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:
Trumpet Tune on FESTAL SONG - Dennis Janzer
(c.2017, Wayne Leopold Editions)
A hymn which encourages us to labor for the Lord while we wait for Him to come is “Rise Up, O Men of God”. The text was written by William Pierson Merrill (1867-1954) of Massachusetts. His first book, Faith Building, was published in 1885, when he was just eighteen. Educated at Rutgers, from which he received the A. B. degree in 1887 and the M. A. degree in 1890, and at Union Theological Seminary, from which he received the B. D. degree also in 1890, he became a minister that year with the Presbyterian Church. He served churches, first in Philadelphia, PA, for five years, and then in Chicago, IL, for sixteen years.
In 1911, while Merrill was living in Chicago and active with the “Brotherhood Movement” of the Presbyterian Church, Nolan R. Best, then editor of The Continent, a Presbyterian newspaper published at Chicago, suggested to Merrill that there was an urgent need of a “brotherhood hymn.” About that same time, Merrill read an article by Gerald Stanley Lee entitled “The Church of the Strong Men.” With these two ideas incubating in his mind, the hymn suddenly came to Merrill, almost without conscious thought or effort, one day as he was returning to Chicago on one of the Lake Michigan steamers. As a poem entitled “To the Brotherhood,” it first appeared with the first line “Rise up, O men of God” in the Feb. 16, 1911, issue of The Continent. Its first publication as a hymn was in The Pilgrim Hymnal published in 1912 at Boston, MA, with a tune (Festal Song), which had been composed, probably around 1872, by William Henry Walter (1825-1893). It had first appeared in the 1894 Hymnal Revised and Enlarged, edited by J. Ireland Tucker and W. W. Rosseau, where it was used with “Awake, and Sing the Song” by William Hammond. Other tunes have been used with Merrill’s hymn, but the one by Walter is probably the best known.
Later in 1911, Merrill moved to become minister with the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, NY, where he remained until his retirement in 1938. An active leader in movements for civic betterment, he became president of the Trustees of the Church Peace Union in 1915. In addition to preaching and producing hymns, he was the author of several more books, including Footings for Faith in 1915, Christian Internationalism in 1919, The Common Creed of Christians in 1920, The Freedom of the Preacher in 1922, Liberal Christianity in 1925, Prophets of the Dawn in 1927, The Way in 1933, and We See Jesus in 1934. Declining an invitation to become President of Union Theological Seminary in 1917, he did receive honorary degrees from New York University, Columbia, and Rollins College of Deland, FL.
These hymn lyrics are a great reminder of how all believers, not just men, ought to be “done with lesser things” in order to more fully pursue the service of Jesus, our King of kings.
Rise up, O saints of God! Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength To serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O saints of God! The kingdom tarries long;
Bring in the day of Christlike love And end the night of wrong.
Lift high the cross of Christ! Tread where his feet have trod;
Led onward by the Son of Man, Rise up, O saints of God!
Dr. Dennis Janzer (b. 1954) has advanced degrees from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is organist and choirmaster at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Memphis, Tn.
About the Handbell Music:
Procession of Crowns - David Angerman
(c.1998, Alfred Publishing)
Edward Perronet (1726-1792) was born in England, the grandson of a French immigrant. His father, Vincent, was a clergyman in the Church of England and a close friend and associate of John and Charles Wesley. Though Edward had planned to follow his father into Anglican ministry, the influence of the Wesleys prevailed, and he became a traveling Methodist preacher. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” was written by Perronet while he served as a missionary in India and first appeared in the November, 1779 issue of the Gospel Magazine
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” is often called the "National Anthem of Christendom”. The best-known tunes used for the hymn are "Coronation" (Oliver Holden, 1793), "Miles Lane" (William Shrubsole, 1779), and "Diadem" (James Ellor, 1838).
An interesting story is told about this hymn. Rev. E. P. Scott was a missionary in India who had been urged not to go near a certain barbarous tribe, whom he wished to evangelize. But he went forth with high courage, never wavering in his duty, and trusting in God to protect him. When at last he reached their country among the hills, he came upon a company of these savages. Imme-diately, they surrounded him, pointing their spears at him with threatening scowls. He had nothing but his violin; and so, closing his eyes, he began to play and sing, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” When he opened his eyes he expected to be killed instantly, but his life had been spared through the singing of the hymn. Their spears had dropped, and they received him first with curiosity and interest, and then later with eagerness, as he told them the gospel story and won their hearts to the will of Jesus Christ.
CORONATION was written for the text “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name”. Oliver Holden (1765-1844) composed the tune in four parts with a duet in the third phrase. The tune, whose title comes from the theme of Perronet's text, was published in Holden's Union Harmony (1793). It is the one eighteenth-century American tune that has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity–from the singing schools of that era to today's congregational worship.
Holden was reared in a small rural community and had only a minimal formal education–a few months in a "common school" in Groton, Massachusetts. He worked as a carpenter and was involved in community service in Charlestown, holding posts in the Anti-Slavery Society and serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In addition he worked very profitably as a merchant and real estate dealer, and served as a Puritan lay preacher. Very interested in music, Holden became a composer and singing-school teacher in the tradition of William Billings. He was involved in publish¬ing various tune books, including The American Harmony (1792), The Massachusetts Compiler (1795), Plain Psalmody (1800), and The Charlestown Collection of Sacred Songs (1803).
All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all!
O seed of Israel's chosen race now ransomed from the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him Lord of all.
Hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him Lord of all!
Let every tongue and every tribe responsive to his call,
to him all majesty ascribe, and crown him Lord of all.
To him all majesty ascribe, and crown him Lord of all!
Oh, that with all the sacred throng we at his feet may fall!
We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.
We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.
David Angerman (b. 1955) has been Director of Music and organist at Bethany Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, since 1980. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education Degree and Master of Church Music Degree from Baylor University and a Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance from the University of Texas in Austin. As a composer he has to his credit more than 100 published works including choral and handbell music as well as organ and piano solos. He has also written the music for several youth and children's musicals, and co-authored, along with Joseph Martin and Mark Hayes, KEYS FOR THE KINGDOM, a piano method for the Christian student, published by Shawnee Press. Many of his published works have been awarded Editor's Choice designations.
About the Choral Music:
Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy - Ronald Turner
(c.2001, St. James Music Press)
“Come, ye sinners, poor and needy” dates from 1759, when it was published in Joseph Hart’s Hymns Composed on Various Subjects under the title “Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.” The original opening line, “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,” was modified by Augustus Toplady, the 18th-century author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”
Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was born in London, where he became an independent Calvinist preacher converted by the Moravians. Hart received an excellent education and, because of his knowledge of the classics and languages, became a highly esteemed teacher. For a number of years he drifted from the faith of his family, and by his own confession became a “loose backslider, an audacious apostate, and a bold-faced rebel.” In 1757, at the age of 45, he experienced a spiritual awakening after attending a service at a Moravian chapel in London. During the two years that followed his renewal, he wrote many hymns marked by earnestness and love for Christ.
“Come, ye sinners” was included in Spence’s Pocket Hymn-Book (1785). Later in the 19th century, Ira D. Sankey, the musical partner of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, included this hymn in his famous Gospel Hymns, Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894), ensuring its popularity in Sunday schools and revival settings.
The anonymous refrain, beginning with “I will arise and go to Jesus,” makes a rather oblique reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son. The refrain was found in Southern hymnbooks as early as 1811. The refrain is one of the old-fashioned camp-meeting spirituals, in which such short choruses “floated” from text to text, serving as a refrain for an appropriate longer hymn.
Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was never voted "most likely to become a minister" by the friends of his youth. Though raised among Christian influences, he was not serious about spiritual matters and soon fell into, as he put it, the "vanities and vices" of youth. But as an adult he began to feel a concern for his soul, running what he described as "an uneasy restless round of sinning and repenting." Frustrated by his inner turmoil, he looked for answers elsewhere; and listening to all the wrong voices of the age, fell captive to a doctrine that taught grace unfettered by any responsibility. Among his scholarly writings during this period was a scathing attack on John Wesley titled The Unreasonableness of Religion (1741), which reveals his adherence to the rationalist critics and to a certain extent to deism. But approaching the age of forty, he became convicted of the error of his beliefs and reformed his ways. Over the next few years he began in earnest to seek a truer path, and eventually became a minister to a Congregationalist body in London.
Hymns composed on various subjects (1759), which went through countless editions as "Hart's Hymns," was written during this period of deep soul-searching and repentance beginning around 1757. According to Hart, "They are published not only in the same order, but also in the same manner in which they were first written: for though they have since undergone a cursory revisal, and have been lightly retouched, the alterations I have made in them are neither very numerous nor material." His collection is therefore not only an anthology of his work, but a spiritual journal of this period in his life. And for a body of hymns so quickly got together, his work well stood the test of time. Augmented by his supplements of 1762 and 1768, "Hart's Hymns" became a staple in Calvinist circles.
"Come, ye sinners" is held by many to be Hart's greatest hymn. It is #100 in his original 1759 collection, and falls within the last group of hymns in that work, probably written in the spring of that year. These hymns as a group seem to look back in review of Hart's spiritual journey, though they still shows flashes of that "disorder and darkness of soul" that plagued him over his sins. Frequent themes are the assurance of salvation, our hopelessness without the atoning work of Christ, the majesty of Christ revealed in His humble sacrifice, and encouragement to the weak in faith. To this extent, then, "Come, ye sinners" is as much autobiography as invitation.
The refrain is a variant on one of the stanzas of Caleb Jarvis Taylor's "Don't you see my Jesus coming?" Caleb Jarvis Taylor (1763-1816) was a schoolteacher from Maryland who served as a fill-in preacher for Methodist churches in western Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1792 he moved to north central Kentucky, where he continued to teach school as his primary support, but preached wherever and whenever he could. Sometimes he preached as an official circuit rider sponsored by a Methodist association, but more often it was his willingness to fill vacancies for other preachers that kept him in the pulpit. He was the founder of the Mt. Gilead Methodist Church just north of Paris, Kentucky, also known as the Old Matheny Meeting House, probably the earliest Methodist congregation in that area northeast of Lexington. By 1795 he relocated to the vicinity of what is now Maysville, Kentucky, along the Ohio River.
The Mt. Gilead meeting house was less than ten miles from the famous Cane Ridge meeting house, so it was inevitable that Taylor was right in the thick of the Second Great Awakening. And though he was known to be a successful revivalist, he was noted by his contemporaries as well as by modern historians as one of the chief songwriters of this watershed moment in American religious history.
The earliest appearance of the tune RESTORATION in print appears to be that found in William Walker's Southern Harmony. As was typical of the old colonial singing-school music, Walker's arrangement places the melody in the tenor voice; he added a bass part below and a "treble" above. The Sacred Harp version has an alto part, added in later years, to fill out a more typical voicing. William "Singing Billy" Walker (1809-1875) was a Baptist song leader from Spartanburg, South Carolina. His Southern Harmony (1835) is one of the most important hymn publications in American history, because it preserved many of the melodies of the camp-meeting folk hymns at a time when the generation that created them was passing away.
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power.
Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome, God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance, Every grace that brings you nigh.
I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in his arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior, Oh, there are …
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.
Ronald Turner retired as the Carolyn King Ragan Professor of Church Music at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught for 37 years. He was Chair of Voice and Music Theory, holding graduate degrees in both areas. Turner has had works published by eight publishers, as well as liturgical works that were performed on a recurring basis for several years at London’s Saint Paul Cathedral [Anglican], where he was Visiting Scholar in Church Music during the 1993-1994 academic year. His compositions include hymn tunes, liturgical psalm settings, anthems, as well as pieces for organ, piano, and handbells. He has led church choirs for fifty years, as well as conducting Southern Seminary’s Male Chorale, its Oratorio Chorus, the Kentucky Baptist Chorale, and the Kentucky Opera Chorus. Dr. Turner’s degrees include a B.A. from Charleston Southern University, a Master of Music from Converse College, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Southern Seminary in voice performance and church music. He was Minister of Music for Deer Park Baptist Church and Minister of Music and Organist of Louisville’s First Lutheran Church.
About the Hymns:
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was written by the 18th century pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson. Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was eight years old at the time of his father's death. He was a very bright, headstrong boy who became increasingly more difficult for his mother to handle. When Robert turned 14, she sent him to London for an apprenticeship with a barber. Robert proceeded to get into even more trouble, taking on a life of drinking and gambling.
At 17, Robert and some of his drinking buddies decided to attend an evangelistic meeting, with a plan to make fun of the proceedings. When George Whitfield began to preach, Robert felt as if the sermon was just for him. He did not respond to the altar call that night, but the words of the evangelist would haunt him for the next three years. On Dec. 10, 1755, at age 20, Robert finally yielded his life to Christ, and very soon thereafter answered a call to the ministry. Three years later, as he was preparing to preach a sermon at the Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, Robert wrote “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” to complement his sermon. The music for the hymn was composed by Asahel Nettleton in 1813.
The lyrics, which dwell on the theme of divine grace, are based on 1 Samuel 7:12, in which the prophet Samuel raises a stone as a monument, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us". The English transliteration of the name Samuel gives to the stone is Ebenezer, meaning Stone of Help. The unusual word "Ebenezer" commonly appears in hymnal presentations of the lyrics.
The tune NETTLETON first appeared as a two-part tune in John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second(1813), where it was named HALLELUJAH. In the Index it is identified as a new tune, and no composer's name is given. The tune has been attributed by some to Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844), a well-known evangelist of the early nineteenth century, who compiled Village Hymns (1825). However, this compilation contained no music, and there is no evidence that Nettleton wrote any tunes during his life. It is not known where the tune name first appeared or who was responsible for it.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer Hither by Thy help I've come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood
Oh, that day when freed from sinning I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in blood washed linen How I'll sing Thy wondrous grace
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry Me to realms of endless day
Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above
O For a Thousand Tongues
"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6,000 hymns. Wesley was suffering a bout of pleurisy in May, 1738, while he and his brother were studying under the Moravian scholar Peter Böhler in London. At the time, Wesley was plagued by extreme doubts about his faith. Taken to bed with the sickness on May 21, Wesley was attended by a group of Christians who offered him testimony and basic care, and he was deeply affected by this. He read from his Bible and found himself deeply affected by the words and at peace with God. Shortly, his strength began to return. He wrote of this experience in his journal and counted it as a renewal of his faith; when his brother John had a similar experience on the 24th, the two men met and sang a hymn Wesley had written in praise of his renewal.
One year from the experience, Wesley was taken with the urge to write another hymn, this one in commemoration of his renewal of faith. This hymn took the form of an 18-stanza poem, beginning with the opening lines “Glory to God, and praise, and love Be ever, ever given” and was published in 1740 and entitled “For the anniversary day of one's conversion”. The seventh verse, which begins, 'O for a thousand tongues to sing', and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn, recalls the words of Peter Böhler who said, “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.” The hymn was published first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists in 1780. It has appeared first in every Methodist hymnal since that time. Apparently the only publication of all original eighteen stanzas was in the 1740 hymnal.
Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given,
by saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.
On this glad day the glorious Sun of Righteousness arose;
on my benighted soul he shone and filled it with repose.
Sudden expired the legal strife, 'twas then I ceased to grieve;
my second, real, living life I then began to live.
Then with my heart I first believed, believed with faith divine,
power with the Holy Ghost received to call the Savior mine.
I felt my Lord's atoning blood close to my soul applied;
me, me he loved, the Son of God, for me, for me he died!
I found and owned his promise true, ascertained of my part,
my pardon passed in heaven I knew when written on my heart.
O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise!
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.
My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner??s ears, 'tis life, and health, and peace!
He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me.
He speaks, and listening to his voice new life the dead receive;
the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf, his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your Savior come, and leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto him, ye nations, own your God, ye fallen race!
Look, and be saved through faith alone, be justified by grace!
See all your sins on Jesus laid; the Lamb of God was slain,
his soul was once an offering made for every soul of man.
Harlots and publicans and thieves, in holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes From crimes as great as mine.
Murderers and all ye hellish crew, ye sons of lust and pride,
believe the Savior died for you; for me the Savior died.
Awake from guilty nature's sleep, and Christ shall give you light;
cast all your sins into the deep, and wash the Ethiop white.
With me, your chief, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below and own that love is heaven.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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