December 6, 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:

What Child is This? - Lloyd Larson

"What Child Is This?" is a Christmas carol whose lyrics were written by William Chatterton Dix, in 1865. At the time he was writing the lyrics to "What Child Is This?" in 1865, William Chatterton Dix was working as the manager of an insurance company. He was afflicted by an unexpected and severe illness that resulted in him being bedridden and suffering from severe depression. His near-death experience brought about a spiritual renewal in him while he was recovering. During this time, he read the Bible comprehensively and was inspired to author hymns like "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!" and "As with Gladness Men of Old". The precise time in 1865 when he wrote the poem "The Manger Throne" is disputed. While the St. Petersburg Times details how Dix penned the work after reading the Gospel for Epiphany that year (Matthew 2:1-12) recounting the journey of the Biblical Magi; Singer's Library of Song: Medium Voice contends that it was actually authored during the Christmas of 1865.  Although written in 1865, "What Child Is This?" was only first published six years later in 1871, when it featured in Christmas Carols Old and New.  

The lyrics of the carol are taken from a poem written by Dix called "The Manger Throne". The part of the poem that was utilized as the song's lyrics consists of three stanzas in total. The first verse poses a rhetorical question in the first half, with the response coming in the second half. The second verse contains another question that is answered, while the final verse is a universal appeal to everyone urging them "to accept Christ". The carol's melody has been described as "soulful", "haunting and beautiful" in nature.  The context of the carol centres around the Adoration of the Shepherds, who visited Jesus during his Nativity. The questions posed in the lyrics reflect what the shepherds were possibly pondering to themselves when they encountered him, with the rest of the carol providing a response to their questions.

The originally melody, GREENSLEEVES, isn't religious in nature at all. In fact, it's all about a painful romantic conundrum and includes what some historians view as subtly salacious lyrics.  Popular legend attributes it to Henry VIII, who is said to have written it for Anne Boleyn, the woman he would ultimately marry and execute. But in "Angel Song: Medieval English Music in History," author Lisa Colton writes that this association is "erroneous," as the song most likely originated during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

The lyrics deal with a spurned lover accusing Lady Greensleeves of casting him off "discourteously," despite the fact that he loved her, paid for her lodgings, and bought her a petticoat, a pearl-bedecked gown, and a jeweled necklace. The song's scandalous twist is hidden in its very title. Green wasn't an innocuous color in early modern English society. The phrase a "green gown" denoted promiscuous behavior (namely, getting grass stains on your dress while engaging in amorous activities outdoors).  The song Greensleeves implies that the singer has insulted his love in this manner and she has spurned him for it.

The song was very popular.  Shakespeare even has Falstaff name drop the tune in "The Merry Wives of Windsor": "Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of ‘Greensleeves’!"  The melody proved so enduring that people even began adding their own words to the song.

Sir John Stainer — the composer behind the modern arrangements of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Good King Wenceslas" — got a hold of a few of verses of “The Manger Throne.  He cobbled those together, slapped them onto the tune of "Greensleeves," and created a beautiful, classic Christmas carol with a rather unusual history.

What Child is this, who laid to rest On Mary’s lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet While shepherds watch are keeping?

Why lies He in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christian, fear; for sinners here The silent Word is pleading.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh Come peasant, King to own Him;

The King of Kings salvation brings Let loving hearts enthrone him. 

This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, Haste, to bring him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Lloyd Larson (b. 1954) is an active composer and arranger for several major publishing companies of church and school music. His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. It is Lloyd's work in his local church that continues to be the catalyst for much of his writing. He currently directs the adult choir in his home church in addition to being involved in worship planning and leadership.

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland - Anonymous, Luneburger Orgeltabulatur

"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (original: "Nu kom der Heyden heyland", English: "Savior of the nations, come", literally: Now come, Saviour of the heathen) is a Lutheran chorale of 1524 with words written by Martin Luther, based on "Veni redemptor gentium" by Ambrose, and a melody, Zahn 1174, based on its plainchant. It was printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524.  The song was the prominent hymn for the first Sunday of Advent for centuries. It was used widely in organ settings by Protestant Baroque composers, most notably Johann Sebastian Bach, who also composed two church cantatas beginning with the hymn. Later settings include works by Max Reger, Brian Easdale and Siegfried Strohbach.  English versions include "Savior of the nations, come" by William Morton Reynolds, published in 1851.

Martin Luther wrote the text of "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" possibly for the Advent of 1523 as a paraphrase of a passage, Veni redemptor gentium, from the Latin Christmas hymn "Intende qui reges Israel" by Ambrose. Several Latin versions begin with "Veni redemptor gentium", in similarity to hymns such as "Veni Creator Spiritus". The themes from the 4th century are the humanity and divinity of Christ, as testified by his birth by the Virgin Mary. Luther wrote the hymn at the end of 1523 in a period when he wrote many hymn texts, mostly psalm paraphrases and some free poems, such as "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein". He paraphrased the seven stanzas of the Latin hymn rather closely, and added a doxology as an eighth stanza. He seems to have been more interested in keeping the traditional text than fluent German, possibly to demonstrate his closeness to the traditional theology, in contrast to a translation by Thomas Müntzer, who followed his own theology.

The melody, Zahn 1174, was composed by Luther and possibly Johann Walter, based on the original plainchant melodies, such as a 12th-century version from Einsiedeln. The hymn was printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion in 1524, and was also published the same year in Walter's choral Wittenberg hymnal, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn.

Savior of the nations, come; Virgin's Son, here make Thy home!

Marvel now, O heaven and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth.

Not by human flesh and blood; By the Spirit of our God

Was the Word of God made flesh, Woman's offspring, pure and fresh.

Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child Of the virgin undefiled!

Though by all the world disowned, Still to be in heaven enthroned.

From the Father forth He came And returneth to the same,

Captive leading death and hell High the song of triumph swell!

Thou, the Father's only Son, Hast over sin the victory won.

Boundless shall Thy kingdom be; When shall we its glories see?

Brightly doth Thy manger shine, Glorious is its light divine.

Let not sin overcloud this light; Ever be our faith thus bright.

Praise to God the Father sing, Praise to God the Son, our King,

Praise to God the Spirit be Ever and eternally.

Organ tablature is a form of musical notation used by the north German Baroque organ school, although there are also forms of organ tablature from other countries such as Italy, Spain, Poland, and England. Portions of Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbüchlein are written in tablature, as are a great deal of the surviving manuscripts of the organ works of Dieterich Buxtehude and other north German organ composers of the Baroque era.  The first extant example of keyboard tablature, which was almost certainly for organ, was in the Robertsbridge Codex, from about 1360. Although it is English, it is closely related to the later German tablatures. The feature of organ tablature that distinguishes it from modern musical notation is the absence of staves, noteheads, and key signatures. Pitches are denoted by letter names written in script, durations by flags (much like modern notation), although in early notations durations were shown using mensural indications, and octave displacement by octave lines drawn above a letter. There was some variation in the notation of accidentals, but sometimes sharps were specified by the addition of a loop to the end of the letter. B natural and B flat were represented by h and b respectively. Naturals are not indicated, as accidentals do not carry through the entire measure as in modern notation. Key signatures are not specified; they are implied by the indicated sharps.

About the Piano Music:

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming - Lloyd Larsen

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" ("A rose has sprung up"), most commonly translated to English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" or "A Spotless Rose", is a Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin.  The text is thought to be penned by an anonymous author, and the piece first appeared in print in the late 16th century.  The English translation "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.

This German carol from the Rhineland region combines the story of Luke 1-2 and Matthew 2 with Isaiah's prophecies about the "rose" from the "stem of Jesse " (Isa. 11:1; 35:1-2). Stanzas 1 and 2 are a combination of folklore ("amid the cold of winter") and Christological interpretation of Isaiah 11:1 and 35: 1-2. Stanza 3 introduces imagery from John 1.

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," may date to the fifteenth century. However, the earliest manuscript containing the text, found in St. Alban's Carthusian monastery in Trier and preserved in the Trier municipal library, is dated around 1580. It was first published with twenty-three stanzas in Alte catholische geistliche Kirchengesiinge (Cologne, 1599). Originally stanza 2 interpreted the "rose" as being Mary, mother of Jesus, but in Musae Sionae (1609) Michael Praetorius changed the interpretation to point to Christ as the rose in accord with actual biblical imagery.

Michael Praetorius (c. 1571-1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist.  He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to improve the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.  

After receiving his musical education, from 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he served at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He served in the duke's State Orchestra, first as organist and later (from 1604) as Kapellmeister.  His first compositions appeared around 1602/3. Their publication primarily reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the first in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices; as a result, they established him as a proficient composer.  These "modern" pieces mark the end of his middle creative period. The nine parts of his Musae Sioniae (1605–10) and the 1611 published collections of liturgical music (masses, hymns, magnificats) follow the German Protestant chorale style.  From 1613 until his death, Praetorius was employed by the court in Dresden, where he was declared Kapellmeister von Haus aus and worked with Heinrich Schütz.  Michael Praetorius died on his 50th birthday, in Wolfenbüttel, Germany and is entombed in a vault beneath the organ of the Marienkirche there.

A literal translation of the original German text is:

A rose has sprung up, from a tender root.
As the old ones sang to us, Its lineage was from Jesse.
And it has brought forth a floweret In the middleof the cold winter
Well at half the night.

The rosebud that I mean, Of which Isaiah told
Is Mary, the pure, Who brought us the floweret.
At God’s immortal word, She has borne a child
And remained a pure maid. Who makes us blessed.

    The floweret, so small That smells so sweet to us
    With its clear light Dispels the darkness.
    True man and true God! He helps us from all trouble,
    Saves us from sin and death.

Regular text:

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming From tender stem hath sprung!

Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.

It came, a Floweret bright, Amid the cold of winter,

When half-spent was the night.

Isaiah ‘twas foretold it, The Rose I have in mind;

With Mary we behold it, The Virgin Mother kind.

To show God’s love aright She bore to men a Savior

When half-spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender With sweetness fills the air;

Dispels with glorious splendor The darkness everywhere.

True man, yet very God, From sin and death He saves us

And lightens every load.

Lloyd Larson (b. 1954) is an active composer and arranger for several major publishing companies of church and school music. His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. It is Lloyd's work in his local church that continues to be the catalyst for much of his writing. He currently directs the adult choir in his home church in addition to being involved in worship planning and leadership.

About the Vocal Solo Music:

Some  Children See Him - David Danner

The famous “Burt Carols” began as a family tradition started by Alfred Burt’s father, the Reverend Bates Burt, an Episcopalian pastor,  first in Marquette, Mich., on beautiful Lake Superior and then in Pontiac. Each year the family would compose a carol, some with original lyrics, some using a text, to send as a Christmas card.  Beginning in 1926, Bates Burt continued this tradition until 1942, when he assigned it to his son, Alfred Burt, who was becoming a quite viable musician in his own right. Graduate of University of Michigan, the young composer was given a text by Father Andrew, an English Catholic priest, that the senior Burt had found in a small book of carols and asked Al to set to music. From then on Al composed the music for the Christmas card carol, often to lyrics written by his father. 

The musical talents of Alfred Burt (1920-1954) expanded to include conducting and playing in some well-known jazz and concert bands of the time with trumpet as his major instrument, though he also played and composed on the piano. In 1945 Al married a singing operation room technician he had met while serving with the Army Air Force Band. Al’s mother was ill with cancer, and the bridal party shared the festivities by going to her hospital room. She died two weeks later. After Al was discharged from the Army, he and his new wife Anne, now discharged from the Navy, toured together for 15 months with a band, then returned to the family’s favorite summer place in Marquette, Mich., to spend time with Al’s father before going to New York to teach at the American Theater Wing School. 

The family carol for 1947, “Nigh Bethlehem” would be the last one shared with Father Burt. Early in 1948 he suffered a fatal heart attack. Al and Ann decided to keep up the family tradition and the 1948 carol was Al’s composition to an old English rune that he and his uncle Rev. John Burt had seen on a wall in the Dean’s office of the Virginia Theological Seminary where he was a student. 

Al joined the Alvino Ray Orchestra in 1949, and Anne went home to Pontiac to await the birth of their first child. A long-term friend of the family who was organist at the Pontiac Episcopal Church where Al’s father had been vicar, Wihla Hutson, had seen Al grow up and watched with great admiration as he developed as a musician. She had spent many a night with the family when the winter weather kept her from making the drive home and was like one of the family. Al and Anne asked her if she would put the ideas they had for that year’s Christmas card into poetry. Anne was full of anticipation for the soon-coming birth of her child and talked with Wihla about the new life inside her. When Wihla asked what she had in mind for the yearly Christmas carol, she immediately said, “A lullaby!” She took their conversation home and wrote that year’s carol text, “Sleep, Baby Mine.” But even before that verse was written, Wihla was overwhelmed by another part of their discussion that was so powerful she actually pulled off the road to write down the words that would eventually become one of the best-loved and most-sung of the Burt Carols: “Some Children See Him.”   This text came from the part of their conversation that had pointed out the purity of the way children embrace the baby Jesus, seeing Him as being just like them. This innocent acceptance of a fellow child actually is full of meaning for the rest of us, as children seem to know that God came to be like them so that they could be like Him. 

As our world has become more global and our experiences more diverse, this carol, written before the birth of baby Dianne, has truly come into its own. As is often the case, insights of children hold profound truths that are eclipsed by our adult sophistication. “Some Children See Him” has become the carol that speaks to us in this complicated world of the purity of faith and the immensity of God-with-us. 

Some children see him Lily white,

The baby Jesus Born this night;

Some children see him Lily white

With tresses soft  And fair. 

Some children see him Bronzed and brown,

The Lord of heav’n To Earth come down;

Some children see him Bronzed and brown

With dark And heavy hair. 

Some children see him Almond-eyed,

This Savior whom We kneel beside;

Some children see him Almond-eyed

With skin Of yellow hue. 

Some children see him Dark as they,

Sweet Mary’s son To whom we pray;

Some children see him Dark as they

And, ah, They love him, too. 

The children In each diff’rent place

Will see The baby Jesus’ face Like theirs, 

But bright With heav’nly grace

And filled With holy light. 

O lay aside Each earthly thing,

And with thy heart As offering

Come worship now The infant king.

’Tis love That’s born tonight.

As an eleven-year-old boy, David Danner (1951-1993) always seemed to be hanging around the piano at church, asking the “how” and “why” questions endlessly. Lorene Simpson, the pianist at Crown Heights Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, noticed his keen ear and observations, and soon suggested to his parents that he take lessons. By age 13 his development as a pianist was underway. Certain that he would be ridiculed for taking piano, he often concealed his books when going to his lessons, yet he kept at it, and willingly played the piano for any church group or meeting needing a pianist.  Danner was educated at Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma), in Edmond.  He served as assistant editor in the church music department of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention). He received his Master of Music degree at the George Peabody College for Teachers (Vanderbilt University), in Nashville. He served as pianist at Judson Baptist Church in Nashville.  Danner was a prolific composer of church anthems, musicals, and instrumental pieces, with more than 120 titles to his credit.

About the Hymns:

Hail to the Lord’s Anointed

James Montgomery (1771-1854) was a Moravian minister and writer.  In addition to his religious writings and hymns, he was the editor and a writer for a newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. As such, he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hymns, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety to his life. After his death, a statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honor.

As a writer of hymns, he ranks in popularity with Wesley, Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Cowper.  Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms) more than 100 are still in common use.  His finest lyrics are "Angels from the realms of glory," "Go to dark Gethsemane," "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," and "Songs of praise the angels sang."  “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” is Montgomery's best psalm rendering. It is based on Psalm 72 and was written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements, perhaps Fulneck, in the United Kingdom, Christmas, 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm (Tune: Culmstock)."

Published in a chapel hymnal for the Duke of Würtemberg (Gesangbuch der Herzogl, 1784), ELLACOMBE (the name of a village in Devonshire, England) was first set to the words "Ave Maria, klarer und lichter Morgenstern." During the first half of the nineteenth century various German hymnals altered the tune. Since ELLACOMBE's inclusion in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, where it was set to John Daniell's children's hymn "Come, Sing with Holy Gladness," its use throughout the English-speaking world has spread.

Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son!

Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free;

to take away transgression, and rule in equity.

He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;

to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;

to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,

whose souls, condemned and dying are precious in his sight.

He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;

love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.

Before him on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,

and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.

To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;

his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end.

The tide of time shall never his covenant remove;

his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

"It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" was written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts.  It first appeared on December 29, 1849, in the Christian Register in Boston. Sears is said to have written these words at the request of his friend, William Parsons Lunt, pastor of United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts.

This may be the only commonly sung Christmas carol in our hymnals that does not mention the birth of Christ! The focus is rather on the song of the angels, “Peace on the earth, good will to men,” taken from Luke 2:14.   The hymn’s central theme contrasts the scourge of war with the song of the angels’ “peace to God’s people on earth.” This is one of the earliest social gospel hymns written in the U.S.  Sears’ context was the social strife that plagued the country as the Civil War approached. This hymn comes from a Boston publication, Christian Register, published on Dec. 29, 1849.   The original stanza three, missing from our hymnals, sheds light on the poet’s concerns about the social situation in the U.S. in the mid-19th century.

It came upon the midnight clear,  that glorious song of old, 

from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: 

"Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all-gracious King." 

The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing. 

Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled, 

and still their heavenly music floats o'er all the weary world; 

above its sad and lowly plains, they bend on hovering wing, 

and ever o'er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing. 

      But with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long;
      Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong;
      And man, at war with man, hears not The love-song, which they bring:
      O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing!”

And ye, beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low, 

who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow, 

look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. 

O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing! 

For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophet seen of old, 

when with the ever-circling years shall come the time foretold 

when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, 

and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus