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:
Psalm 104 (Pentecost) - Emma Lou Diemer
(c. 1999, Sacred Music Press)
Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927) has written many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus (women's, men's), and electronic media. Diemer is a keyboard performer and over the years has given concerts of her own organ works at Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and others. Diemer's compositional style over the years has varied from tonal to atonal, from traditional to experimental. She has written works for non-professional and professional performers, originally under the "Gebrauchsmusik" philosophy, but has produced many works, particularly for keyboard, that are difficult and challenging. She was professor of theory and composition at the University of Maryland 1965-70, and joined the faculty of the University of California (UCSB) in 1971. She is professor emeritus, 1991–present. While at UCSB, Diemer helped to establish the computer/electronic music program.
This work for Pentecost was inspired by Psalm 104:
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with
honour and majesty.
2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a
curtain:
3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his
chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the
mountains.
7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou
hast founded for them.
9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the
earth.
10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the
branches.
13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy
works.
14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he
may bring forth food out of the earth;
15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and
bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep
forth.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is
full of thy riches.
25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and
great beasts.
26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and
return to their dust.
30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
31 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my
being.
34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.
35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless
thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.
About the Handbell Music:
Trumpet Tune Fanfare - Henry Purcell/Arnold Sherman
(c. 1993, Agape)
Jubilation Ringers
Henry Purcell (1659-1695), was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar. As the son of a musician at Court, a chorister at the Chapel Royal, and the holder of continuing royal appointments until his death, Purcell worked in Westminster for three different Kings over twenty-five years. In addition to his royal duties Purcell also devoted much of his talent to writing operas, or rather musical dramas, and incidental stage music. He also wrote chamber music in the form of harpsichord suites and trio sonatas, and became involved with the growing London public concert scene. One of the most important musical developments in Restoration London was the gradual establishment of regular public concerts. The writing of incidental theater music was not to be regarded as embarrassing or beneath Purcell’s dignity as Organist of Westminster Abbey. He was in the very midst of a tradition that not only permitted but actually encouraged well-known church musicians to provide lighter music for the theatre and opera. Purcell contributed to every genre of music known in his day with true distinction. His anthems rank with the great music of the church; there are fine orchestral movements in his works for the theatre; his fantasies and sonatas and keyboard works contributed much to chamber music of his time; his one true opera, Dido and Aeneas, is an enduring masterpiece, and his other dramatic works (sometimes called operas) contain significant music; Purcell's songs are characterized by a great sensitivity to text. He wrote a number of Trumpet Tunes for keyboard, as this was a very popular form at that time in England.
Arnold Sherman (b. 1948), currently living in Tyler, Texas, is a free-lance composer and co-founder of Red River Music. Sherman is the founder and Director of the East Texas Handbell Ensemble. A clinician and guest conductor, he has led choral and handbell workshops, festivals, and reading sessions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Japan and the Bahamas. Arnold has over three hundred choral and handbell pieces in print and has been an active member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers where he has served as Area IX Chairman.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart - Larry Moore
(c. 2003, Hal Leonard Corp)
The words of this sung prayer are among the most passionate in the history of hymnody. This masterpiece of Christian devotional poetry is the work of George Croly (1780-1860), an Anglican minister born in Dublin, Ireland, but whose ministry took place in London. Having served a small parish in Ireland, he moved to London to pursue a literary career where he wrote in several mediums including poetry, novels, history and biography. In 1835, Croly accepted the challenge to reopen a church in one of the worst slum areas of London, that had been closed for over a century. He was known among his peers as thoroughly conservative in theology with no tolerance for liberal views. Through personal charisma and dynamic preaching, he attracted large crowds to St. Stephen’s Church. Croly prepared a new hymnal in 1854 for his congregation and published it as Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship. “Spirit of God, Descend upon my Heart” first appeared in that hymnal under the title “Holiness Desired.” It is the only hymn by Croly to have survived.
George Croly was born in Dublin, Aug. 17, 1780, and educated at the Dublin University. After taking Holy Orders, he laboured in Ireland till about 1810, when he took up his residence in London, and devoted himself to literature. In 1835 he succeeded to the united benefices of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, and St. Benet Sherehog, retaining the same till his death, which occurred suddenly in the public street, Holborn, Nov. 24, 1860. His prose publications, in addition to contributions to Blackwood's Magazine, were numerous, and dealt with biographical, historical, and scriptural subjects. His hymns were published in Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship. Written and compiled by the Rev. George Croly, LL.D. London Kendrick, 1854.
This hymn is an intense, personal prayer for the working of the Holy Spirit (st. 1), for illumination (st. 2), for more fervent love for Christ (st. 3), for greater holiness in our walk with the Lord (st. 4), and for the fullness of the Spirit (st. 5).
MORECAMBE was composed in 1870 by Frederick C. Atkinson (1841-1896) as a setting for Henry Lyte's "Abide with Me". It was first published in G. S. Barrett and E.J. Hopkins's Congregational Church Hymnal (1887). The tune is named for a coastal town on Morecambe Bay near Lancaster, England, a town not far from Bradford, where Atkinson served as organist. As a boy Atkinson was a chorister and assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral. In 1867 he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Cambridge and then served as organist and choirmaster in St. Luke's Church, Manningham, Bradford. He also held that position at Norwich Cathedral and at St. Mary's Parish Church in Lewisham. Atkinson wrote hymn tunes, anthems, and complete Anglican services, as well as songs and piano pieces.
The text of the first line was changed to “descend upon my heart.” The original Croly text follows:
Spirit of God, who dwells within my heart,
wean it from sin, through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as you are,
and make me love you as I ought to love.
I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no opening skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.
Did you not bid us love you, God and King,
love you with all our heart and strength and mind?
I see the cross there teach my heart to cling.
O let me seek you and O let me find!
Teach me to feel that you are always nigh;
teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
teach me the patience of unceasing prayer.
Teach me to love you as your angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame:
the fullness of the heaven-descended Dove;
my heart an altar, and your love the flame.
Larry Moore was raised in Upstate New York. He later moved to Wisconsin after receiving a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Greenville College. An accomplished pianist, he has produced numerous recordings. Mr. Moore's compositions have been used in network television promotions, and his arrangements have been performed by several symphony orchestras.
About the Hymns:
O Spirit of the Living God
Henry Hallam Tweedy (1868-1953) hailed from the northeast, born in Binghamton, N.Y. He was granted degrees from Phillips Andover Academy, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary and the University of Berlin. A Congregational pastor, he served churches in New York and Connecticut, and later taught practical theology from 1909-1937 at Yale Divinity School. He co-authored several books, including Training the Devotional Life (1919) and Religious Training in School and Home (1917). His most important contribution, however, was as editor of the hymnal Christian Worship and Praise (1939). In addition to editing a hymnal, Tweedy published a practical volume, The Minister and His Hymnal, and won several hymn contests sponsored by the Homiletic Review and the Hymn Society of America.
Tweedy said he composed “O Spirit of the Living God” because “some of the old Pentecostal hymns were to me unsatisfactory, and I was eager to interpret the symbolism of the story in Acts in a way that modern men could understand and sincerely mean.” The text is an exposition of Acts 2, a passage focused on Pentecost. The hymn was first published in the Methodist Hymnal (1935).
FOREST GREEN is an English folk tune associated with the ballad "The Ploughboy's Dream." Ralph Vaughan Williams turned FOREST GREEN into a hymn tune for The English Hymnal (1906), using it as a setting for "O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
O Spirit of the living God, thou light and fire divine,
descend upon thy church once more, and make it truly thine.
Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace;
till Christ shall dwell in human hearts, and sin and sorrow cease.
Blow, wind of God! With wisdom blow until our minds are free
from mists of error, clouds of doubt, which blind our eyes to thee.
Burn, winged fire! Inspire our lips with flaming love and zeal,
to preach to all thy great good news, God’s glorious commonweal.
Teach us to utter living words of truth which all may hear,
the language all may understand when love speaks loud and clear;
till every age and race and clime shall blend their creeds in one,
and earth shall form one family by whom thy will is done.
So shall we know the power of Christ who came this world to save;
so shall we rise with him to life which soars beyond the grave;
and earth shall win true holiness, which makes thy children whole;
till, perfected by thee, we reach creation’s glorious goal.
Open My Eyes, that I May See
Clara H. Scott (1841-1897) provides us with a hymn of consecration that has been sung for over 100 years. In 1856, Scott attended the first Music Institute held by C.M. Cady in Chicago, Ill. By 1859, she was teaching music at the Ladies' Seminary, Lyons, Iowa. She married Henry Clay Scott in 1861, and published in 1882 the Royal Anthem Book, the first volume of choir anthems published by a woman. Horatio R. Palmer, an influential church musician in Chicago and later New York City, was a source of encouragement for Scott, and helped her publish many of her songs. Three collections were issued before her untimely death, when a runaway horse caused a buggy accident in Dubuque, Iowa.
The text of "Open My Eyes" was written in 1895 shortly before Scott's death. Each stanza reveals an increasing receptiveness to the "Spirit divine." Open eyes lead to "glimpses of truth." Open ears lead to "voices of truth." An open mouth leads to sharing the "warm truth everywhere." An open heart leads to sharing "love to thy children."
The image of open eyes is common in the Bible. In some cases, this is a sign of Christ's healing power, as when Jesus gave sight to the blind man at the pool of Siloam in John 9. Closed eyes, on the other hand, could be a metaphor for avoiding the truth as in the case of John 12:40, a passage following the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and beginning his journey to the cross: "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."
The image of open ears is also significant in the biblical witness. Matthew often reprises the theme "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Closed ears become a metaphor for a lack of understanding: "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew 13:15).
While the eyes and the ears are receptive organs, the mouth has the capacity to project. The mouth may project "cursing and deceit and fraud" (Psalm 10:7), or it may be an organ that projects praise, as Psalm 51:15 exhorts us: "O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise."
The heart is the only organ included in this hymn that is not visible. It may harbor deceit. Jesus asks in Matthew 9:4, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" But Jesus also realized that the heart has the capacity for purity: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).
Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Open my ears, that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear;
and while the wavenotes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere;
open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!
O For a Thousand Tongues
"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6,000 hymns. Wesley was suffering a bout of pleurisy in May, 1738, while he and his brother were studying under the Moravian scholar Peter Böhler in London. At the time, Wesley was plagued by extreme doubts about his faith. Taken to bed with the sickness on May 21, Wesley was attended by a group of Christians who offered him testimony and basic care, and he was deeply affected by this. He read from his Bible and found himself deeply affected by the words and at peace with God. Shortly, his strength began to return. He wrote of this experience in his journal and counted it as a renewal of his faith; when his brother John had a similar experience on the 24th, the two men met and sang a hymn Wesley had written in praise of his renewal.
One year from the experience, Wesley was taken with the urge to write another hymn, this one in commemoration of his renewal of faith. This hymn took the form of an 18-stanza poem, beginning with the opening lines “Glory to God, and praise, and love Be ever, ever given” and was published in 1740 and entitled “For the anniversary day of one's conversion”. The seventh verse, which begins, 'O for a thousand tongues to sing', and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn, recalls the words of Peter Böhler who said, “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.” The hymn was published first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists in 1780. It has appeared first in every Methodist hymnal since that time.
The original 10 verses are:
O For a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise!
The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the world abroad The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! the Name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of cancell'd sin, He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood avail'd for me.
He speaks, - and, listening to his voice, New life the dead receive;
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice; The humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb, Your loosen'd tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come, And leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto him, ye nations; own Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone, Be justified by grace.
See all your sins on Jesus laid; The Lamb of God was slain;
His soul was once an offering made For every soul of man.
Awake from guilty nature's sleep, And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep, And wash the AEthiop white.
With me, your chief, ye then shall know, Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below, And own that love is heaven.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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