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:
Were You There? - Uzee Brown
Were You There was likely composed by African-American slaves in the 19th century. It was first published in William Eleazar Barton's 1899 Old Plantation Hymns. In 1940, it was included in the Episcopal Church hymnal, making it the first spiritual to be included in any major American hymnal. As reported in Howard Thurman's autobiography, the song was one of Mahatma Gandhi's favorites
For a time, the slaves simply by-passed the New Testament, especially since their white taskmasters used it to justify slavery. But there was something about the man Jesus, hanging there upon the hard, wooden cross. Here was a man who was beaten like they were. He was spit upon. He was falsely accused. He was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Finally, he was hung on a tree, a method of execution familiar to the slaves. Through all of these indignities, Jesus prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
"How was he able to forgive?" they questioned. "What was it that enabled him to love those who were unlovable?" Was he in pain? They were in pain. Did he have to drink the cup of suffering? They had to drink theirs, too. Yes, their cross was one with his cross. Jesus died for the sins of all men, of every color. He had to be who he said he was. How else could he have done what he did? In time, they embraced Jesus as their Savior, and they experienced His peace, His grace and forgiveness, and His hope for the future. From this relationship they were able to sing. From the cross they felt a mighty emergence of the divine will, breaking down the barriers that separated man from man, and man from God. And so, instead of taking the destructive road to violence, many began to hum, then to sing, and sometimes to shout the spirituals - a cry to God for freedom and a declaration of faith in His ability to provide it.
“Were You There” utilizes a system of coded language in its lyrics like most, if not all, African-American spirituals. Metaphors, especially those involving Old Testament figures, as well as Jesus, are often central to the meanings of spirituals. “Were You There” tells the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus. Underneath this narrative, however, is a metaphor likening Jesus’s suffering to the suffering of slaves. In some versions of the song, the singer asks “Were you there when they nailed Him to the Tree?” Replacing Jesus’ cross with a tree further strengthens the metaphor between Jesus’ suffering and slaves’ suffering. African-Americans during the antebellum period, and all the way into the Jim Crow era, would have drawn a connection between Jesus nailed to a tree and the frightening prevalence of lynchings in their own lives. This expression of likening one’s experience to Jesus' is underscored by the first-person, present-tense perspective of “Were You There”; the singer personally witnesses the crucifixion. The use of first person pronouns in the spiritual reflects a sense of “communal selfhood” formed by African-American slaves in the face of oppression.
The following lyrics are those printed in the 1899 Unicorn. Old Plantation Hymns; other variations exist.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
O sometimes it causes me to tremble! tremble! tremble!
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nail'd him to the cross? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they nail'd him to the cross?
O sometimes it causes me to tremble! tremble! tremble!
Were you there when they nail'd him to the cross?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
O sometimes it causes me to tremble! tremble! tremble!
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine? (Were you there?)
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
O sometimes it causes me to tremble! tremble! tremble!
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. (b.1950), a native of Cowpens, South Carolina, is an American singer, performer, composer, arranger, educator, and choir director. Dr. Brown has graduated from Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood and the University of Siena in Italy, he holds degrees from Morehouse College (B.A.), Bowling Green State University (M.M. in Composition), and University of Michigan (M.M. and D.M.A. in performance). For twelve years he was director of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir and served as chair of the Department of Music at Clark Atlanta University for two years. For over thirty years, Brown has been an educator on African-American music focusing on Spirituals. Dr. Brown is currently Professor of Music at Morehouse College where he is Chair of the Creative and Performing Arts Division.
As a composer and arranger Brown has worked in theater. Spike Lee's "School daze" musical prologue, "I'm Building Me a Home," was written by Brown in the late 1970s but was recorded for the soundtrack in 1987 by the Morehouse Glee Club. He has been nominated for the AUDELCO award in black theater as outstanding musical director and arranger for his work in an off-Broadway musical play called ZION. Outside of theater, Dr. Brown has been president of the National Association of Negro Musicians. While He was featured in the first official publication of the documentary history of the National Association of Negro Musicians by the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago, Illinois. Brown is co-founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of Onyx Opera Atlanta.
O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig - Georg P. Telemann
"O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" (O Lamb of God, innocent) is an early Lutheran hymn, with text and melody attributed to Nikolaus Decius (1485-1541). Decius (Nicolaus a Curia or von Hofe, otherwise Hovesch, seems to have been a native of Hof, in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, and to have been originally called Tech. He became a monk, and was Probst of the cloister at Steterburg, near Wolfenbüttel. Becoming a follower of Luther, he left Steterburg in July, 1522, and went to Brunswick, where he was appointed a master in the St. Katherine and Egidien School. In 1523, he was invited by the burgesses of Stettin as an Evangelical preacher along with Paulus von Rhode. He became preacher at the Church of St. Nicholas; was probably instituted by the Town Council in 1526, when von Rhode was instituted to St. Jacob's; and at the visitation in 1535 was recognized as pastor of St. Nicholas'. He died suddenly at Stettin, March 21, 1541, with some suspicion of being poisoned by his enemies of the Roman Catholic faction. He seems to have been a popular preacher and a good musician. Three hymns are ascribed to him. These are versions of the “Sanctus," the "Gloria in excelsis," and the "Agnus Dei." He is also said to have composed or adapted the melodies set to them.
In all early prints, "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" is titled Das Agnus Dei Deutsch (The Agnus Dei in German), indicating that it was supposed to take the position of the Agnus Dei during the Abendmahl (communion). This function was soon taken by Luther's "Christe, du Lamm Gottes", while "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig", which adds the memory of Christ's Passion, was used as a hymn for Passiontide. It has often been set to music, prominently as the cantus firmus in the opening chorus of Bach's St Matthew Passion. It is included in most German hymnals, and was translated by Catherine Winkworth. Until the 18th century, the hymn "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" was printed in hymnals without mentioning an author. Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer presented in his historical Braunschweigische Kirchen-Historie a Latin report from 1600, which called Decius as the author of text and melody of ""O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" and "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr". A medieval melody may have been the model for the tune. The creation of hymns by Decius is dated 1522/23, in the early Reformation, before Martin Luther's first hymns. It was published in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal. The song was first printed in Low German in Joachim Slüter's Geystlyke leder in Rostock in 1531. The first print in High German appeared in a hymnal in Leipzig in 1539. The melody appeared with the text first in Johann Spangenberg’s hymnal Kirchengesenge Deudtsch, published in Magdeburg in 1545, but it had appeared in a slightly different version a few years earlier in a Strasbourg hymnal. Like in the Latin model, the Lamb of God is called three times, twice asking for mercy, the third time for peace.
Lamb of God, pure and holy, Who on the cross didst suffer,
Ever patient and lowly, Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us, Else had despair reigned o'er us:
Have mercy on us, O Jesus;
Give us thy peace, O Jesus.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the city's five main churches. Telemann was one of the most prolific composers in history, composing more than 3,000 pieces, and was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time—he was compared favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. Telemann's music was one of the driving forces behind the late Baroque and the early Classical styles. Starting in the 1710s he became one of the creators and foremost exponents of the so-called German mixed style, an amalgam of German, French, Italian and Polish styles. Over the years, his music gradually changed and started incorporating more and more elements of the galant style, but he never completely adopted the ideals of the nascent Classical era: Telemann's style remained contrapuntally and harmonically complex, and already in 1751 he dismissed much contemporary music as too simplistic. Equally important for the history of music were Telemann's publishing activities. By pursuing exclusive publication rights for his works, he set one of the most important early precedents for regarding music as the intellectual property of the composer.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Beneath the Cross of Jesus - Lloyd Larson
Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane (1830-1869) was born in Scotland, the daughter of a county sheriff; she lived most of her brief life near Edinburgh. Though in frail health most of her life, Elizabeth found the strength to help the poor and sick in her town. She and her sister gave all that they could spare to charity including, it is said, selling their horse and carriage for the benefit of the needy. The townspeople of Melrose referred to Elizabeth as “the Sunbeam.”
“Beneath the cross of Jesus,” focusing on the shelter of the cross, was first published three years after the author’s death in 1872 under the title “Breathings on the Border,” perhaps a double entendre referring to a geographical location near Melrose, the Scottish Borders, and a reference to the border between life and death. This poem and others of hers appeared in the Scottish Presbyterian magazine The Family Treasury, submitted by an anonymous source, perhaps a family member or friend. One source suggests that this hymn was written within one year of her death in 1868. British hymnologist. J.R. Watson mentions that an editorial emendation attached to the poem by the anonymous source submitting the poems said, these lines “express the experiences, the hopes and the longings of a young Christian lately released.”
Contained in the same collection was her famous narrative poem, “There were ninety and nine that safely lay.” Both of these hymns were promoted by the well-known American musical evangelist and songwriter Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908), who published them in his Sacred Songs and Solos (1873). Though Sankey composed a tune for the song entitled CLEPHANE, the almost universal pairing is with ST. CHRISTOPHER, composed by Bristol, England, musician, Frederick C. Maker (1844-1927).
The hymn is full of comforting, and perhaps paradoxical language, about the cross, after all, an instrument of the cruelest torture. These include in stanza two “the shadow of a mighty rock,” “a home within the wilderness,” “a rest upon the way.” The original third stanza provides additional images of consolation: a “happy shelter,” “refuge tried and sweet,” a “trysting place,” and “a ladder up to heaven,” a reference to Jacob’s ladder.
Originally five stanzas, the original last stanza, perhaps autobiographical, provides further insight into the comfort that the writer found in the shadow of the cross and the inspiration that the cross gave her as she anticipated her own death. Such explicit anticipation of and longing for death may seem somewhat morbid today, but echoes the Romantic literary sentiment of her time. Though appropriately sung during Lent and Holy Week today, this hymn is more of a personal meditation on the cross and one’s own mortality than a hymn written for a specific time of the Christian Year.
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.
Upon the cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One who suffered there for me:
and from my smitten heart with tears two wonders I confess,
the wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place:
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss;
my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
Beneath the cross of Christ I take my stand.
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 Hymns:
Just as I Am
At the age of 32, Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871) suffered a serious illness that left her a semi-invalid for the rest of her life. Within a year, she went through a spiritual crisis and confessed to the Swiss evangelist Henri A. Cesar Malan that she did not know how to come to Christ. He answered, "Come to him just as you are." Thinking back on that experience twelve years later, in 1834, she wrote “Just as I Am" as a statement of her faith. Hymn writing provided a way for Elliot to cope with her pain and depression – she wrote approximately 150 hymns, which were published in her Invalid's Hymn Book (several editions, 1834-1854), Hymns for a Week (1839), and Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects (1869). Many of her hymns reflect her chronic pain and illness but also reveal that faith gave her perseverance and hope.
“Just as I Am" was first published in the 1836 edition of Invalid's Hymn Book with the subheading "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). She added a seventh stanza that same year, when the hymn was also published in her Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836). Widely translated, this hymn has brought consolation to millions.
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind;
Yes, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, Thy love unknown
broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Spirit Song
John Wimber (1934-1997), one of the 20th century's leading charismatic pastors, is known primarily as a founder of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. He was educated at Fuller Theological Seminary and graduated from Azusa Pacific University. He served first as pastor to the Society of Friends in Yorba Linda, Calif., beginning in 1970, and then moved in 1978 to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif. In 1982, he became senior pastor of the Vineyard Fellowship in 1983.
"Spirit Song," written in 1979, is the most lasting musical contribution from Wimber. It appears widely in hymnals and is one of the more popular new hymns in The United Methodist Hymnal. The song encourages an intimate relationship between the singer and Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If the singer will surrender "all the things that hold you," the Holy Spirit will descend "like a dove... upon your life and make you whole."
Oh,, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love;
Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul.
Oh, let Him have those things that hold you, And His Spirit like a dove
Will descend upon your life and make you whole.
Oh, come and sing the song of gladness As your hearts are filled with joy;
Lift your hands in sweet surrender to His name.
Oh, give Him all your tears and sadness, Give Him all your years of pain,
And you'll enter into life in Jesus' name.
Jesus, oh, Jesus, Come and fill Your lambs;
Jesus, oh, Jesus, Come and fill Your lambs.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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