and challenges the pianist but is easily enjoyed by the listener.”

About the Hymns:

Holy Spirit, Truth Divine 

Samuel Longfellow (b. Portland, ME, 1819; d. Portland, 1892) wrote this text with the heading "Prayer for Inspiration." It was published in the Unitarian hymnal Hymns of the Spirit in 1864.  Like "O Come, O Come, Immanuel" (328), this text is a catalog: it lists attributes of the Holy Spirit in successive stanzas. The text is a prayer that the application of the Spirit's attributes may result in more vibrant Christian living, which will then be manifest in discernment of God's will (st. 1), holiness and purity (st. 2), courageous servanthood (st. 3), obedience to God's rule (st. 4), peace and restfulness (st. 5), and the experience of joy (st. 6). The final stanza alludes to Numbers 21:17 ("song of the well") and to John 4:10 ("living water"). Note that this hymn addresses the Holy Spirit without any reference to the Trinity, a Unitarian position that should not, however, hamper its use.

Samuel Longfellow is not as famous as his brother, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, about whom he wrote a biography that was published in 1886. In his time, however, Samuel was well known as a Unitarian preacher and hymn writer. Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, he became a minister in 1848 and served Unitarian congregations in Fall River, Massachusetts (1848-1851), Brooklyn, New York (1853-1860), and Germantown, Pennsylvania (1860-1883). With Samuel Johnson he compiled two hymnals: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (1846) and Hymns of the Spirit (1864). He also published a number of his hymn texts in A Book of Hymns and Tunes (1860).

The hymn tune CANTERBURY is adapted from SONG 13.  Orlando Gibbons composed SONG 13 in soprano and bass parts. Used as a setting for a text from the Song of Songs, the tune was published in George Withers' Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1623) as hymn number 13 (hence the tune name).  In hymnals, the melody is presented in a simplified isorhythmic (all equal rhythms) form; the more rhythmically varied original also had more notes and was better suited to solo singing.

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was an English Rennaissance composer, virginalist and organist of the Elizabethan (late Tudor) and early Jacobean periods. Gibbons was the leading composer in early 17th century England and a pivotal transitional figure from the end of the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque era. He was praised in his time by a visit in 1624 from the French ambassador, Charles de L'Aubespine, who stated upon entering Westminster Abbey that “At the entrance, the organ was touched by the best finger of that age, Mr. Orlando Gibbons." Musicologist and composer, Frederick Ouseley, dubbed him to be the "English Palestrina”.  Gibbons paved the way for a future generation of English composers by perfecting the Byrd's foundations of the English madrigal as well as both full and verse anthems, and especially by teaching music to his oldest son, Christopher, who in turn taught John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and most notably Henry Purcell, the English pioneer of the Baroque era.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus

#joychurch   #lovelikeJesus  #vision