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; most of it is copied from other websites 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:
Prelude and Fugue in E - Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer (c. 1656 – 27 August 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day; however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today. Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld, but details about his life are sketchy. The first record of his existence is found in the mid-1690s. By 1695, he was Kapellmeister to Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden, and he may have remained with the court until his death in Rastatt. Much of Fischer's music shows the influence of the French Baroque style, exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully, and he was responsible for bringing the French influence to German music. Fischer's harpsichord suites updated the standard Froberger model (Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue). He was also one of the first composers to apply the principles of the orchestral suite to the harpsichord, replacing the standard French ouverture with an unmeasured prelude. Both Bach and Handel knew Fischer's work and sometimes borrowed from it.
About the Piano Music:
The Cry of the Poor - Laura Wasson
“The Cry of the Poor” is a responsorial psalm based on Psalm 34 by John Foley, S.J.
John Foley, S.J., (b. 1939) is an American Jesuit priest who is a composer of Catholic liturgical music and a professor of liturgy. Much of Foley's early work on liturgical music was as a member of a group called the St. Louis Jesuits, composed of fellow Jesuit seminarians, with whom he released several albums. He also released several solo collections of liturgical music. Both the solo and the group efforts were released through publishers OCP (formerly Oregon Catholic Press), National Association of Liturgical Resources and GIA Publications.
Foley earned a doctorate in liturgical theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. In 1993 he returned to Saint Louis University where he founded the Stroble Center for Liturgy, of which he has served as director since its founding.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Blessed be the Lord.
I will bless the Lord at all times with praise ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the Lord, who will hear the cry of the poor.
Let the lowly hear and be glad. The Lord listens to their plea,
And to hearts broken, God is near, who will hear the cry of the poor.
We proclaim your greatness, O God. Your praise ever in our mouth.
Every face brightens in Your light, for you hear the cry of the poor.
Laura Wasson (b.1952) teaches piano and violin in Ohio.
The Invisibility of Poverty
by Kevin Lee
About the Vocal Solo Music:
My Faith Looks Up to Thee - Lloyd Larson
Ray Palmer (1808-1887) wrote “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” upon receiving a vision of Christ shortly after his graduation from Yale University, while working as a tutor at a New York school. The author says concerning its composition, "I gave form to what I felt, by writing, with little effort, the stanzas. I recollect I wrote them with very tender emotion, and ended the last line with tears." However, he kept them to himself until meeting Lowell Mason on a street in Boston, Massachusetts. When Mason asked him to write something for a new hymnal, Palmer dug out his old notes and produced these lyrics, written two years earlier. After taking the lyrics home and reading them, Mason composed this tune. Several days later he saw Palmer again and said: “You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of My Faith Looks Up to Thee”. In 1831, it was published in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship: adapted to the use of Families, &c. Words and Music arranged by Thomas Hastings, of New York, and Lowell Mason of Boston.
The tune OLIVET was written by Dr. Lowell Mason (1792-1872), justly called the father of American church music; for by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man.
As a child, Mason he had an intense love for music and devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself. He acquired a proficiency in composition, and his first work of this kind was a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was published by the Boston Handel and Haydn Society in 1822, but Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, because "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England and church choirs. It ran through some seventeen editions. Mason accepted an invitation to move to Boston and was also appointed director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. In 1827, Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that earned him the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Charles C. Perkins stated, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Mason founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Before 1810, he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. He is also rightly called the “Father of Music in the Public Schools.”
As a composer church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful in this country. He was a deeply pious man. His sons, Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ and piano manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin.
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:
Behold a Broken World
Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) has been a leading voice in British hymnody for more than five decades. Born in Manchester, England, Bishop Dudley-Smith was educated at Pembroke College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. In 1950, he was ordained an Anglican priest. He has served as editor and secretary of several publications and societies, archdeacon of Norwich, and bishop of Thetford, Norfolk. Bishop Dudley-Smith has written more than 300 texts, and he is the author of four collections of hymns. Bishop Dudley-Smith lives in retirement in the cathedral city of Salisbury, England. He has been recognized for his contributions to hymnody with honors from the United Kingdom (an honorary vice-president of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland) and the United States (a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada). In 2003, he received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) award "for services to hymnody.”
"Behold a Broken World" is an eloquent prayer for peace. Echoes of Isaiah 2:4 — "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." The predominant theme running throughout is of fulfilling the "ancient dream of peace" (stanza one). Stanza three pleads for the cessation of war, "a waking dream fulfilled." Stanza four prays that "the lofty visions [of the] dreamers of the day" should prevail. The arrival of the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6) who died to save and redeem a lost world heralds "our waking dream" (stanza five). The hymn first appeared in the July 1985 issue of The Hymn, the journal of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, as one of five chosen in a search by the society for hymns on the theme of peace.
Behold a broken world, we pray, where want and war increase,
and grant us, Lord, in this our day, the ancient dream of peace:
A dream of swords to sickles bent, of spears to scythe and spade,
the weapons of our warfare spent, a world of peace remade;
Where every battle-flag is furled and every trumpet stilled,
where wars shall cease in all the world, a waking dream fulfilled.
No force of arms shall there prevail nor justice cease her sway;
nor shall their loftiest visions fail the dreamers of the day.
O Prince of peace, who died to save, a lost world to redeem,
and rose in triumph from the grave, behold our waking dream.
Bring, Lord, your better world to birth, your kingdom, love's domain;
where peace with God, and peace on earth, and peace eternal reign.
Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life
Caleb T. Winchester, an editor of the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, challenged Frank M. North (1850-1935) to write a hymn text on city missions. North had intimate knowledge of urban life because of his work for the Methodist Church in New York City. Inspired by Jesus' words "Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find" (Matt. 22:9), North wrote "Where Cross the Crowded Ways." After making various revisions and adding a title ("A Prayer for the Multitudes"), he published the text in The Christian City (1903), a missions journal he edited. The text was also published in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal and in many other twentieth-century hymnbooks. One of the earliest and finest modern "city hymns," this text focuses on the ills of our great urban centers with the insight and compassion of a Christian worker in the city slums. North's descriptive phrases may have been startling at the turn of the century, but they are even more accurate descriptions of the massive cities in our world today. His prescription to follow in the footsteps of Christ and bring the gospel in word and deed is relevant as long as the Lord delays in bringing the New Jerusalem.
North devoted himself to loyal service in the Methodist denomination and to various ecumenical ventures. He was educated at Wesleyan University, and ordained in the Methodist Church in 1872. A minister in several churches in Florida, New York, and Connecticut, he also held administrative positions-secretary of the New York Church Extension and Missionary Society (1892-1912) and secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Church (1912-1924). He was involved with the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America (forerunner of the National Council of Churches) and was the council's president from 1916-1920. Editor of the periodical Christian City, North was active in many organizations that promoted and carried out Christian ministries in urban life. North contributed hymns to Sursum Corda (1898) and the Methodist Hymnal (1905) and was a charter member of the Hymn Society, which republished his eight hymns in a booklet in 1970.
Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the cries of race and clan,
above the noise of selfish strife, we hear your voice, O Son of Man.
In haunts of wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds fraught with fears,
from paths where hide the lures of greed, we catch the vision of your tears.
From tender childhood's helplessness, from human grief and burdened toil,
from famished souls, from sorrow's stress, your heart has never known recoil.
The cup of water given for you still holds the freshness of your grace;
yet long these multitudes to view the sweet compassion of your face.
O Master, from the mountainside, make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
among these restless throngs abide; O tread the city's streets again;
Till all the world shall learn your love, and follow where your feet have trod;
till glorious from your heaven above shall come the city of our God.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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