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:
Nicaea - Healey Willan
(c. 1960, C. F. Peters)
Reginald Heber (1783-1826) wrote “Holy, Holy, Holy” for Trinity Sunday, the day for which lectionary in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer prescribes the reading of Revelation 4. Using reverent and apocalyptic language, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" alludes to Revelation 4:6-11; 5:13; 15:2-4; and Isaiah 6:1-3 to sing the great majesty of the triune God. Note the cosmic scope of the text: human beings (st. 1), saints and angels in glory (st. 2), and all creation (st. 4) praise the name of the Lord. Though God's holiness, love, and purity are cloaked in mystery, we can still experience God's mercy and mighty power, and we can participate in praising God. It references the Sanctus, which is often called the "Holy holy holy" in English. The name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.
It was first published in the third edition (1826) of A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury and was also published posthumously in Heber's Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Services of the Year (1827). The unusual single rhyme (all on the "ee" sound) and the uneven number of syllables in some lines have not detracted from the hymn's popularity. It was soon adopted by hymn-book compilers, and is the best known and most widely used of the author's hymns.
John Bacchus Dykes composed the tune NICAEA for this hymn in 1861. The tune name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
Holy, Holy, Holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man, Thy glory may not see:
Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy! merciful and mighty,
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Healey Willan (1880-1968) was a Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but is best known for his religious music. Willan was born in England, and he began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne. He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the Royal College of Organists' Associateship in 1897 and Fellowship in 1899. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910, Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant"). In 1913, Willan emigrated to Canada. In 1921, he become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto), where he remained until his death. St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians. In 1920, the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan Head of its Theory Department. In 1934, he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939. From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur; in 1956, Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers", became the first non-English church musician to be so honoured. People who remember Willan from his time at St Mary Magdalene's like to moderate his somewhat dourly pious public image by quoting him: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption.”
Toccata on "Old Hundredth" - Gordon Young
(c. 1965, Harold Flammer)
The familiar doxological hymn, “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” is by Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711). From Hertfordshire, Ken was orphaned as a child and raised by his sister Anna and her husband Izaak Walton. They enrolled him in the all-boys school at Winchester College (1651-1656), and after his education there, he attended Hart Hall, Oxford, and New College, Oxford (BA 1661, MA 1664). He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1662, served as Rector to several parishes, and as a Chaplain to Princess Mary of Orange (1679-80), King Charles II (1683), and the Tangier Expedition (1683-84). In 1685, he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells. During the reign of King James II, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign the Declaration of Indulgence. Ken was acquitted of the charge, but when King William III ascended to the throne Ken refused to swear loyalty to him, he resigned his office and lived the rest of his life at the home of his friend, Lord Weymouth, at Longleat, Wilshire.
The original date of composition by Ken for the text of “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” is unknown, but the first mention of the hymn is in 1674 as the presumed final stanza of two longer hymns: “Awake, My Soul and with the Sun” and “Glory to Thee, My God, This Night.” These two hymns were referenced along with a third as Morning, Evening and Midnight hymns in a pamphlet written for his students titled A Manual of Prayers For the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, which was accompanied by the directive: “Be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly, remembering that the Psalmist, upon happy experience, assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season.” This directive is most often interpreted to mean that the hymns were meant for private devotion, not the gathered assembly, and yet these four lines, often referred to as The Lesser Doxology, have “been sung more often than any other lines ever written.” The hymn texts were published later as an appendix in his 1695 pamphlet as ‘revised’ versions.
Much of beauty of these four lines lies in its reflection of the joyous outbursts of the Psalms. Here we see both the ‘host’ of heaven and the ‘creatures here below’ of earth praising God as in Psalm 96:11-12a, “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it, and the final jubilant line of Psalm 150:6: Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
The Trinitarian structure of Ken’s hymn has also led to its common liturgical use. The first line describes the person of God the Father as the source of all blessings (Ephesians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3). The second line, though, speaks to God the Spirit through whom all creatures praise God (Psalm 104:24-30, 1 Corinthians 2:10-13). The third line points to God the Son who is begotten of the Father, firstborn of heaven and superior to angels and the heavenly host (Hebrews 1:4). The fourth line summarizes the stanza and all of praise in general, since all praise is directed toward God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The United Methodist Hymnal pairs this text with the hymn tune OLD 100th, which is attributed to Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-59). "Old Hundredth" is a hymn tune from Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (1551) (the second edition of the Genevan Psalter) and is one of the best known melodies in all Christian musical traditions.
Loys "Louis" Bourgeois (c.1510-1559) was a composer and music theorist of the Renaissance. He is most famous as one of the main compilers of Calvinist hymn tunes in the middle of the 16th century. In 1549 and 1550 he worked on a collections of psalm-tunes, most of which were translated by Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze. Unfortunately, he fell foul of local musical authorities and was sent to prison in December, 1551 for changing the tunes for some well-known psalms "without a license." He was released on the personal intervention of John Calvin, but the controversy continued: those who had already learned the tunes had no desire to learn new versions, and the town council ordered the burning of Bourgeois's instructions to the singers, claiming they were confusing. Shortly after this incident, Bourgeois left Geneva never to return: he settled in Lyon, and his Geneva employment was terminated.
The Genevan Psalter was compiled over a number of years in the Swiss city of Geneva, a center of Protestant activity during the Reformation, in response to the teaching of John Calvin that communal singing of psalms in the vernacular language is a foundational aspect of church life. This contrasted with the prevailing Catholic practice at the time in which sacred texts were chanted in Latin by the clergy only. Calvinist musicians including Bourgeois supplied many new melodies and adapted others from sources both sacred and secular. The final version of the psalter was completed in 1562. Calvin intended the melodies to be sung in plainsong during church services, but harmonized versions were provided for singing at home.
The Genevan Psalter, the source for the hymns of both the Reformed Church in England and the Pilgrims in America. In the original versions by Bourgeois, the music is monophonic, in accordance with the dictates of John Calvin, who disapproved not only of counterpoint but of any multiple parts; Bourgeois though did also provide four-part harmonizations, but they were reserved for singing and playing at home. Many of the four-part settings are syllabic and chordal, a style which has survived in many Protestant church services to the present day.
Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run;
shake off dull sloth, and early rise to pay thy morning sacrifice.
Lord, I my vows to Thee renew. Disperse my sins as morning dew;
guard my first springs of thought and will, and with Thyself my spirit fill.
Direct, control, suggest, this day, all I design or do or say,
that all my pow'rs, with all their might, in Thy sole glory may unite.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise Him all creatures here below;
praise Him above, ye heav'enly host; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
———————
Glory to thee, my God, this night, for all the blessings of the light:
keep me, O keep me, King of kings, beneath thine own almighty wings.
Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son, the ill that I this day have done;
that with the world, myself, and thee, I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.
Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed;
teach me to die, that so I may rise glorious at the awful day.
O may my soul on thee repose, and with sweet sleep mine eyelids close;
sleep that shall me more vigorous make to serve my God when I awake.
When in the night I sleepless lie, my soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
let no ill dreams disturb my rest, no powers of darkness me molest.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Gordon Young (1919-1998) was born in McPherson, Kansas, and during his lifetime was recognized as one of this country's great church organists. He was a prolific and talented composer for both organ and choir, with nearly 1000 published works. During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
If You Love Me - John Ness Beck
(c.1980, Beckenhorst Press)
John Ness Beck (1930-1987) graduated from Ohio State with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees with a major in English. After working for a year in Student Union activities at the State College of Washington, he spent two years in the U.S. Army. During this time, he became increasingly involved in arranging for various musical groups. After his discharge from military service, he returned to Ohio State and completed Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts degrees in music with composition as his major. Beck was a faculty member of Ohio State University School of Music for seven years, teaching harmony and theory. He left the university to become owner and manager of The University Music House, a retail sheet music store in Columbus. In this capacity, he was able to observe the business side of the music industry, gaining insight into the complexities of music publishing and merchandising. As his compositions found their way into print and popularity, he joined forces in 1972 with John Tatgenhorst in the creation of Beckenhorst Press. His reputation as a composer and his experience as a choral director soon led to an increasing demand for appearances as guest conductor and lecturer at various musical clinics and festivals throughout the country.
In this setting, Beck uses the text from John 14:15 and Jeremiah 29:13:
If you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, heed my law.
If you love me, if you love me, if you love me, keep my commandments.
If you seek me, you shall surely find me. If you search fo rme with all your heart.
If you seek me, you shall find me, if you search with all your heart.
About the Hymns:
God the Spirit
(c. 1989, Hope Publishing)
“God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian,” written by Episcopal priest Carl P. Daw Jr. (b. 1944), was first published in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989). Now we can find this text transcending denominational lines in eleven different hymnals. Carl P. Daw Jr. committed “God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian” to paper in 1987 for the consecration of Jefferey Rowthorn (b. 1934) as bishop suffragan of the diocese of Connecticut in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Rowthorn is himself a Welsh Episcopalian hymnwriter who helped establish the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.
Daw was born a Baptist pastor’s son in Louisville, Kentucky. He received degrees from Rice University (B.A., 1966), the University of Virginia (M.A., Ph.D., 1970), and University of the South, Sewanee (M.Div., 1981). Before entering seminary, Daw taught for eight years in the English Department of the College of William and Mary, after which he served congregations in Virginia, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Daw served on the Text Committee for the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 (1985) as well as the Editorial Advisory Committee for the Hymnal 1982 Companion (1990). This work inspired him to start writing and translating hymn texts. From 1996 to 2009, he was the Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and, until 2019, Curator of the Hymnological Collections and Adjunct Professor of Hymnology at Boston University School of Theology.
In addition to publishing several collections of hymn texts with Hope Publishing Company, Daw has contributed to Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary, Years A, B, C (2007–2009). Recently, he prepared Prayer Rising into Song: Fifty New and Revised Hymns (2016) and authored Glory to God: A Companion (2016) for the Presbyterian Church (USA). Currently, Daw has embarked upon a multi-volume project to provide metrical paraphrases of all 150 psalms. The first volume Praise, Lament, and Prayer: A Psalter for Singing (2018) covers the first 50 psalms. He was elected Fellow of the Hymn Society (2007) and Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (2011), and he received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary (2009) and the University of the South (2012).
“God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian” sparkles as a hymn rich in theology, sincerity, and purpose. The hymn is, according to Daw, “an attempt to paraphrase the Greek term Paraklëtos (John14:26),” drawing inspiration from the traditional language of ordination rites, including classical ordination hymns like Veni creator spiritus and Veni sancte spiritus. Each successive invocation addresses God in a new role—as Spirit, Savior, Creator, and finally Triune God. The first stanza cited above begins with the third person of the Trinity and draws upon images of Christian Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), including “wind-sped flame” and “hovering dove”. The second stanza focuses on the second person of the Trinity with the central image of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16). The third stanza explores broader metaphors for God in the spirit of gender-free language. This includes “Life-bestower,” drawn from the early Greek evening hymn, Phos Hilaron. “Womb of mercy” has a deeper meaning, drawn from the Hebrew and Aramaic term for “mercy,” which is derived from the word for “womb”. The fourth stanza ponders how the nature of God and God’s expansive love is “deeper than our minds can fathom.”
Each of the four stanzas begins with an invocation to God and transitions midway through to a petition. The petitions that follow each invocation pray for the church to be filled with grace, compassion, and attentiveness. The concluding phrases petition that, in our varied callings, “our ministries uniting may give glory to [God’s] name.” This hymn of consecration empowers us to seek God in all of creation, embrace our differences, and be apostles to the world.
The United Methodist Hymnal pairs Daw’s text with the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL. HYFRYDOL, meaning “cheerful” or “melodious,” is an incredibly pervasive, popular hymn tune, found in more than 400 hymnals. This tune is commonly associated with texts like “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus” by William Chatterton Dix and Charles Wesley’s hymns “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”
Amateur Welsh musician Roland Huw Pritchard (1811-1887) wrote the tune in 1830 at the youthful age of twenty. Pritchard was a fairly well-known precentor (cantor) in Graienyn who also worked in the textile industry for most of his life. The tune was first published in Pritchard’s 1844 collection of music for children, Cyfaill y Cantorion (“The Singers’ Friend”), and later harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) for the English Hymnal.
God the Spirit, guide and guardian, wind-sped flame and hovering dove,
breath of life and voice of prophets, sign of blessing, power of love:
give to those who lead your people fresh anointing of your grace;
send them forth as bold apostles to your Church in every place.
Christ our Savior, Sovereign, Shepherd, Word-made-flesh, Love crucified,
teacher, healer, suffering Servant, friend of sinners, foe of pride:
in your tending may all pastors learn and live a Shepherd's care;
grant them courage and compassion shown through word and deed and prayer.
Great Creator, Life-bestower, Truth beyond all thought's recall,
fount of wisdom, womb of mercy, giving and forgiving all:
as you know our strength and weakness, so may those the Church exalts
oversee her life steadfastly yet not overlook her faults.
Triune God, mysterious Being, undivided and diverse,
deeper than our minds can fathom, greater than our creeds rehearse:
help us in our varied callings your full image to proclaim,
that our ministries uniting may give glory to your Name.
If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee
Georg Neumark (1621-1681) lived during the time of the Thirty Years' War, when social and economic conditions were deplorable. He had personal trials as well. On his way to Konigsberg to study at the university, traveling in the comparative safety of a group of merchants, he was robbed of nearly all his possessions. During the next two years he spent much of his time looking for employment. He finally secured a tutoring position in Kiel. When he had saved enough money, he returned to the University of Konigsberg and studied there for five years. In Konigsberg he again lost all his belongings, this time in a fire. Despite his personal suffering Neumark wrote many hymns in which he expressed his absolute trust in God. In 1651 he settled in Weimar, Thuringia, where he became court poet and archivist to Duke Johann Ernst and librarian and registrar of the city. Neumark wrote thirty-four hymns, of which "If You But Trust in God to Guide You" has become a classic.
Neumark wrote this text, literally translated “Who only lets dear God rule”, at age twenty, just after he had finally been able to find employment as a tutor for a judge in Kiel. Neumark was so relieved and grateful to God by his change in circumstance that he wrote this text, saying, “This good fortune, which came so suddenly and, as it were, from heaven, so rejoiced my heart that I wrote my hymn 'Wer nur . . .' to the glory of my God on that first day.” Written in Kiel, Germany, in 1641, the seven-stanza text (“Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten”) had the following heading: "a hymn of consolation, that God will care for and preserve his own in his own time; after the saying 'cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.' Psalm 55:22." The text was published with the tune, also composed by Neumark, in Fortgepflanzter Musikalisch-Poetischer Lustwald (1657).
Catherine Winkworth prepared two translations of the original German text: one published in her Lyra Germanica (1855) and one published with substantial revision in her Chorale Book for England (1863), in which the first stanza began "If thou but suffer God to guide thee." Winkworth's revised translation of Neumark's original Stanzas 1, 3, and 7 is the basis for the three stanzas found in the Psalter Hymnal. A classic German chorale, this fine text focuses on trust in God's care in all of life's circumstances, both prosperous times and "evil days." As Christians we are counseled to be confident, to have patience, and to be faithful in service.
If thou but suffer God to guide thee And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee, And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God's unchanging love Builds on the Rock that naught can move.
Only be still and wait his pleasure in cheerful hope with heart content.
He fills your needs to fullest measure with what discerning love has sent;
doubt not our inmost wants are known to him who chose us for his own.
Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving, offer your service faithfully,
and trust his word; though undeserving, you'll find his promise true to be.
God never will forsake in need the soul that trusts in him indeed.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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