November 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: 

Blest Are They - Thomas Keesecker

Before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), guidelines for Roman Catholic music had suggested that medieval plainsong and Renaissance motets were, for the most part, the most desirable musical models for the liturgy. After Vatican II, musical styles for worship increased exponentially, including indigenous music from around the world and an array of musical genres in the U.S. The 1960s was the era of protest folksongs. While lacking the sophistication of earlier musical styles and often considered inappropriate music for supporting the Paschal mystery of the Mass, the music was simple, accessible and singable. Catholic composers in the following decades sought to maintain the accessible and singable qualities of the folk idiom, yet wanted to compose in ways that integrated the song more successfully with the Catholic liturgical expectations. 

David Haas (b. 1958) is one of the most prominent Catholic composers since the mid-1980s. His songs are musically engaging, appropriate to the spirit of the Mass and accessible to congregations. Protestants as well as Catholics are beneficiaries of his creativity and devotion to liturgical music. 

Haas directs the Emmaus Center for Music, Prayer and Ministry in Egan, Minnesota. He also serves as the campus minister and artist-in-residence for Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in St. Louis Park, Minn., where he also teaches theology and music. Haas studied vocal music performance, piano and conducting at Central Michigan University, completing his studies in music performance, liturgy and theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He has served as director of music at parishes in Iowa and Minnesota. He gained an international reputation as a composer and clinician while an adjunct instructor and composer-in-residence at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.  He is one of three liturgical composers who formed what was informally called the “Minnesota School” of liturgical composition, all graduating from the University of St. Thomas. According to the Web site for GIA Music, one of his publishers, Mr. Haas, Michael Joncas and Marty Haugen produced “some of the most popular and effective music for the Church’s worship that has appeared in the days following the Second Vatican Council.” 

Haas is an advocate for expanding the role of young people in the life and liturgy of the church. He is the founder and executive director of Music Ministry Alive!, a liturgical music formation curriculum that has influenced hundreds of high school and college young people. He is the author of more than 20 books ranging from liturgical music and liturgy to youth ministry and spirituality. One of his recordings, I Shall See God, was nominated in 1991 for a Grammy Award, and his book, The Ministry and Mission of Sung Prayer, received the Outstanding Professional Book Award in 2003 from the Catholic Press Association.

“Blest Are They” (1985) appears in recent Catholic and Protestant hymnals and is one of the composer’s best-known songs. A paraphrase of the Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-16, the hymn maintains the two-part structure of Scripture in each blessing in the stanzas—“Blest are they, the poor in spirit; theirs in the kingdom of God”—each of which is followed by an uplifting refrain, “Rejoice and be glad!” 

Blest are they, the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blest are they, full of sorrow, they shall be consoled.

Blest are they, the lowly ones; they shall inherit the earth.
Blest are they, who hunger and thirst; they shall have their fill.

Blest are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs.
Blest are they, the pure of heart; they shall see God!

Blest are they who seek peace; they are the children of God.
Blest are they who suffer in faith, the glory of God is theirs.

Blest are you who suffer hate all because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, yours is the kingdom, shine for all to see.

Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you; holy are you!
Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Thomas Keesecker has served as a musician in both Lutheran and Roman Catholic parishes in Virginia, Montana, and Maryland. His award winning choral music is published by several publishers. His studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Catholic University School of Music in Washington, D.C. prepared him for a career in which he has mixed classical technique and jazz improvisation. During the last decade he has explored the nexus of creativity and healing and it's implication for liturgical musicians.

Fantasy on Built on the Rock - Robert Lind

Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) the son of a pastor, was born at Udby, in Seeland. He studied in the University of Copenhagen.  H is mind was too active and his imagination too versatile to bear the restraint of the academic course. After leaving the university he devoted his attention to poetry, literature, and Northern antiquities. In 1810 he became assistant to his father in a parish in Jutland. The sermon he preached at his ordination, on the subject "Why has the Lord's word disappeared from His house," attracted much attention, which is rarely the case with "probationers'" sermons. He became chaplain of St. Saviour's church in Christianshavn. From the time of his ordination, he had been deeply impressed with Evangelical church sentiments, in opposition to the fashionable Rationalism and Erastianism of the day; and adhered to the anti-rationalist teaching of Hauge, whose death at this time (1824) seemed to be a call to Grundtvig to lift up his voice. An opportunity soon presented itself; Professor Clausen brought out a book entitled Katholicismens og Protestantismens Forfatning, Ldre, og Ritus ("The condition, teaching, and ritual of Catholicism and Protestantism"). This book was replete with the Erastian Rationalism which was so especially distasteful to Grundtvig, who forthwith, in his Kirkens Gjenmsele ("The Church's Reply," 1825), strongly opposed its teaching, and laid down truer principles of Christian belief, and sounder views of the nature of the Church. This caused a sensation: Grandtvig (who had not spared his opponent) was fined 100 rixdollars, and the songs and hymns which he had written for the coming celebration of the tenth centenary of Northern Christianity were forbidden to be used. He resigned his post at St. Saviour's, or rather was forced to quit by a sentence of suspension which was pronounced in 1826, and under which he was kept for 13 years. After this time, he was allowed to hold an afternoon service in the German church at Christianshavn. He preached there for eight years, and compiled and wrote his hymn-book, Sang-Vdrk til den Danske Kirkce ("Song-work for the Danish Church"). 

The tune KIRKEN DEN ER ET was composed for this text by Norwegian Ludwig M. Lindeman (1812-1887). It was published in Wilhelm A. Wexel's Christelige Psalmer (1840).  KIRKEN (also called LINDEMAN) was the first hymn tune Lindeman wrote. Born into a family of musicians, Lindeman received his early organ training from his father, for whom he became a substitute organist at the age of twelve. Although he studied theology in Oslo (then called Christiana), after 1839 he turned to a career in music. He was the organist of the Church of the Savior in Oslo (1839-1887) and became a virtuoso performer. Lindeman published hymn collections and organ works as well as the influential Koralbog (1877), which contained tunes (restored to rhythmic shape) for Landstad's hymnal of 1869. He was also an excellent teacher and founded an organ school (later the Oslo Conservatory) with his son in 1883. A scholarly collector of Norwegian folk music, Lindeman traveled the country collecting folk songs, which he published in a series of volumes (1853-1867) and which influenced the works of composer Edvard Grieg.

Built on the Rock, the church shall stand even when steeples are falling;
Christ builds His church in ev'ry land; bells still are chiming and calling,
calling the young and old to rest, calling the souls of those distressed,
longing for life everlasting.

Not in a temple made with hands God the Almighty is dwelling;
high in the heav'ns His temple stands, all earthly temples excelling.
Yet He who dwells in heaven above chooses to live with us in love,
making our body His temple.

We are God's house of living stones, built for His own habitation;
He fills our hearts, His humble thrones, granting us life and salvation.
Yet to the place, an earthly frame, we come with thanks to praise His name;
God grants His people true blessing.

Thro' all the passing years, O Lord, grant that, when church bells are ringing,
many may come to hear God's Word where He the promise is bringing:
"I know My own, My own know Me, you, not the world, My face shall see;
My peace I leave with you. Amen.”

Robert Lind studied at North Park College at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, majoring in organ, composition, and music theory. At the age of 20, he worked with Leo Sowerby and became his assistant at the Cathedral of St. James, Chicago. He succeeded his mentor, Dr. Sowerby, as organist-choirmaster at the Cathedral two years later. After serving in the US Army during the Vietnam era, Lind entered the publishing world, while continuing to serve various churches in the Chicago area. He is currently organist at Lord of Life Lutheran church in Schaumburg, IL. He has played recitals in Chicago area for several decades, has presented organ repertory workshops for the American Guild of Organists, and has composed extensively for the church. Mr. Lind has approximately 180 works published for the organ.

About the Handbell Music:

Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face - Margo Dillard

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy.

He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism; of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle—whom he called "the Philosopher"—and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. His best-known works are the Disputed Questions on Truth (1256–59), the Summa contra Gentiles (1259–65), and the Summa Theologiae (1265–74). His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle also form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.

At the age of five, Thomas began his early education at Monte Cassino but after the military conflict between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilled into the abbey in early 1239, Landulf and Theodora had Thomas enrolled at the studium generale (university) recently established by Frederick in Naples. It was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. It was also during his study at Naples that Thomas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order to recruit devout followers. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music was Petrus de Ibernia.

At the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order. Thomas’s decision did not please his family.  In an attempt to prevent Theodora's interference in Thomas's choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. However, while on his journey to Rome, per Theodora's instructions, his brothers seized him as he was drinking from a spring and took him back to his parents at the castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano.  Thomas was held prisoner for almost one year in the family castles at Monte San Giovanni and Roccasecca in an attempt to prevent him from assuming the Dominican habit and to push him into renouncing his new aspiration. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomas's release, which had the effect of extending Thomas's detention. Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans. At one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend, Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate.  By 1244, seeing that all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the family's dignity, arranging for Thomas to escape at night through his window. In her mind, a secret escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans. Thomas was sent first to Naples and then to Rome to meet Johannes von Wildeshausen, the Master General of the Dominican Order.

The Catholic Church honors Thomas Aquinas as a saint and regards him as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. In modern times, under papal directives, the study of his works was long used as a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (philosophy, Catholic theology, church history, liturgy, and canon law).

Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools.”  The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Thomas to be "one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world".

"Adoro te devote" is one of the five Eucharistic hymns, which Aquinas composed and set to music for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, instituted in 1264 by Pope Urban IV as a Solemnity for the entire Roman Catholic Church.  Since the beginning of its composition and it being set to music, the "Adoro te devote" was chanted as an Eucharistic Hymn during the Saint Mass in honorem SS. Sacramenti (in honour of the Most Blessed Sacrament), as it was written in the Latin manuscripts. So it was also chanted for the Eucharistic adoration.  Aquinas seems to have used it also as a private prayer, for a daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  The "Adoro te devote" is one of the medieval poetic compositions, being used as spoken prayers and also as chanted hymns, which were preserved in the Missale Romanum published in 1570 following the Council of Trent (1545–1563).

The paraphrase of the Latin text found in our hymnal is:

    Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face;

    Here would I touch and handle things unseen,

    Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace,

    And all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the bread of God,
here drink with Thee the royal wine of heav'n;
here would we lay aside each earthly load,
here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv'n.

This is the hour of banquet and of song;
this is the heav'nly table spread for me;
here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong
the brief, bright hour of fellowship with Thee.

Too soon we rise, the symbols disappear;
the feast, though not the love, is past and done;
gone are the bread and wine, but Thou art here,
nearer than ever, still my Shield and Sun.

Feast after feast thus comes, and passes by;
yet passing, points to the glad feast above;
giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,
the Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.

Margo Dillard is me.  

About the Hymns:

For All The Saints

“For All the Saints” is the quintessential hymn for All Saints’ Day, with its uplifting text and triumphant music. It was written as a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How (1823-1879).  How was educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford (B.A. 1845). Taking Holy Orders in 1846, he became successively Curate of St. George's, Kidderminster, 1846; and of Holy Cross, Shrewsbury, 1848. In 1851, he moved to the Rectory of Whittington, Diocese of St. Asaph, becoming Rural Dean in 1853, and Hon. Canon of the Cathedral in 1860. In 1879. he was appointed Rector of St. Andrew's Undershaft, London, and was consecrated Suffragan Bishop for East London, under the title of the Bishop of Bedford, and in 1888 Bishop of Wakefield. In 1854, he published Psalms and Hymns, Compiled by the Rev. Thomas Baker Morrell, M.A., . . . and the Rev. William Walsham How, M.A. This was republished in an enlarged form in 1864, and to it was added a Supplement in 1867. To this collection Bishop How contributed several hymns, and also to the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns , of which he was joint editor, in 1871. Nearly 60 of Bishop How’s hymns are still in common use, the most popular of which are "For all the Saints who from their labors rest" and "We give Thee but Thine own".

Originally in eleven stanzas, “For All the Saints” was published in Earl Nelson's Hymns for Saints' Days (1864) with the heading, "Saints' Day Hymn. A Cloud of Witnesses. Heb. 12:1."  The hymn was sung to the melody Sarum, by the Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906. This hymnal used a new setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he called Sine Nomine (literally, "without name") in reference to its use on the Feast of All Saints, 1 November (or the first Sunday in November, All Saints Sunday). It has been described as "one of the finest hymn tunes of [the 20th] century." 

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,

Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;

Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Apostles’ glorious company,

Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,

Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee: Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold. Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,

Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,

Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored. Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,

Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,

And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify. Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong. Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;

Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed. Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost: Alleluia, Alleluia!

What Gift Can We Bring

Jane Manton Marshall (b. 1924) has established herself as a leading composer of church music, teaching conducting and composition for more than two decades at Southern Methodist University. From 1975-2010, she served an integral role in the Church Music Summer School, hosted by Perkins School of Theology, to provide training for musicians who have not usually attended seminary. As a clinician and composer, Marshall has had a profound influence on at least two generations of church musicians.

Her anthems are carried by numerous publishers, and she has received lifetime achievement awards for her contribution to church music by the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference and the Fellowship of United Methodist Musicians and Worship Arts. In addition to "What Gift Can We Bring," Marshall contributed greatly to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989), especially in the area of responses for the psalms. Grace, Noted, a collection of her homilies and essays, was published in 1992.  Many of her compositions are standard items in academic and church choral libraries. Marshall is in a very select group of successful composers/lyricists, a dual-talent exemplified in her early works: 'Awake my heart,' 'My Eternal King,' 'He Comes to Us,' the first setting of Albert Schweitzer's words; and 'Fanfare for Easter.'"

The Rev. John Thornburg, a United Methodist hymn writer, served as her pastor during the 1990s. She mentored the Rev. Thornburg, and they often partnered, pairing texts he wrote with tunes she composed for them. Examples of their work may be found in Can God Be Seen in Other Ways (2003) and What Gift Can We Bring (2003). The second volume derives its title from her most well known hymn, "What gift can we bring."

Jane Marshall’s "What gift can we bring" is a hymn of pure gratitude. A lifelong Dallas resident, she composed this hymn in 1980 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of her congregation, Northaven United Methodist Church. Stanza two reflects on heritage, giving thanks for the past and those "who planted and watered so dreams could come true." Stanza three looks to the future that is "full of surprises," yet knowing that regardless of what happens, "we rest in God’s keeping and live in God’s love.”

What gift can we bring, what present, what token?

What words can convey it the joy of this day?

When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing, 

what song can we now offer in honor and praise?

Give thanks for the past, for those who had vision,

who planted and watered so dreams could come true.

Give thanks for the Now, for study, for worship,

for mission that bids us turn prayer into deed.

Give thanks for Tomorrow, full of surprises,

for knowing whatever Tomorrow may bring,

the Word is our promise always, forever,

we rest in God's keeping and live in God's love.

This gift we now bring, this present, this token, 

these words can convey it the joy of this day!

When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing, 

this song we now offer in honor and praise.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus