November 15, 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: 

O God of Love, O King of Peace - Haig Mardirosian

Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), eldest son of Admiral Sir Henry Loraine Baker, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated, B.A. 1844, M.A. 1847. Taking Holy Orders in 1844, he became, in 1851, Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. Sir Henry's name is intimately associated with hymnody. One of his earliest compositions was the very beautiful hymn, "Oh! what if we are Christ's," which he contributed to Murray's Hymnal for the Use of the English Church, 1852. The revised edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1874, contains 33 of his hymns. Of his hymns four only are in the highest strains of jubilation, another four are bright and cheerful, and the remainder are very tender, but exceedingly plaintive, sometimes even to sadness. His last audible words were the third stanza of his exquisite rendering of the 23rd Psalm, "The King of Love, my Shepherd is”:

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,

But yet in love He sought me,

And on His Shoulder gently laid,

And home, rejoicing, brought me.

Sir Henry was the editor of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861; the Appendix, 1868; and the revised ed., 1874. In addition he edited Hymns for the London Mission, 1874, and Hymns for Mission Services, c. 1876-7. He also published Daily Prayers for those who work hard; a Daily Text Book, &c.

Written by Henry W. Baker and entitled "The Lord Shall Give His People the Blessing of Peace," this text, “O God of Love”, was published in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern.

TALLIS CANON is one of nine tunes Thomas Tallis contributed to Matthew Parker's Psalter, around 1561. There it was used as a setting for Psalm 67. In the original tune the melody began in the tenor, followed by the soprano, and featured repeated phrases. Thomas Ravenscroft published the tune, with the repeat phrases omitted, in his Whole Book of Psalmes, 1621. The Ravenscroft version is the setting that virtually all modern hymnals use for this text.

O God of love, O King of peace,

Make wars throughout the world to cease;

Our greed and violent ways restrain.

Give peace, O God, give peace again.

Remember, Lord, your works of old,

The wonders that your people told;

Remember not our sins' deep stain.

Give peace, O God, give peace again.

Whom shall we trust but you, O Lord?

Where rest but on your faithful word?

None ever called on you in vain.

Give peace, O God, give peace again.

Where saints and angels dwell above

All hearts are joined in holy love;

Oh, bind us in that heav'nly chain.

Give peace, O God, give peace again.

Haig Mardirosian (b, 1947) is Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Tampa, Professor Emeritus at American University in Washington, DC, a concert organist, composer, and conductor. In 1977, Mardirosian was invited to be the first American to perform in the International Organ Week in Bonn, Germany. In 1989, he was one of two Americans performing in the first (and only) Soviet-American Organ Music Festival. In 1999, he was awarded a Swiss-American Cultural Exchange Partner Grant in collaboration with Ensemble Corund, the only professional choir in German-speaking Switzerland, a grant that resulted in a study and performing tour of Switzerland.

For 25 years, Mardirosian served as a critic for Fanfare Magazine, the leading recording review journal in the United States, and for 26 years he has written reviews of recordings, scores, books, and New Media for The American Organist for which publication he continues to write his monthly editorial column, Vox Humana.  Haig Mardirosian formerly served as Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Music at American University in Washington, DC, and as Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes (Washington D.C.), where he conducted the professional choir well known for its sophisticated and idiomatic interpretations of masterpieces of liturgical repertoire. He has served as Organist at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Tampa, FL, since 2016.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty - Hermann Grabner

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is a hymn based on Joachim Neander's German chorale Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, published in 1680. John Julian, in his A Dictionary of Hymnology, calls the German original "a magnificent hymn of praise to God, perhaps the finest creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class."  Neander wrote this particular hymn while dying and it says much about his faith. While contemplating the words to go along with the melody, he reflected on Psalm 103 with its claim that everything within us should praise the Father’s holy name.  It was the favorite hymn of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who first heard it in 1800.  In the Neander original, first the singer calls himself (my beloved soul) to praise God, then calls for a larger group to join the praise with musical instruments as well as song.  John Julian‍‍ '​‍s A Dictionary of Hymnology lists more than ten English translations of "Lobe den Herren" printed in various nineteenth century hymnals. 

The melody used by Neander, first published in 1665, is probably based on a folk tune. The common name given to this melody is "Lobe den Herren". Several variants were published with various secular texts between 1665 to 1680, when Joachim Neander published his German hymn, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, using its meter. The text paraphrases Psalm 103 and Psalm 150.  

One interesting piece of history is the later use of Neander’s name. He often taught in a valley near the Düssel river, and over 100 years after his death the valley was named after him. It was in that valley that bones were later found, from which we get the name “Neanderthal.”

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

O my soul, praise him, for he is your health and salvation!

Come, all who hear; now to his temple draw near,

join me in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, above all things so wondrously reigning;

sheltering you under his wings, and so gently sustaining!

Have you not seen all that is needful has been

sent by his gracious ordaining?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously made thee!

Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly failing, hath stayed thee.

What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?

Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who will prosper your work and defend you;

surely his goodness and mercy shall daily attend you.

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,

if with his love he befriends you.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!

All that has life and breath, come now with praises before him.

Let the Amen sound from his people again;

gladly forever adore him.

Hermann Grabner (1886-1969) was an Austrian composer and music teacher.  He studied law at the University of Graz graduating in 1909. He also played the viola for a while in the Grazer Theatherorchester. He then studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1912, he worked as assistant to Max Reger in the Meininger Theater. In 1913, he became teacher of music theory at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. He served in the Austrian Army during World War I. From 1919 to 1924, he was teacher of theory and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim. He also taught at the Music Academy in Heidelberg. He was then teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory.  From 1938 to 1946, he taught at the Berlin Musikhochschule. He was retired in June 1946, due to his SA membership and the Nazi-composition "Fackelträger", Lieder des neuen Reiches.  He composed one opera, Die Richterin with libretto by Beyerlein after C. F. Meyer, premiered in the Barmen State Theater in 1930; orchestral works, chamber music, choral works, Lieder, two motets and numerous organ pieces.

About the Vocal Solo Music:

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon (b. 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor. Simon's musical career has spanned over six decades. He reached fame and commercial success as half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1956 with Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote nearly all of their songs, including US number-one singles "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge over Troubled Water".  After Simon & Garfunkel split up in 1970, at the height of their popularity, Simon began a successful solo career. He recorded three acclaimed albums over the following five years. In 1986, following a career slump, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music, which sold 14 million copies worldwide and remains his most popular solo work. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony (1980) and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman (1998) with the poet Derek Walcott. On June 3, 2016, Simon released his 13th solo album, Stranger to Stranger, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Album Chart and the UK Albums Chart.  Simon has earned sixteen Grammy awards for his solo and collaborative work, including three for Album of the Year (Bridge Over Troubled Water, Still Crazy After All These Years, and Graceland), and a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006 he was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time. In 2011, Rolling Stone named Simon one of the 100 greatest guitarists, and in 2015 he was ranked eighth in their list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.

Inspired by a single line from a gospel song, Paul Simon's classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water” has been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Aretha Franklin.

Spring 1969: Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were gone – assassinated. Racial tensions were erupting across the US. The war was raging in Vietnam. And Richard Nixon was in the White House.  What was a sensitive singer-songwriter like Paul Simon to do but dig deep for some words of solace? As he gazed out across the East River from the window of his New York apartment, he sang the opening lines he’d had for over a week. ‘When you’re weary/Feeling small/When tears are in your eyes/I will dry them all.’ He especially liked how the melody to the second couplet echoed one of his favorite Bach chorales.  After that promising start, however, he was stuck.

What ultimately inspired him to finish his “humble little gospel song” was an album by southern gospel group the Swan Silvertones: “Every time I came home, I put that record on, so it was in my mind. I started to go to gospel chord changes, and took the melody further. Then there was one song where the lead singer was scatting, and he shouted out: ‘I’ll be your bridge over deep water/If you trust in my name.’ And, well, I guess I stole it.” 

Simon couldn’t wait to play his new song for Art Garfunkel. With its sweeping melody and sustained high notes, it would be perfect for his partner’s choirboy-pure voice. Or so he thought.

“He didn’t want to sing it,” Simon told Rolling Stone in 1973. “He couldn’t hear it for himself. He felt I should have done it. And many times I’m sorry I didn’t do it.”  Today Garfunkel remembers it differently: “When Paul showed me Bridge Over Troubled Water, he did say it was for me. And I loved the song immediately. My way of saying thank you was: ‘Are you sure? Because you sound lovely singing it, and it’s almost like you could do it…’  Within a week the duo were in CBS Studios in Hollywood, huddled around a piano with session ace Larry Knechtel, chiselling out the finer points of the arrangement. But it soon became apparent that Simon’s two-verse song wasn’t quite finished.

“It was supposed to end with the second verse,” Garfunkel recalls, “but there seemed to be a promise of what could be if Paul were to extend the song: the whole production could open up, and we could make a record with real size.  “We modelled it after the Righteous Brothers’ Ol’ Man River, where Phil Spector holds back his production until the last line. What a neat thing, to save it, save it, save it, then give ’em the kitchen sink.” Simon wrote a third verse (“You could clearly see it was written afterwards,” he says), making room for a kitchen sink that included two bass parts, vibraphone, a string arrangement.  With the instrumental track done, Garfunkel spent a week perfecting his vocal. “The last verse I nailed because of the thrill of pole-vaulting over the high notes. Getting the middle verse was pretty easy too. But the first verse, in its delicacy, was the Devil’s business. That took a lot of sessions.”

The duo’s biggest hit, Bridge Over Troubled Water spent six weeks at No.1 in the US (three weeks in the UK). It swept the Grammys in 1971. claiming six awards including Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year. The song has been translated into many languages; it’s been covered by hundreds of artists.  Garfunkel says: “I’ve sung it 6,400 times, and every time, I get a little visitation of the power of a great song. To say: ‘Whoever you are, if you need some solace, I will try to be a moment of sweetness for you,’ this kills me. To be the lucky one to express that, it moves me every damned time.”

When you're weary, feeling small,

When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all.

I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough

And friends just can't be found.

Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.

When you're down and out, When you're on the street,

When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you.

I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes

And pain is all around.

Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.

About the Hymns:

It is Well with My Soul

For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing, It Is Well With My Soul.  Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.

At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.

In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.

With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul..

Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed a beautiful piece of music to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey, in 1876.

Original lyrics:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know 

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

    And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
    The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
    The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
    A song in the night, oh my soul!

Jesus, United by Thy Grace

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley.  As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly amazing how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumors of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift.  The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.

All of Wesley's hymns are biblical. They convey the big themes of our faith: forgiveness, love, and charity. Our Song of Prayer today is another favorite, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." This hymn presents the idea of incarnation: Jesus is the incarnation of God's love. There is no more central Christian concept than this: that Jesus came to be love incarnate, God with us.

Jesus, united by your grace,

and each to each endeared,

with confidence we seek your face,

and know our prayer is heard.

Help us to see in each a friend,

each other's cross to bear,

let all their friendly aid extend,

and feel the other's care.

Up into you, our living head,

let us in all things grow,

till you have made us free indeed

and faithful here below.

Drawn by the lodestone of your love,

let all our hearts unite;

let us toward each other move,

and move toward your light.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus