Sunday, February 28

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:

Variations on Southwell - Alfred V. Fedak

SOUTHWELL is the hymn tune of the hymn “Lord Jesus, Think on Me.”  It was written by William Damon (1540-1591).  Damon was a foreign composer resident in England. He arrived probably in England in 1566 as a servant of Sir Thomas Sackville. In 1576, he became a recorder player at the Court of Elizabeth I.  He was described as having been born in "Luke" and "Lewklande" and, on the assumption that these names refer to Luik or Liège, it has been inferred that he was a Walloon. However contemporary London records describe him as an Italian and a later reference refers to him having been born in "Luke in Italy", i.e. Lucca. His unanglicised name may have been Gulielmo (or Gulielmus) Damano.  Daman died from the effects of an ulcer and was buried at St Peter-le-Poer, London.

This setting is by Alred Fedak (b. 1953)who holds degrees from Hope College and Montclair State College.  A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he is Minister of Music at United Reformed Church, Somerville, New Jersey.

About the Handbell Music:

Lord Jesus, Think on Me – Tyleen Stults

Jubilation Ringers

Synesius (370-430), a native of Cyrene, was Bishop of Ptolemaïs.  As he believed a Neo-Platonic philosophy, there has been debate as to his belief, with many labelling him a “semi-Christian”.  Allen Chatfield, who has translated his Odes in his Songs and Hymns of the Greek Christian Poets, 1876, contends that his tenth Ode "Lord Jesus, think on me," proves that he was a Christian and that he held the doctrine of the Resurrection. This tenth ode is the only Ode of Synesius, which is in common use.  The tune, SOUTHWELL, was written by William Daman (1540-1591; aka Gulielmo Damano) who was an Italian-born composer living in England.  He arrived in England in 1566 as a servant of Sir Thomas Sackville, and in 1576, he became a recorder player at the Court of Elizabeth I.

Lord Jesus, think on me And purge away my sin;
From earthborn passions set me free And make me pure within.

Lord Jesus, think on me, With many a care oppressed;
Let me Thy loving servant be And taste Thy promised rest.

Lord Jesus, think on me Nor let me go astray;
Through darkness and perplexity Point Thou the heavenly way.

Lord Jesus, think on me That I may sing above
To Father, Spirit, and to Thee The strains of praise and love.

Tyleen Stults holds a B.MUS. degree from Concordia-River Forest in Church Music: Organ performance. She has served as an organist, choir director, and classroom music teacher for congregations, schools, and district conferences in MO, IL, MN, and CO. She began her collegiate studies at St. Olaf College, and has been a member of Magnum Chorum, the American Kantorei, and the Mankato Symphony Orchestra.  She currently serves St. Peter's Lutheran Church & School, facilitating music for singers, handchimes, instrumentalists, and K-8 classroom music. She is a staff accompanist at Adams State University and serves as adjunct faculty.

Fairest Lord Jesus - Derek K. Hakes

Jubilation Ringers

“Beautiful Savior” is thought to have originated as early as 1607, possibly written by German Jesuits, and called “Schönster Herr Jesu“. It first appeared in print in 1677, in the Münster Gesangbuch, with author unknown. It was translated and the fourth stanza was added by Lutheran pastor and theologian, Joseph A. Seiss in 1873.  Originally this song was most likely sung to a Gregorian Chant by the Jesuit monks. The music that was most popular with 17th Century German peasants was a tune from an ancient Silesian folk song.  The tune and the German text were printed together for the first time in 1842 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ernst Richter under the name “Schönster Herr Jesu” (Most beautiful Lord Jesus). In 1850 the Danish hymnwriter B. S. Ingemann wrote “Dejlig Er Jorden”, which he set to the same melody. An English translation by Jens C. Aaberg was published as “Fair Is Creation”.  Apart from their musical setting, the Danish and German lyrics are unrelated.  According to some accounts, “Fairest Lord Jesus” is called "Crusader's Hymn" because it was sung by German Crusaders as they made their way to the Holy Land.

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,

Robed in the blooming garb of spring;

Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,

Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,

And all the twinkling starry host;

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer

Than all the angels heav’n can boast.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,

Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;

None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,

Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!

Son of God and Son of Man!

Glory and honor, praise, adoration,

Now and forevermore be Thine.

This setting also contains the German chorale “Ich will dich lieben”.  Ich will dich lieben, meine Stärke is a hymn by Angelus Silesius, first published as the tenth hymn in Book 1 of his Heilige Seelen-Lust of 1657. Verses from the hymn were translated into English by both John Wesley and Catherine Winkworth: both translations begin Thee will I love, my strength, my tower.

Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) was the son of a Polish nobleman, and his true name was John Scheffler; but he adopted the name Angelus from a Spanish mystic of the 16th century--John ab Angelis--and added the name Silesius, because of his own country. He studied medicine, and obtained his degree of M.D. at Padua. While physician to the Duke Sylvius Nimrod, he had a conflict with the Lutheran clergy, and in 1653 entered the Roman Catholic Church. Subsequently he was physician to the Emperor Ferdinand III., but at length entered the priesthood and retired to the Jesuit monastery of S. Matthias. His hymns were mostly written before he joined the Catholic Church, and were intended for private devotion.

Translation by John Wesley:

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower; Thee will I love, my joy, my crown;
Thee will I love, with all my power, In all thy works, and thee alone:
Thee will I love, till the pure fire Fills my whole soul with chaste desire.

Ah, why did I so late thee know, Thee, lovelier than the sons of men!
Ah, why did I no sooner go To thee, the only ease in pain!
Ashamed, I sigh, and inly mourn, That I so late to thee did turn.

In darkness willingly I stray'd; I sought thee, yet from thee I roved;
Far wide my wandering thoughts were spread; Thy creatures more than thee I loved:
And now if more at length I see, 'Tis through thy light, and comes from thee.

I thank thee, uncreated Sun, That thy bright beams on me have shined;
I thank thee, who hast overthrown My foes, and heal'd my wounded mind;
I thank thee, whose enlivening voice Bids my freed heart in thee rejoice.

Uphold me in the doubtful race, Nor suffer me again to stray;
Strengthen my feet with steady pace Still to press forward in thy way;
My soul and flesh, O Lord of might, Fill, satiate, with thy heavenly light.

Give to mine eyes refreshing tears ; Give to my heart chaste, hallow'd fires ;
Give to my soul, with filial fears, The love that all heaven's host inspires;
That all my powers, with all their might, In thy sole glory may unite.

Thee will I love, my joy, my crown, Thee will I love, my Lord, my God;
Thee will I love, beneath thy frown, Or smile, thy sceptre, or thy rod:
What though my flesh and heart decay, Thee shall I love in endless day!

Derek Hakes has arranged many handbell and handchime pieces, and has also written books of handbell technique and composer biographies.

About the Hymns:

O For a Heart to Praise My God

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) wrote this hymn in the years immediately following his disastrous mission trip to America in 1735, his subsequent illness upon his return, and then the unbridled enthusiasm of his conversion on Whitsunday (Pentecost Sunday), May 21, 1738. This is a hymn of total commitment to God, a prayer for pureness of heart, a plea for Christian perfection.  “O For a Heart to Praise My God” was introduced in the book Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1742, published by John Wesley, originally with eight stanzas. The scriptural basis was Psalm 51:10, thus the heading to the hymn, “Make me a Clean Heart, O GOD, and renew a right Spirit within me.” Thirty-eight years later, the eight-stanza hymn was included in a slightly altered form in the monumental Wesley hymnal, A Collection of Hymns: For the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780) under the category “For Believers Groaning for Full Redemption.” 

Wesley scholar James I. Warren Jr. describes this hymn as “Seeking Perfection in Love.”  The poet yearns for a heart to praise God for God’s redemption and love, and to personally feel God’s presence.  As the Christian’s heart becomes more Christ-like, the Christian is moving toward perfection. The language is passionate: “. . . a heart that always feels thy blood/so freely shed for me.”  Wesley uses the rhetorical devise of tautology—repetition of the same idea in different words. “Resign’d, submissive, meek” are all different expressions for the same idea. This was Wesley’s way of emphasizing the importance of the sinner’s role in coming to Christ for help. 

The hymn is paired with the tune, RICHMOND, composed by Thomas Haweis (1734-1820) for a friend named Leigh Richmond, who was a rector at Turvey, Bedfordshire.

O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free;

a heart that's sprinkled with the blood so freely shed for me:

A heart resigned, submissive, meek, my great Redeemer's throne;

where only Christ is heard to speak, where Jesus reigns alone:

A humble, lowly, contrite heart, believing, true, and clean,

which neither life nor death can part from him that dwells within:

A heart in every thought renewed, and full of love divine;

perfect and right and pure and good — a copy, Lord, of thine.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart, come quickly from above;

write thy new name upon my heart, thy new best name of Love.

I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light

Kathleen Thomerson (b. 1934) is Organist and Music Director at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. She was born in Tennessee and grew up in Mississippi, California, and Texas. College music study was at the Universities of Colorado and Texas, the Flemish Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, and privately in Paris. Before retirement in Austin, she lived in Collinsville, Illinois, when her husband was a biology professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Her best-known hymn text is "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light."  It was written as a scriptural meditation and prayer. It was inspired by many Bible verses, including Genesis 1:17, Isaiah 60:19, Psalm 75:16, Psalm 139:12, Ephesians 3:17, Ephesians 5:8, Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 2 Peter 1:19, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23.

I want to walk as a child of the light;  I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to give light to the world;
The star of my life is Jesus.

I want to see the brightness of God. I want to look at Jesus.

Clear Sun of Righteousness, shine on my path,

and show me the way to the Father.

I’m looking for the coming of Christ. I want to be with Jesus.

When we have run with patience the race,

we shall know the joy of Jesus.

In him there is no darkness at all;
The night and the day are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus