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:
Dona nobis pacem, from Organ Mass - Boryslav Stronko
(unpublished, shared with permission by composer)
Dona nobis pacem (Latin for "Grant us peace") is a phrase in the Agnus Dei section of the Roman Catholic mass. The origin of the melody is unknown. The phrase, in isolation, has been appropriated for a number of works. The Agnus Dei from the Roman Catholic Mass is the invocation to the Lamb of God to have mercy and grant peace to the worshippers. It is said to have been introduced into the Mass by Pope Sergius I in 687.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
English Translation:
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
The Agnus Dei is said to be based on Based on John 1:29 (KJV):
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Boryslav Stronko (b.1970), Ukrainian composer, musicologist and teacher of music theory and composition, was born in the town of Tulchyn, Vinnytsia region. He received his primary music education at children's music schools in Leninakan (now Gyumri, Armenia) and Kirovabad (now Ganja, Azerbaijan). He studied at The Mykola Lysenko Kyiv State Music Lyceum (Music Theory Department) and composition at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, in the class of Professor Yuriy Ishchenko. In 2003, Stronko defended his dissertation "Status of existential time (ontological time) in music (according to Heidegger's philosophy of time)", under professor Moskalenko.
He teaches at the Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music, and at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. Music by Stronko is regularly performed at festivals like "Kyiv Premieres of the Season" and "Kyiv Music Festival”. He has written chamber music, symphonies, electronic music, and an organ mass. He is influenced by the classical and romantic tradition; he possesses a very detailed sense of time. There are elements of music of the East with its modality and meditativeness; the theory of 4-dimensional time of the late Heidegger (especially in Symphony № 4, and the electronic piece "Closed Time"); timbre-texture experiments of the musical avant-garde in electronic music. His music does not stick to a single system of musical thinking - on the contrary, it reincarnates in different musical worlds, complexes of musical means.
Allegro - Viktor Kosenko
(public domain)
Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko (1896-1938) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and educator. He was regarded by his contemporaries as a master of lyricism. Kosenko's life is conclusively divided into three distinct phases, in Warsaw, where he studied with renowned teachers Mikhail Sokolovsky and Iryna Miklashovskaya, in Zhytomyr, where he began teaching piano and music theory at the Music Technicum, later becoming director of the Zhytomyr Music School, and finally in Kiev, where he devoted more time to symphonic compositions such as his Heroic Overture, which brought him due recognition in the world of Soviet music. He was a leading figure among the broad-minded artistic collective of 20th-century Soviet music.
Creative conflicts with the new Stalin regime prompted his move to Kyiv, where he was offered a position at the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama as a chamber musician and musical analyst, followed by a promotion to music professor. Kosenko originally taught piano and chamber ensemble classes, and a year later, he also began teaching a specialized course on analysis of form in both the historical-theoretical and compositional departments.
He was often invited to be in the juries of musical performance competitions as a well-known performer and respected pedagogue. This included a trip to Moscow in 1931, Kharkiv in 1933, and Leningrad in 1934. This period became a time of mature work for Kosenko, who had established himself in the world of Soviet music. His output began to include new genres, particularly his Heroic Overture for symphony orchestra. Kosenko also arranged Ukrainian folk songs and in 1936, the first compilation of Soviet folk songs was arranged with his participation.
Kosenko spent most of his life in Zhytomyr, living in poverty, to which he seemed largely indifferent. After being persuaded by the Soviet Government of the time to share his living quarters with members of other families, and frequently bringing in people from the streets to whom he gave food and money, he was given a small three-room apartment on the second floor of an old building at Mikhaila street in Kyiv, to where they all moved thanks to his wife's insistent requests to the Soviet Ukrainian Government in order to recognize Kosenko's efforts in popularizing genuine Ukrainian nationalist music. Finally in 1938, Kosenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Nikita Khrushchev. Kosenko was honored on a postage stamp of Ukraine issues in 1996.
Kosenko's music combines a post-romantic idiom with intonations of Slavic folk songs and Western-European influences. His vocal, chamber and symphonic works are among the most important pieces of that time in USSR. He composed over 100 compositions for piano among waltzes, preludes, nocturnes, sonatas and mazurkas, in a total of about 250 musical works such as his symphonic Moldavian poem, violin and piano concertos, trios and string quartets during his short musical career. His vocal compositions include a large number of ballads, choral and folk arrangements as well.
About the Choral Music:
God's Peace - C. J. Adams
(c.2012, Hope publishing)
“Come Away from Rush and Hurry” is a text written by Marva J. Dawn (1948-2021), an American Christian theologian, author, musician and educator, associated with the parachurch organization Christians Equipped for Ministry in Vancouver, Washington. She also served as Teaching Fellow in Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dawn was generally perceived as a Lutheran evangelical. She often wrote in a paleo-orthodox style, stressing the importance of Christian tradition and the wisdom of the Church through the centuries.
Born in Napoleon, Ohio as Marva Gersmehl, she later took the surname Dawn as a pseudonym. After completing a B.A. (1970) from Concordia Teachers College, she completed a M.A. (1972) in English from the University of Idaho, an M.Div. (1978) in New Testament from Western Evangelical Seminary, and a Th.M. (1983) in Old Testament from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. She then completed an M.A. (1986) and Ph.D. (1992) in Christian Ethics and the Scriptures from the University of Notre Dame. She taught clergy and worship conferences and at seminaries in North America and internationally.
The tune BEACH SPRING was written by Benjamin F. White (1800-1879), coeditor of The Sacred Harp (1844). He came from a family of fourteen children and was largely self-taught. Eventually White became a popular singing-school teacher and editor of the weekly Harris County newspaper.
Come away from rush and hurry to the stillness of God's peace;
from our vain ambition's worry, come to Christ to find release.
Come away from noise and clamor, life's demands and frenzied pace;
come to join the people gathered here to seek and find God's face.
In the pastures of God's goodness we lie down to rest our soul.
From the waters of God's mercy we drink deeply, are made whole.
At the table of God's presence all the saints are richly fed.
With the oil of God's anointing into service we are led.
Come, then, children, with your burdens—life's confusions, fears and pain.
Leave them at the cross of Jesus; take instead his kingdom's reign.
Bring your thirsts, for he will quench them—he alone will satisfy.
All our longings find attainment when to self we gladly die.
Come away from rush and hurry to the stillness of God's peace.
No biographical information is available for C. J. Adams, who has arranged a number of choral works for Hope Publishing.
About the Hymns:
This is My Song
(c.1964, Lorenz Publishing)
This is of the most stirring tunes in the United Methodist Hymnal. The melody comes from a symphonic tone poem by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) by the name of “Finlandia”, Op. 26. It was adapted for the 1933 hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in the United States to be sung to the text “Be Still, My Soul”. Not only is the spirit of the music appropriate for “This Is My Song,” but the history of Sibelius’ composition also adds meaning. He wrote “Finlandia” as a patriotic offering in 1899. The composition was performed as the last of seven musical pieces that accompanied a series of tableaus, each reflecting portions of Finnish history. Out of agitated and tumultuous opening music symbolizing the struggles of the Finnish people, the serenity of the hymn-like melody emerges, symbolizing hope and resolution. In February 1899, a manifesto from Tsar Nicholas II declared Russia’s right to rule Finland without the consent of local legislators. Sibelius’ choice of “Finlandia” as a title for the composition served as a subtle form of protest against Russian censorship; however, that censorship was so intense that it couldn’t be performed publically as “Finlandia”, so other titles were devised including “Happy Feelings at the Awakening of Finnish Spring.”
Lloyd Stone (1912-1993), an American public school teacher who lived in Hawaii, authored 10 books of poetry and two children’s books. He wrote the first two stanzas of “This Is My Song” for its inclusion in the collection, Sing a Tune (1934). During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations—“for lands afar and mine.” The poet acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations. The second stanza begins by alluding to the blue skies, the ocean, sunlight, “cloverleaf and pine” of Stone’s own country, but then acknowledges that in other countries, “skies are everywhere as blue as mine.” The stanza concludes: “O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”
Methodist theologian Georgia Harkness (1881-1974) added a third stanza at the request of Marion Norris, then executive secretary of the Wesleyan Service Guild of the Methodist Church. Harkness related: “[Marion Norris] wrote me that they had been using the first two verses but wanted something with a more distinctly religious note as a supplement to them. I cannot tell you exactly how long ago this was, but since I can recall writing the stanza at my desk when I was teaching at Mount Holyoke 1937-39, it was within this period.” The hymn was adopted as the official hymn of the Wesleyan Service Guild and was widely sung throughout the former Methodist Church.
Harkness, one of the first women ordained in the Methodist Church and a leading ecumenical theologian of her day, added two additional stanzas, the second of which appears in our hymnal as the final stanza of the hymn. It is a prayer to the “Lord of all earth’s kingdoms.” Harkness skillfully ties the reference to “earth’s kingdoms” to a petition found in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done.” Christ becomes the central figure in Harkness’ stanza, as one who will unite us in service to each other and help us to “learn to live as one.” Her stanza ends with a personal dedication: “Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.” In this stanza, Harkness transforms a hymn of peace with vague religious overtones into a prayer for peace that comes from the author of peace, Jesus Christ.
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover- leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together,
a world united, righting every wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song.
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
"Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" was written by George Duffield Jr. in 1858 and is based on the dying words of Dudley Atkins Tyng. The traditional tune "Webb" was composed by George James Webb, and the lesser-used tune "Geibel" was composed by Adam Geibel.
In 1858, Presbyterian minister George Duffield Jr. was an associate of Dudley Atkins Tyng who had recently been removed from his local Episcopalian community for speaking against slavery. Duffield assisted Tyng in supporting a revival of evangelicalism in Pennsylvania. In March 1858, Tyng gave a sermon at a YMCA meeting of over 5,000 men on Exodus 10:11, "Go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord", converting over 1,000 men listening in the crowd. The following month, Tyng was maimed in a farming accident. Before he died a few days after the accident he told his father "Tell my brethren of the ministry, wherever you meet them, to stand up for Jesus.” Duffield then wrote the hymn based on those words, and also incorporated the phrase "Ye that are men now serve Him" from Tyng's memorable sermon the month before he died. At a memorial service for Tyng, Duffield gave a sermon based on Ephesians 6:14, "Stand firm, wearing the whole armour of God", and ended it by reciting the new hymn he had written as a tribute. The hymn was first brought into public knowledge through leaflets printed by the superintendent of the local Christian school containing the words of the hymn. One of these leaflets ended up being published in a Baptist newspaper, and "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" was published in The Church Psalmist in 1859.
After first publication, the hymn was popular and was sung by both the Union and Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War. The hymn also became popular among British revivalists, and within public schools in England. As a result of the images of Christian militarism in the hymn, some people object to the hymn. The hymn was excluded from a more politically correct volume of The Presbyterian Hymnal published in June 1990, in order not to offend handicapped people.
Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! Ye soldiers of the Cross;
Lift high his royal banner, It must not suffer loss.
From vict'ry unto vict’ry His army he shall lead,
Till ev'ry foe is vanquished And Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! The trumpet call obey,
Forth to the mighty conflict In this his glorious day.
Ye that are men now serve him Against unnumbered foes:
Let courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose.
Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! Stand in his strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you Ye dare not trust your own
Put on the Gospel armor, Each piece put on with pray'r;
Where duty calls or danger Be never wanting there!
Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! The strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle, The next the victor's song.
To him that overcometh A crown of life shall be;
He with the King of Glory Shall reign eternally.
Several melodies have been written for "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus". The one used most often now was written by George James Webb, who had originally composed it in 1837 for "Tis Dawn, the Lark is Singing", a song in a secular musical show performed on a ship travelling across the Atlantic Ocean.
Jesus weeps for Uvalde
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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