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:
Trio on “McAfee” - Brenda Portman
(c. 2019, Sacred Music Press)
Clcland B. McAfee (1866-1944) is known for this one hymn, his “one-hit-wonder”. McAfee wrote “Near to the Heart of God” and its tune MCAFEE in 1903, after two daughters of his brother Howard died of diphtheria within 24 hours of each other. The choir of Park College went to Howard McAfee’s quarantined house and sang it outside the window to encourage the grieving family. McAfee was at Park College, Parkville, MO, for almost 20 years, serving on the faculty and as college chaplain and choir director. He then pastored in Chicago, IL and Brooklyn, NY. He was also on the faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and directed the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
There is a place of quiet rest, Near to the heart of God;
A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of comfort sweet, Near to the heart of God;
A place where we our Savior meet, Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release, Near to the heart of God;
A place where all is joy and peace, Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God;
Hold us, who wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God.
Organist and composer Brenda Portman (b. 1980) was educated at Wheaton College, Northwestern University, and University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Her doctoral research was on minimalism in twentieth-century Dutch organ music. Portman has received numerous awards in organ competitions, spanning a decade: from First Place in the Arthur Poister Organ Competition in Connecticut (2006) to Finalist and Audience Prize winner in the Sursa American Organ Competition at Ball State University (2016). In October of 2014, she was the only American woman to compete in the prestigious Canadian International Organ Competition in Montréal. Her performance there led to a collaboration with acclaimed Canadian composer Rachel Laurin and a recording on the 88-rank Casavant organ of HPCUMC Cincinnati: Pilgrimages: Organ Music of Rachel Laurin Inspired by Sacred Themes, which was released in April 2016 on the Raven label. Other prizes include First Place in the Arthur Poister Organ Competition (2007), First Place in the Bank District British/American Organ Competition (2009), performing a winner's recital at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and Third Place in the Rodgers North American Classical Organ Competition (2012). She has also been a finalist in the Fort Wayne National Organ-Playing Competition (2010) and a semifinalist in the AGO's National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (2010).
As a composer, Portman primarily composes sacred choral, vocal, and organ works. Her concert settings of hymns for solo voice and piano have been highly acclaimed by many professional singers, and three hymn preludes for organ were included in the Bayoubûchlein (published by Selah) for the 2016 AGO convention in Houston. Her Elegy for solo organ was the winner of the Twin Cities AGO Composition Competition in 2016, and her musical setting of the commissioned hymn text “Christ, Who Was Before the World Began” won an award in 2014 for the 300th anniversary of Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Portman is currently Resident Organist at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati where she provides music for worship services, accompanies the Wesley Choir and Cathedral Choir, and serves as Executive Director of the church's renowned Organ Concert Series. She is also Adjunct Organ Instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Portman has held previous positions as Organist at First Presbyterian Church in Flint, Michigan, and Director of Music Ministries at Trinity Lutheran Church and School and Jackson, Michigan.
Toccata on "Aberswyth" - Brenda Portman
(c.2018, Sacred Music Press)
“Jesus, lover of my soul” is perhaps one of the most personal hymns penned by Charles Wesley (1707-1788). The understanding that Jesus as a “lover” seems to have made many squeamish at the very idea, especially an idea that should be expressed in public worship. Is this hymn better for private devotions? Yet, according to hymnologist Kenneth W. Osbeck, this hymn is considered to be among Wesley’s greatest hymns. It demonstrates, among many other things, Charles Wesley’s vast knowledge of biblical texts, classic literature, and other intellectual sources of his era.
Wesley, always meticulous in drawing upon biblical or classical sources, continued this practice in this hymn. The apocryphal book, The Wisdom of Solomon, 11:23-26, provides the inspiration for this primary theme of this hymn: “But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend. For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it. And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee? But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.” Another possible source is Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), who often commented on the nature of love. In The Imitation of Christ, for example, he states: “A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.” Another quote also addresses Jesus’ followers as “lovers”: “Jesus has now many lovers of the heavenly kingdom but few bearers of His cross.”
“Jesus, lover of my soul” foreshadows famous hymns on a related theme including “Rock of Ages” (1776) by English Anglican turned Calvinist Augustus M. Toplady, and “Abide with me” (1847) by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte. Like these hymns, “Jesus, lover of my soul” has attracted a number of stories. Some have tried to connect the sea images in the hymn to the tumultuous voyage of the Wesley brothers to America in 1736. Rather than focusing on the circumstances surrounding the poem’s composition, there can be no doubt as to its influence and popularity on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1877), the great American preacher, stated: “I would rather have written this hymn of Wesley’s than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on earth.” Richard Watson does not doubt the veracity of the “story of the soldier in the American Civil War who was about to shoot a picket from the other side when he heard him singing, ‘Cover my defenseless head/With the shadow of thy wing.’”
ABERSTWYTH is a hymn tune composed by Joseph Parry, written in 1876 and first published in 1879 in Edward Stephen's Ail Lyfr Tonau ac Emynau (Welsh for "Second Book of Tunes and Hymns”). Parry was at the time the first professor and head of the new department of music at the recently founded University College Wales, Aberystwyth, now called Aberystwyth University. The tune "Aberystwyth" has been the most popular setting for Charles Wesley's hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul".
Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; Oh, receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of Thy wing.
Wilt Thou not regard my call? Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall— Lo! on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand, Dying, and behold, I live.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, Source of all true righteousness;
Thou art evermore the same, Thou art full of truth and grace.
Plenteous grace with Thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; Rise to all eternity.
About the Piano Music:
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus - Mark Hayes
(c. 2011, Lorenz Publishing Co.)
Samuel Trevor Francis (1834-1925) was born in Chestnut, a village north of London. As a child, he enjoyed poetry and compiled a volume of his own work. He also developed a love for music and joined a church choir at age nine.
However, throughout his youth, religion was primarily a matter of tradition for Samuel — until someone invited him to come “see a man buried alive.” It was actually a baptismal service held by Andrew Jukes, an English theologian who greatly influenced Hudson Taylor, the famous English missionary to China. Samuel was moved by the service and was introduced to people that spoke passionately about the gospel. In time, Samuel made the decision to surrender his life to the Lord. Soon thereafter, Samuel began open-air preaching, and during the English Revival of 1859, his preaching led many people to the Lord. Samuel was not only a gifted preacher, but he was a talented singer and hymn writer. When American evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey came to London in 1873-1874, Samuel served as one of the chief assistants to their outreaches. Sankey typically led the singing before Moody preached, and in some meetings, Samuel substituted for Sankey. Samuel went on to serve in many evangelistic campaigns around the world, including Canada, Australia, and the Middle East. He had the privilege of hearing his songs sung wherever he went, in both English and other languages.
In this hymn written in 1875, Francis compares the vastness of the ocean with the vastness of God’s love. He says it is reassuring to know God’s love is underneath us and around us, and leads us onward and upward. It should also motivate us as we think of others on distant shores who do not yet know of God’s love for them. We are called to spread His praise “from shore to shore”.
Francis published a number of hymns in religious newspapers and periodicals. He belonged to the Plymouth Brethren congregation in London, and served as an open air preacher. His hymns and poems appeared in The Life of Faith and other papers and periodicals.
The tune EBENEZER was written by Thomas John Williams (1869-1944), who was born in Wales in 1869. He studied music under David Evans, a well-known professor of music who edited the Church Hymnary (used in many English-speaking Presbyterian churches around the world). Williams served as an organist and choir director at churches in Wales. His tune “Ebenezer” was originally associated with his Welsh anthem “Goleu yn y Glyn” (Light in the Valley). The tune is also known by the name “Ton-Y-Botel” – a name “given to it by a young English singer who told the romantic-but-fictional story of the ‘tune-in-a-bottle’ which had been washed ashore on the coast of Wales.”
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean full of blessing, ’tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!
Mark Hayes is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling over 1,000 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. Mark received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in Piano Performance from Baylor University in 1975. He has conducted the SWACDA and MCDA Community and Church Honor Choir, and served as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, featuring his Te Deum and Magnificat. In 2010, Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies awarded Mark the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music. Mark arranged and orchestrated the music for Civil War Voices, which won six awards including "Best Musical" in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York. He conducted the world premiere of his work for chorus, orchestra and narrator, The American Spirit, at Lincoln Center in May 2011 and the world premiere of his Requiem in Lincoln Center in May 2013. Whether concertizing on the other side of the globe or composing at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark is blessed to live out his mission "to create beautiful music for the world".
About the Vocal Solo Music:
I Have Returned - Marijohn Wilkin
(c. 1974 Buckhorn Music)
Marijohn Wilkin (1920-2006) was an American songwriter, famous in country music for writing a number of hits. Wilkin won numerous awards over the years and was referred to as "The Den Mother of Music Row," as chronicled in her 1978 biography Lord, Let Me Leave a Song (authored with Darryl E. Hicks). It was honored as “One of the 100 Most Important Books about Nashville’s Music Industry.” Wilkin was born in Kemp, Texas and raised in Sanger, Texas. She became a teacher, and was widowed when her husband Bedford Russell was killed in World War II. Her father, a baker, had been a fiddle player. From 1955, she toured with Red Foley, and in 1956 her songs were recorded by Mitchell Torok and Wanda Jackson. In 1958, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and had major hits, written with John D. Loudermilk, for Stonewall Jackson (the number one country hit "Waterloo", which made the pop top ten) and Jimmy C. Newman. Although she was primarily a country songwriter, her songs have been recorded by several pop and rock acts, including Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger. Wilkin also recorded occasionally for Columbia Records and Dot Records in the 1960s and at times worked as a background vocalist. She is billed simply as Marijohn on a few of her recordings. On DOT records, she recorded under the name Romi Spain.
Marijohn Wilkin may be most famous for "One Day at a Time", often considered the biggest gospel song of the 1970s. Wilkin wrote the song in 1973 with some assistance by her former protégé Kris Kristofferson. The song won a Dove Award from the Gospel Music Association in 1975 (see also: Dove Award for Song of the Year). It launched a career as a gospel recording artist for Wilkin, who released several albums on Word Records. Wilkin is credited for the discovery of Kristofferson and being the first person to give him work as a legitimate songwriter. In 1975, Marijohn was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wilkin formed 17th Avenue Music, a publishing company. It became profitable when its songs were recorded by LeAnn Rimes. In 2005, Wilkin was honored by the SOURCE organization as a pioneering Music Row businesswoman.
I have returned to the God of my childhood
To the same simple faith as a child I once knew.
Like the prodigal son I longed for my loved ones
For the comforts of home and the God I outgrew.
I have returned to the God of my childhood,
Bethlehem's Babe, the prophet's Messiah;
He's Jesus to me, Eternal Deity;
Praise His Name, I have returned.
I have returned to the God of my mother
With unfailing faith for the child of her heart;
She said bring them up the way that you want them,
Thank God when they're grown they'll never depart.
I have returned to the God of my mother,
I learned at her knee He's the Lily of the valley.
He's Jesus to me, Eternal Deity;
Praise His Name, I have returned.
I have returned to the God of my father,
The most God-like man a child could know.
I just hear a shout from the angels in glory,
Praising the Lord a child has come home.
I have returned to the God of my father,
Creator of heav'n and earth, God of the universe.
He's Jesus to me, Eternal Deity;
Praise His Name, I have returned.
I have returned to the Yahweh of Judah,
On my knees I did fall where the wall now stands;
This lesson I learned as I've worked my way homeward,
The Savior of all is a comfort to man.
I have returned to the Father of Abraham,
The shepherd of Moses who called Him the great I Am;
He's Jesus to me, Eternal Deity;
Praise His Name, I have returned.
About the Hymns:
The Gift of Love
Among the most prominent New Testament texts is the discourse on love found in I Corinthians 13. Hal H. Hopson has paraphrased part of this beautiful text in what has become one of the most popular late 20th-century hymns, appearing in many major hymnals published in the U.S. since 1980. "The Gift of Love" first appeared as a very popular anthem in 1972. Both the text and the music are effective paraphrases -- the text of I Corinthians 13:1-3 and the melody as an adaptation of the beautiful folk melody "O Waly, Waly." The original tune was collected by American folksong specialist Cecil Sharp and published in his Folk Songs from Somerset (1906). "The Gift of Love" is very flexible and, according to Hope Publishing Co., is Mr. Hopson's most popular composition -- widely used as an anthem, solo and as a hymn. Speaking of the popularity of his hymn, Hopson said: "The first 'Gift of Love' was a two-part choral arrangement. Years later, at the suggestion of George Shorney at Hope Publishing Company, I cast it in a form to be used as a congregational hymn. Since then it has become a standard hymn to be included in many hymnals. It is noteworthy that The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989, was the first hymnal that included 'The Gift of Love.' I was once surprised to be introduced at a seminar as the Gift-of-Love-Man."
Mr. Hopson (b. 1933) is a native of Mound, Texas, and now resides in Dallas. He has an international reputation as a clinician and composer, and has published more than 1,300 compositions, which comprise almost every musical form in church music. With a special interest in congregational song, he continues to make a significant contribution to the new repertoire of hymn tunes and responsorial psalm settings as evidenced by the proliferation of his settings that are included in newly published hymnals and psalm collections.
Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love; my words are vain
As sounding brass and hopeless gain.
Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin.
Come, Spirit come, our hearts control.
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed.
By this we worship and are freed.
Freely, Freely
Carol Sue Owens (b.1931) attended San Jose State College and Cathedral School of the Bible, Oakland, Calif. She and her husband James make up a songwriting team that became known to the world during the Jesus Movement of the 1970s.
One Sunday evening after a church service, Jimmy and Carol were eating with Jack Hayford, pastor of the Church on the Way, just northeast of Los Angeles. Pastor Hayford suggested, “Why don’t you write a musical about our church?” This suggestion wasn’t intended to focus on their particular church as much as it was meant to focus on the principles of ministry that had made the church successful. Jimmy and Carol began to work on the project immediately. They saw it as “a gift from God to the universal church”. Working with singer Pat Boone, they put together the Come Together musical. In 1973, they took the musical to England, where it was presented 400 times, often in large halls in cathedrals. Across the United States, young people of diverse churches were coming together in new ways that hadn’t been experienced before.
At the heart of this musical were the simple words and melody of “Freely, Freely”, written by Carol, and taken from the instructions of Jesus as He sent out His disciples: “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).
God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name. I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name.
And in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His love as He told me to.
All pow’r is giv’n in Jesus’ name; in earth and Heav’n in Jesus’ name,
and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His power as He told me to.
God gives us life in Jesus’ name; He lives in us in Jesus’ name,
and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His peace as He told me to.
Freely, freely, you have received; Freely, freely give.
Go in My name and, because you believe, others will know that I live.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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