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:
Kyrie, Gott Heiliger Geist - J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music. Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony". He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time. A highly devout Christian, Bach signed all of his compositions “soli Deo Gloria” (to God alone be the glory).
The Clavier-Übung III, sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass, is a collection of compositions for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, started in 1735–36 and published in 1739. It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his musically most complex and technically most demanding compositions for that instrument. The purpose of the collection was fourfold: an idealized organ programme, taking as its starting point the organ recitals given by Bach himself in Leipzig; a practical translation of Lutheran doctrine into musical terms for devotional use in the church or the home; a compendium of organ music in all possible styles and idioms, both ancient and modern, and properly internationalised; and as a didactic work presenting examples of all possible forms of contrapuntal composition, going far beyond previous treatises on musical theory. Luther had written a greater and a smaller catechism. In the former he demonstrates the essence of the faith; in the latter he addresses himself to the children. Bach, the musical father of the Lutheran church, feels it encumbent on him to do likewise; he gives us a larger and smaller arrangement of each chorale.
The Kyrie is the well-known German trope, “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit,” an anonymous contrafactum of the Latin trope, Fons bonitatis, first published in 1537. The anonymous text was published as Kyrie summum, deutsch in the Naumberger Gesangbuch of 1537 and the anonymous melody, in three continuous, unequal, trinitarian non-strophic stanzas, is from the Teutsch Kirchenamt (1525). Each stanza address a member of the Trinity, God the Father as maker and Preserver (Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit), Jesus Christ the Son as Mediator (Christe, Aller Welt Trost), and the Holy Spirit as guardian of the faith (Kyrie, Gott Heiliger Geist).
The third of the short version of the Kyrie, “Kyrie, Gott Heiliger Geist”, uses the first three notes of the melody in a triplet rhythm as its germ motive, which creates a lilting, uplifting effect.
Kyrie! O God, Holy Ghost, Keep us firm of faith and true to Thee,
And when at last we die, Joyful, let us leave this Vale of Sorrow! Eleison!
Prelude and Fugue in D Major - Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer (c. 1656-1746) 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:
A Place at the Table - Paul Tate
(c. 2006, GIA Publications)
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”
– General Assembly of the United Nations, 10 December 1948 Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind….
Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. …
In recent decades, an influential and significant force has developed within the world of congregational song. That force is Shirley Erena Murray (b. 1931), who has written some of the most convicting and challenging hymns of this era by addressing issues and concerns relevant to modern-day audiences through the paradigm of the Christian tradition. In her hymn, “A Place at the Table” (1998), Ms. Murray presents a Christian equivalent to the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” drafted by the U.N. General Council, thus connecting the global concern of Christianity with the global concerns of the United Nations and, indeed, all humanity. She notes: “I couldn't find anything to reflect a broad overview of human rights in any hymnbook. You can see that I have used some of the very basic ideas of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the right to shelter, safety, food, and later, the right to a job, to freedom of speech and worship. I've tried to put them in a context which relates directly to the Gospel, but without excluding those who are not of the Christian faith. . .. “
A close examination of the hymn reveals thematic connections with the Declaration, thereby demonstrating the relevance of Christianity with contemporary affairs.
For example, in the first stanza, “clean water and bread, a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing” stems from Article 25: “Everyone has the right to a standard of adequate living for . . . health and well-being . . . including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services . . ..” The next phrase, “a star overhead,” relates, according to the poet, to Article 26 and the aspiration for education.
A fourth generation New Zealander, Murray holds a master’s degree with honors in Classics and French from Otago University. Her awards and honors include the New Zealand Order of Merit (2001) and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (2006). Her hymn "God, In Your Grace" was chosen as the theme song for the IX Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006), and she has been honored as a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (2009). Shirley Erena Murray describes her ecclesial affiliation as ecumenical in nature. Though born to a Methodist family, she later became Presbyterian through her marriage to a Presbyterian minister. As she writes in one of the collections of her hymns, “The Methodist tradition nurtured me, the Presbyterian tradition claimed all my adult life, and the ecumenical movement called me out of both.” Murray describes her identity and perspective as “that of a woman, a mother, a grandparent, a citizen, [and] a layperson.”
Shirley Murray began writing hymns in the 1970s to accompany her husband’s sermons, because he had difficulty finding traditional hymns that truly captured and articulated his messages with language relevant to contemporary life. The fruit of her labor resulted in a plethora of Christian hymns that poignantly address modern concerns in a relevant way. Fellow New Zealander and Methodist hymn writer Colin Gibson notes that the most common themes of her hymns address “peace, justice, human rights, inclusiveness, gender equality, environmental concerns, and social responsibility.” Her work is included in more than 100 different collections and has been translated into several different languages. Additionally, she contributed to the groundbreaking hymnal Sound the Bamboo (2000), wherein she collaborated with Dr. I-to Loh, an ethnomusicologist from Taiwan, to provide English lyrics for Asian Christians with a distinctly Eastern-Asian style of music.
In this hymn, Shirley Murray finds a way to incorporate the Christian imperative of equality and justice for the entire world. In the first stanza, she begins with the statement, “For everyone born, a place at the table … for everyone born, a star overhead.” At first glance, the song appears as if it will address global hunger, which indeed it does. But on a metaphysical level, she clearly expresses that the justice and equality humanity needs actually comes as a result of the birth of Jesus Christ. Here, she has flipped our understanding of what “the table” actually means. The table does not simply represent the proverbial dining table or the political forum (such as the United Nations), but also stands as a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. The table embodies a world where everyone has a place, because God became human in Jesus Christ, expressed by the star on Christmas night. “The table” of abundance and equality is the prophetic expression of God’s will manifest in creation.
She continues her theme of justice and equality in the subsequent stanzas by providing a series of binary expressions, thereby articulating the need for Christians to extend justice and joy across the diversity of humanity: “for woman and man” (stanza 2), “for young or for old” (stanza 3), and “for just and unjust” (stanza 4). In the fourth stanza, Murray presents us with perhaps a more difficult challenge by including both “abuser” and “abused” at the table. She draws the language of “abuser/abused” from the Lord’s Prayer: “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” acknowledging that all humanity stands in need of God’s grace, love, and mercy: even those who have committed acts of abuse in its many forms.
The author states her theological premise in the introduction of the collection, A Place at the Table: "I have used the words of the hymn 'A Place at the Table' as title for this book, because there are still Christian people not welcome, either at the communion table or at the common table of society. . ..” Such hospitality, however, is already apparent in the Invitation to the Table found in The United Methodist Hymnal: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another.” The invitation is extended to all regardless of gender, cultural background, social class, or sexual orientation. Here she challenges us to recognize the sacrament as a place of unconditional inclusivity. According to the refrain, we understand the Christian’s role to play in offering “justice and joy” because paradoxically, “God will delight when we are creators of justice and joy.” In this way, the Creator expresses delight when humanity “creates” justice and joy. Murray’s hymn gives new voice to Christians crying out for God’s justice and joy as they enact God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.”
For everyone born, a place at the table,
for everyone born, clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, a star overhead,
For woman and man, a place at the table,
revising the roles, deciding the share,
with wisdom and grace, dividing the power,
for woman and man, a system that's fair,
For young and for old, a place at the table,
a voice to be heard, a part in the song,
the hands of a child in hands that are wrinkled,
for young and for old, the right to belong,
For gay and for straight, a place at the table,
a covenant shared, a welcoming space,
a rainbow of race and gender and colour,
for gay and for straight, the chalice of grace,
For just and unjust, a place at the table,
abuser, abused, with need to forgive,
in anger, in hurt, a mindset of mercy,
for just and unjust, a new way to live,
For everyone born, a place at the table,
to live without fear, and simply to be,
to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,
for everyone born, the right to be free,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
Paul A. Tate, a graduate of the University of Georgia, is a professional musician living in Sugar Hill, Georgia. As an active workshop presenter and concert performer, Paul has released a dozen recordings and published over 100 original songs and arrangements. His liturgical compositions appear in a number of hymnal resources, and his voice has been heard around the world on Sirius Satellite Radio.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Holy Thy Name - Tom Fettke & Thomas Grassi
(c.2012, Lorenz Publishing Co.)
“God of love and truth and beauty” was written by Timothy Rees* (1874-1939). It first appeared in The Mirfield Mission Hymn-Book (1922), where it is dated 1916. It was included in BBCHB, to a tune, CAROLYN, commissioned from Herbert Murrill (1909-1952), then head of music at the BBC. It is little known outside Britain.
Timothy Rees was educated at St David's College School and then St David's College Lampeter. He served two years as curate at Mountain Ash, then returned to S. Michael's College as lecturer. He served as chaplain to the Forces for five years, from 1914 to 1919, working in Gallipoli, Egypt and on the Somme. He was awarded the M.C for his work in rescuing and aiding wounded soldiers on the Somme. He subsequently pursued a monastic vocation at the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield in Yorkshire. He was principal of the theological college at Mirfield from 1922 to 1928. In 1931, he became Bishop of Llandaff. He was the first member of a religious community to be appointed to an Anglican see in Wales for over three centuries. He was a distinguished speaker both in English and Welsh and a respected hymnographer.
He became bishop at the most acute stage of the industrial depression; he was instantly faced with the problems caused by widespread unemployment in the mining communities.Although a prominent member of the Welsh establishment, he was definitely on the side of the working man. As president of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Council of Social Service, he took a leading role in the promotion of occupational clubs and other activities for the jobless. In 1935 he led a deputation to Whitehall to ask for government help in the rejuvenation of South Wales.
This setting of the text uses the melody AR HYD Y NOS, a Welsh song sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The most commonly sung Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887), and have been translated into several languages, including English (most famously by Harold Boulton (1859–1935) and Breton. One of the earliest English versions, to different Welsh lyrics by one John Jones, was by Thomas Oliphant in 1862.
God of love and truth and beauty, Holy Thy name;
Fount of order, law, and duty, Holy Thy name;
As in heaven Thy hosts adore thee,
As they bow in awe before Thee,
So on earth, Lord, we extol thee, Holy Thy name.
Lord, remove our guilty blindness, Holy Thy name;
Show Thy heart of loving-kindness, Holy Thy name;
By our hearts’ deep-felt contrition,
By our minds’ enlightened vision,
By our wills’ complete submission, Holy Thy name.
In our worship, Lord of glory, Holy Thy name;
In our work, however lowly, Holy Thy name;
In each heart’s imagination,
In our praise and adoration,
In the conscience of the nation, Holy Thy name.
Tom Fettke earned degrees from Oakland City College and California State University at Hayward. He holds a California Lifetime Music Credential in Secondary Music. For many years, he taught vocal music in California's public school systems. He served as church choir director and minister of music in churches large and small for over thirty years. While at the Redwood Christian School System in Castro Valley, California, Fettke held the positions Director of Choral Activities and Supervisor of Music. A high demand calls for Fettke as a guest conductor, clinician and workshop leader. In addition, he is a composer, arranger and producer of music and recordings for the church and school. His published works and recordings number in the hundreds. Thousands of church and school choirs throughout the world sing his classic choral work, The Majesty and Glory of Your Name. Fettke was the creator and Senior Editor of The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration. Fettke also is Senior Editor of The Celebration Hymnal.
Thomas W. Grassi is a composer, arranger, and orchestrator with Lorenz Music. His anthems have appeared in the catalogs of many publishers since the beginning of his publishing career in 1998. He has received a variety of awards over the years from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; Gospel Music Association; The John Lennon Songwriting Foundation; and the Billboard Magazine Song Contest. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thomas’s past professional experience includes ministerial positions at Valley Community Church of Pleasanton, California and Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Currently, Thomas is the Minister of Worship & Music at Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills, California. He is a graduate of San Diego Christian College with a BA in Music with an emphasis in sacred choral literature. He has earned his Evangelical Teacher Training Certificate as well, and has taught voice, piano, and guitar privately and in secondary schools for twenty years.
About the Hymns:
I Come with Joy
(c.1989, United Methodist Publishing House)
“I Come with Joy” was written in 1971 by Brian Wren (b. 1936), Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Brian holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is a Minister of the United Reformed Church (UK). His publications include What Language Shall I Borrow? - God-Talk in Worship: A Male Response to Feminist Theology (1989 and 2009), Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song (2000), Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship (2008), Hymns for Today (2009) and seven hymn collections totaling 250 hymns.
DOVE OF PEACE was first published in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835), a Sacred Harp collection, with the text “O Tell Me Where the Dove has Flown”. It was originally the tune of a Catskill folk song, “The Darby Ram”.
I come with joy to meet my Lord, forgiven, loved and free,
in awe and wonder to recall his life laid down for me.
I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love in Christ's communion bread.
As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends.
The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.
And thus with joy we meet our Lord. His presence, always near,
is in such friendship better known; we see and praise him here.
Together met, together bound, we'll go our different ways,
and as his people in the world, we'll live and speak his praise.
You Satisfy the Hungry Heart
(c.1977, Archdiocese of Philadelphia)
This hymn unites the work of composer, Robert Kreutz, and hymn text writer, Omer Westendorf. It was among 200 texts submitted for possible use at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976. "You Satisfy the Hungry Heart" was selected as the official hymn of that gathering. First embraced by Roman Catholics, this hymn has since become well-known and a favorite in many denominations. Following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the role of congregational song became much more prominent in Roman Catholic worship. The ecumenical worshipping community has been the beneficiary of some music composed for Catholic worship since that time, especially music for Communion. We would not have some of our favorite Communion hymns in The United Methodist Hymnal and The Faith We Sing without the contribution of post-Vatican II Catholic composers. “One bread, one body” (UMH No. 620) and “Take our bread” (UMH No. 640) are just a two of these.
Omer Westendorf (1916-1997) was one of the leading post-Vatican II composers and his hymn, “Gift of finest wheat,” is one of the best-known Communion hymns to come from the decades immediately following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. This hymn unites the work of composer, Robert Kreutz, and hymn text writer, Omer Westendorf. It was among 200 texts submitted for possible use at the 41st International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976. "You Satisfy the Hungry Heart" was selected as the official hymn of that gathering. The hymn was first published in We Celebrate with Song (1979).
Beginning at age 20, Westendorf received his master of music degree at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and for most of his professional musical career served as organist and choirmaster at St. Bonaventure Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Under his direction, the Bonaventure Choir sang concerts and recorded sacred music for several decades. One of his greatest achievements was the founding of the World Library of Sacred Music in 1950 and World Library Publications in 1957. These organizations have been primary distributors of music for the Mass in the U.S. and beyond. Westendorf was also known for his lectures and seminars on sacred music, consultations on liturgical music, and as a hymn writer. UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young notes that Westendorf’s “People’s Mass Book, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1976, was the first vernacular hymn and service book to implement the Catholic liturgies decreed by Vatican Council II. He wrote Music Lessons for the Man in the Pew to teach the art of sight reading choral music.”
One of the prominent features of Catholic hymns from this era is a memorable and singable refrain. For example, think of how easily congregations learn the refrain by Catholic musician Daniel Schutte, “Here I Am, Lord.” “You satisfy the hungry heart” has an equally memorable refrain, though more reflective. The refrain evokes the agrarian image of “finest wheat,” the source of bread, a primary staple that sustains life. The hymn writer first addresses Christ directly in the second person, implying an intimate relationship, and offers a petition to Christ to “give to us... the bread of life to eat.”
The hymn is replete with biblical references. The refrain echoes John 6:25-37, a passage where Christ develops the imagery of bread and says, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger.” Stanza one focuses on the metaphor of Christ as shepherd drawn from several passages, but especially from John 10. Stanza three is almost a direct quotation of I Corinthians 10:16-17: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” The final stanza sites the selfless and self-giving gift of Christ reminding us of Philippians 2:5-11, a creedal hymn of the early church.
You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat.
Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat.
As when the shepherd calls his sheep, they know and heed his voice;
so when you call your fam'ly, Lord, we follow and rejoice.
With joyful lips we sing to you our praise and gratitude
that you should count us worthy, Lord, to share this heav'nly food.
Is not the cup we bless and share the blood of Chist oupoured?
Do not one cup, one loaf, declare our oneness in the Lord?
The myst'ry of your presence, Lord, no mortal tongue can tell:
whom all the world cannot contain comes inour hearts to dwell.
You give yourself to us, O Lord; then selfless let us be,
to serve each other in your name in truth and charity.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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