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:
Hail to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning - Marianne Kim
(c.2019, Lorenz Publishing)
Dr. Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) son of Dr. Seth Hastings, was born at Washington, Connecticut. In 1786, his father moved to Clinton, N. Y. There, amid rough frontier life, his opportunities for education were small; but at an early age he developed a taste for music, and began teaching it in 1806. Seeking a wider field, he went to Troy, then to Albany, and in 1823 to Utica, where he conducted a religious journal, in which he advocated his special views on church music. In 1832 he was called to New York City to assume the charge of several church choirs. His aim was the greater glory of God through better musical worship; and to this end he was always training choirs, compiling works, and composing music. Although not a great poet, he yet attained considerable success writing hymns. Hastings struggled his whole life with poor eyesight. Nevertheless, his output in the area of music was tremendous. He is said to have composed over one thousand hymn tunes, written six hundred hymn texts, and edited and published fifty volumes of church music. Hastings also published hymnbooks:
Spiritual Songs for Social Worship: Adapted to the Use of Families and Private Circles in Seasons of Revival, to Missionary Meetings, &c, Utica, 1831-2, in which he was assisted by Lowell Mason; The Mother's Hymn-book, 1834; The Christian Psalmist; or, Watts's Psalms and Hymns, with copious Selections from other Sources, &c, N. Y., 1836; Church Melodies, N. Y., 1858, assisted by his son, the Rev. T. S. Hastings; and Devotional Hymns and Poems, N. Y., 1850.
His son, who became the president of Union Theological Seminary, said of his father: “He was a devout and earnest Christian, a hard student, and a resolute worker, not laying aside his pen until three days before his death [at the age of eighty-eight].” Dr. Hastings was a Presbyterian, and an amillennialist in doctrine. He believed in spiritualizing the Old Testament, rather than accepting its plain, literal sense. He thought that God’s promises to Israel of a land of their own, a king to sit on David’s throne, and a coming time of earthly blessing and bounty under their Messiah-King, were to be thought of figuratively as applying in some spiritual or symbolic sense to the church. It’s from that point of view that he wrote Hail to the Brightness of Zion’s Glad Dawning. His original title shows his thinking. He called it “Missionary Success,” as though that is what the many Old Testament prophecies to Israel were talking about. The interesting thing is that the hymn can be sung appropriately of the earthly millennial kingdom to be set up when Christ returns. Taken as it stands, it fits the prophetic teaching of the Scriptures well, being a literal description of what passage after passage of God’s Word describes.
Verse One: The coming of the future millennial kingdom will be like the dawning of a new day on the earth. The One whom Malachi calls “the Sun of Righteousness” will come (Mal. 4:2), and the Light that was rejected at His first coming will be joyously received at His return. Then it will be said, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you” (Isa. 60:1).
Hail to the brightness of Zion’s glad morning!
Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain!
Hushed be the accents of sorrow and mourning;
Zion in triumph begins her mild reign.
Verse Two: The messianic kingdom has been “long by the prophets of Israel foretold.” In passage after passage, the nature of the reign of Christ is described (e.g. Isa. 35:1-10; Jer. 31:38-40; 33:14-22; Amos 9:11-15).
Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning!
Long by the prophets of Israel foretold!
Hail to the millions from bondage returning!
Gentiles and Jews the blest vision behold.
Verse Three: In addition to peace and joy among earth’s peoples, the curse will be removed from nature and it will flourish in abundance. “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God” (Isa. 35:1-2; cf. 51:3).
Lo, in the desert rich flowers are springing,
Streams ever copious are gliding along;
Loud from the mountain tops echoes are ringing,
Wastes rise in verdure, and mingle in song.
Verse Four: Many times the prophets refer to the “coastlands”. It’s a word that signifies islands and other far-off shores, where the Lord will manifest His presence. In the Kingdom Age, the Gentile nations, as well as Israel, will be abundantly blessed (Isa. 24:15; 42:4). The Messiah “shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:4).
See, from all lands, from the isles of the ocean,
Praise of Jehovah ascending on high;
Fallen the engines of war and commotion;
Shouts of salvation are rending the sky.
Lowell Mason, a frequent coworker of Hastings in the area of music, provided the tune for the text. It was published in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (1833). The tune name honors the founders of Methodism, John and Charles Wesley. Dr. Lowell Mason (1792-1872) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge. 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.
A Chicago-based composer, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, Marianne Kim (b. 1972) has been noted for her vibrant performances and compositions in a wide diversity of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, R&B, and gospel, alongside traditional and contemporary church music. Born and raised in Korea, Marianne studied piano and composition at Pusan High School of Arts and earned a BM in composition at Pusan National University. After working professionally for more than a decade in the United States, she returned to school and earned dual Masters of Music in jazz studies and organ performance with scholarships and prizes from Northern Illinois University.
About the Piano Music:
Be Thou My Vision - Mary McDonald
(c.2011, Lorenz Publishing)
"Be Thou My Vision" (Old Irish: Rop tú mo baile or Rob tú mo bhoile) is a traditional hymn from Ireland. The most well known English version, with some minor variations, was translated by Eleanor Hull and published in 1912. In 1919, the lyrics were set to the tune of the Irish folk tune "Slane", to which the song is sung to this day, both in English and Irish. The song dates from at least the eighth century, though the text dates to the sixth-century.
The original Old Irish text, "Rop tú mo Baile" is often attributed to Saint Dallán Forgaill in the 6th century. Eochaid Mac Colla (c. 530 – 598), better known as Saint Dallan or Dallán Forgaill (Old Irish: Dallán Forchella; Latin: Dallanus Forcellius), was an early Christian Irish poet whose writings include the "Amra Choluim Chille" ("Elegy of Saint Columba") and "Rop Tú Mo Baile" ("Be Thou My Vision"). Saint Dallan was Chief Ollam of Ireland (similar to poet laureate), as well as a scholar of Latin scriptural learning. He helped to reform the Bardic Order at the Convention of Drumceat. He reputedly wrote Amra Choluim Chille, which he completed shortly after the death of Saint Columba in 597, because Columba had successfully saved poets from expulsion from Ireland at the assembly of Druim Cett in 575. The “Amra Choluim Chille,” is the earliest Irish poem that can be dated.
"Rop tú mo Baile" had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before its setting to music. The Irish text was translated into literal prose by Irish scholar Mary Elizabeth Byrne (1880-1931), a Dublin native, and then published in Eriú, the journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905. Byrne was also known for her academic publications, including Old and Mid-Irish Dictionary, Dictionary of the Irish Language, and a treatise, England in the Age of Chaucer.
It is at this point that Eleanor Hull (1860-1935) enters the story. Born in Manchester, England, she was the founder of the Irish Text Society and president of the Irish Literary Society of London. Hull versified the text and it was published in her Poem Book of the Gael (1912).
Following the original publication in Ireland, the hymn was included in a number of British hymnals. After World War II, the hymn came to the attention of hymnal editors in the U.S. and it has become a standard hymn in most hymnals today.
Irish liturgy and ritual scholar Helen Phelan, a lecturer at the University of Limerick, points out how the language of this hymn is drawn from traditional Irish culture: "One of the essential characteristics of the text is the use of 'heroic' imagery to describe God. This was very typical of medieval Irish poetry, which cast God as the 'chieftain' or 'High King' (Ard Ri) who provided protection to his people or clan. The lorica is one of the most popular forms of this kind of protection prayer and is very prevalent in texts of this period." The original chieftain language of the "High King of heaven" has given way to the more inclusive "Great God" in the UM Hymnal.
When Hull's versification was paired with the lovely traditional Irish tune SLANE in The Irish Church Hymnal in 1919, its popularity was sealed. The folk melody was taken from a non-liturgical source, Patrick Weston Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Airs and Songs hitherto unpublished (1909). "Most 'traditional' Irish religious songs are non-liturgical," says Dr. Phelan. "There is a longstanding practice of 'editorial weddings' in Irish liturgical music, where traditional tunes were wedded to more liturgically appropriate texts. This is a very good example of this practice.” The tune name SLANE is drawn from deep in Irish history. It was on Slane Hill in County Meath around 433 CE that St. Patrick lit candles on Easter Eve, defying a decree by High King Logaire of Tara that no one could light a fire before the king signaled the beginning of the pagan spring festival by lighting a fire on Tara Hill. King Logaire was so impressed by Patrick's devotion that, despite his defiance, he was permitted to continue his work as Ireland's first Christian missionary.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Mary McDonald’s sacred music career spans over thirty-five years. More than eight hundred anthems, seasonal musicals and keyboard collections testify to her significant contribution to sacred literature. In 2000, Mary became the first ever woman President of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference. In addition, she has served as accompanist for the Tennessee Men's Chorale since 1985. Her greatest desire is "to give God glory for the songs He has allowed me to compose. He alone, is the true Creator behind my pen." In 2011, after serving as sacred music editor for The Lorenz Corporation in Dayton, Ohio for more than twenty years, Mary answered a new call. Now she takes her tremendous passion and love for music making directly to churches as an independent artist by holding Composer Weekend workshops.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Thy Word - Michael W. Smith & Amy Grant
(c. 1983, Meadowgreen Music)
Amy Grant (b. 1960) began her recording career with sweeping floors and demagnetizing tape heads in a Nashville recording studio where she made her first album singing her original, contemporary Christian music at the age of seventeen. Following her first album in 1977, she accepted concert appearances with Billy Graham Crusades and as an opening act for the Bill Gaither Trio. Grant’s albums and performances have won multiple Dove and Grammy awards and multiple platinum records, indicating millions of sales.
Music critic William Ruhlmann boldly states, “Although Amy Grant cannot claim to have invented the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) style of gospel music, she did the most to popularize it in the 1970s and 1980s before successfully crossing over to pop music in the ’80s and early ’90s.” She is one of only two Christian artists to be awarded a star on the legendary Walk of Fame in Hollywood.”
Michael Whitaker Smith (b. 1957) has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the course of his career, he has sold more than 18 million albums. Smith is a three-time Grammy Award winner, an American Music Award recipient, and has earned 45 Dove Awards. In 1999, ASCAP awarded him with the "Golden Note" Award for lifetime achievement in songwriting, and in 2014 they honored him as the "cornerstone of Christian music" for his significant influence on the genre. He also has recorded 31 No. 1 Hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums.
Amy Grant and Michael W Smith wrote “Thy Word”, based on Psalm 119: 105. Smith originally came up with the song's melody and some words for the chorus straight from David's Psalms about being a light into my path, but written no verses. He gave it to Grant to finish. Smith relates this story: ”So later that night she starts walking back to her cabin. And you have to understand Caribou Ranch is an 8,000 acre ranch and it's very dark, and you're in the middle of nowhere. And she got lost. There's bears and all that sort of thing. You've got to really know where you're going. It's obviously a compound with all these cabins and stuff. She finally saw a lamp and started walking towards that light, didn't realize that that was her cabin. And she walked into that little cabin and sat down with a notebook and pen and wrote the verses to 'Thy Word.’” Now a classic in the CCM genre, this song expresses a personal relationship with Jesus who is a friend and companion “when I am afraid” and have “lost my way.”
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
When I feel afraid, Think I've lost my way,
Still you're there right beside me.
And nothing will I fear As long as you are near.
Please be near me to the end.
I will not forget Your love for me and yet
My heart forever is wandering.
Jesus be my guide, And hold me to your side, and
I will love you to the end.
You're the light unto my path.
About the Hymns:
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Not many hymns, by virtue of their composition alone, command such power and strength as “Glorious things of thee are spoken.” There is an inherent strength in the structure, text, and scriptural images.
John Newton (1725- began working on ships at a very young age and became a master of slave trading ships. On one journey, his ship almost sank in a fierce storm. After many hours struggling to regain control of the vessel, Newton eventually prayed, and the ship survived the tempest. This was the beginning of his conversion story, which would lead him into ministry as an Anglican pastor, preacher, and writer. He met many other prominent evangelical contemporaries, including John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, and became a leading social reformer in the movement to abolish slavery.
Newton is best known for writing “Amazing Grace”. His other most well-known hymn is “Glorious things of thee are spoken”, first published in 1779 in Olney Hymns, a collection of his and close friend William Cowper’s “hymns, not odes” for public worship. Newton would later describe the publication as “a monument, to perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate and endeared friendship.” Newton uses a great deal of scripture as influence for his writing and often focuses upon images that are not lofty, intended more “for public worship, and for the use of plain people,” which reflects his evangelical history of service to the poor and the people of the parish. His theological perspective is largely Calvinist, but his hymns express a universality that strikes somewhat of a broader sentiment.
Zion, the city of God, is the center of this hymn. The site of the Jebusite fortress taken by King David in 2 Samuel 5, it has long been an important symbol of the strength and identity of Jerusalem. One of the richest images that comes from this location is the life-giving water from the Gihon Spring, an intermittent spring that promised fresh water for ancient settlers of Jerusalem. From the beginning of its history within Judeo-Christian traditions to the hope of the glory of the new Jerusalem, Zion has been a place of promise and has found its way into many songs and liturgical practices of the church), and thus it plays a very notable role as a dwelling place for God.
As if the history of the writer and the text of the hymn itself is not enough to create spirited congregational singing, the consideration of which tune to use also warrants some exploration. AUSTRIA, composed by Franz Joseph Haydn from a Croatian folk hymn, has most often been used in the singing of this hymn. This tune was later used by Haydn in his string quartet in C, Op. 70, No. 5, “The Emperor,” and is a beautiful, stately option for this text. It embodies strength, assurance, warmth, and sensitivity, all in equal measure. The consideration of a tune doesn’t end with Haydn’s compositional skill, however. Haydn’s tune eventually became used as the national anthem of Austria and, later, Germany. During World War II, the tune was a symbol of the power of Nazi Germany (“Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles”) and came to be somewhat reviled. After many years, this tune has been “redeemed” however, and due to its great majesty and beauty is again used as a hymn-tune and as an anthem.
It must be mentioned that many hymnals do not contain the 5th stanza of Newton’s original hymn because of its inclusion of the Calvinist view of unconditional election. The United Methodist Hymnal contains stanzas 1-4.
Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God;
he whose word cannot be broken formed thee for his own abode;
on the Rock of Ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded, thou may'st smile at all thy foes.
See the streams of living waters, springing from eternal love,
well supply thy sons and daughters, and all fear of want remove;
who can faint while such a river ever flows their thirst t'assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age.
Round each habitation hov’ring, see the cloud and fire appear
for a glory and a cov’ring, showing that the Lord is near;
thus deriving from their banner light by night and shade by day,
safe they feed upon the manna which he gives them when they pray.
Blest inhabitants of Zion, Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, whom their souls rely on, Makes them kings and priests to God;
’Tis His love His people raises Over self to reign as kings,
And as priests, His solemn praises Each for a thank off’ring brings.
Savior, if of Zion's city I, thro' grace, a member am,
let the world deride or pity, I will glory in thy name;
fading is the worldling's pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show;
solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion's children know.
Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing
In a most unusual hymnological twist, at least four hymns share the same incipit (first line). Robert Hawker (1753–1827), an Anglican minister, and Henry James Buckoll (1803–71), an Anglican schoolmaster, also composed the two examples of texts that begin “Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing.” Hawker’s text appeared in an 1807 publication and Buckoll’s poem in an 1850 collection.
John Fawcett (1740–1817) was not, by contrast, an Anglican, but he was influenced by dissenting traditions. He apprenticed under George Whitefield (1714–70) and considered joining the Methodists, but he finally settled with the Particular Baptists. The text appeared first anonymously in A Supplement to the Shawbury Hymn Book (1773). Since 1786, this hymn has been attributed to John Fawcett, author of the well-known hymn “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”.
The version attributed to Fawcett predates the later hymns by Hawker and Buckoll, leading one to suspect that Fawcett’s text was probably known and adapted by later writers to fit their contexts. Hawker’s text fits after the Eucharist observed weekly in the Anglican liturgy, and Buckoll’s poem accommodates the assemblies for the boarding school he served as a schoolmaster. The attribution of this text to Fawcett was explored in depth by John Julian, eminent British hymnologist, at the turn of the twentieth century in his monumental Dictionary of Hymnology.
This hymn with two short stanzas in many hymnals reminds us to carry an awareness of God beyond the worship service, asking for refreshment, yet acknowledging that as we leave our worship space, we are going back into the wilderness of the secular world. Carl Daw Jr. suggests that the first stanza is “an adaptation of the Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32) for ordinary folk in post-biblical times”. We need God’s sustaining love and peace even more during the times we are not in worship. The original final line of stanza 1 was “in this dry and barren place.” The replacement—“traveling through this wilderness”—was made in 1774 in A Collection of Hymns and Psalms by Various Authors (London: 1774), edited by Anglican priest Richard Conyers (1725–86), and this alteration became the favored version. The second stanza turns toward thanking and praising the Lord, reminding us that the gospel (good news) is indeed joyful in its assurance of ultimate victory. The second stanza ends with a prayer to God that this victory of our salvation should remain in our hearts and be evident in our lives so that we may continue ever faithful to God’s truth.
Initially, the hymn had three stanzas, the third of which appeared regularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the final stanza of hymns regularly featured an eschatological theme. The original third stanza follows:
So, whene’er the signal’s given, us from earth to call away,
borne on angels’ wings to heaven, glad the summons to obey,
may we ever reign with Christ in endless day.
The inclusion of a third stanza shifts the hymn’s focus from leaving the worship space to departing this life and, ultimately, uniting with Christ in heaven.
On occasion, editors have borrowed an 1804 stanza from another hymn by Irish Anglican Thomas Kelly (1769–1855):
While our days on earth are lengthened,
may we give them, Lord, to thee;
cheered by hope, and daily strengthened,
may we run, nor weary be.
Till thy glory without clouds in heav’n we see.
In 1880, Anglican priest Godfrey Thring (1823–1903) recast the first three lines of the original final stanza. This version has become the preferred third stanza after around 1920 whenever three stanzas appeared in collections:
So that when thy love shall call us,
Savior, for the world away,
fear of death shall not appall us,
glad thy summons to obey.
May we ever reign with thee in endless day.
The United Methodist Hymnal pairs this text with the tune SICILIAN MARINERS, commonly sung with the text of a hymn to the Virgin Mary, “O sanctissima, O piissima” (1792). Tradition presents a beautiful image of Sicilian seamen singing this hymn together at the end of each day at sea. One account confirms this as well as its use by gondoliers in Venice. The tune probably traveled from Italy to Germany and then to England, where The European Magazine and London Review (1792) titled it “The Sicilian Mariner’s Hymn to the Virgin.” According to the same source, the tune began to be associated with the German Christmas carol “O du fröliche, O du seelige” (1816). The tune’s first appearance with “Lord, Dismiss Us” was in A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (London, 1803) by O. Nodes and J. Belcher. Hymnological history records other famous texts sung to this tune, including the eighteenth-century hymns “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” by British Baptist Robert Robinson (1735–1790) and “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” by Welsh Methodist evangelist William Williams (1717–1791).
Lord, dismiss us with your blessing;
fill our hearts with joy and peace;
let us each, your love possessing,
triumph in redeeming grace.
O refresh us, O refresh us,
trav'ling through this wilderness.
Thanks we give and adoration
for your gospel's joyful sound:
may the fruits of your salvation
in our hearts and lives abound:
ever faithful, ever faithful
to the truth may we be found.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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