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:
Rondeau Recessional - David Lasky
(c.2019, Lorenz Publishing)
This is the third movement of the Centennial Triptych, written to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of organist/composer Gordon Young.
David Lasky (b.1957) has been Organist and Director of Music at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Leominster, Massachusetts since 1981. Prior to that he served as Organist and Director of Music at Saint John Church and School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and as Organist at Holy Spirit Church in Gardner, Massachusetts. He earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He also earned his Master of Arts degree in Church Music and Liturgy from the Rensselaer Program of Church Music and Liturgy at Saint Joseph College, Rensselaer, Indiana. Lasky has performed as an organ soloist and in ensembles throughout Massachusetts, and has performed recitals at Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, both in Washington DC, and at Saint Mary Cathedral in Lafayette, Indiana. He has taught classes and workshops on improvisation and service playing for the American Guild of Organists and for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
Lasky is very active as a composer and arranger of sacred organ and choral music. His music, which is widely performed in churches throughout the United States, Canada, and England, has been favorably reviewed in the professional organist journals The American Organist and The Diapason, as well as in the British journal, Church Music Quarterly and in the American worship magazine, Creator.
In 1992, Mr. Lasky won a national hymn tune-writing competition, sponsored by the Lutheran Home for the Aged in Arlington Heights, Illinois. In 1994, he was commissioned to compose a concert work, Variations on Austria, for the renowned organist and long-time head of the organ department at The University of Michigan, Marilyn Mason. He has also accepted commissions from Worcester (Massachusetts) State College; Christ Church (Fitchburg, Massachusetts); Saint John Episcopal Church (Charlotte, South Carolina); the Tappan Zee Bridgemen Brass Ensemble (New York City); Jane Errera (Saint Anne Catholic Church, Bethlehem, PA); King's College (Wilkes-Barre, PA); the M.I.T. Concert Band; the Market Street Presbyterian Church (Lima, Ohio); and David Tierney for the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, Massachusetts. In 2010, he was one of eleven winners in a composition competition co-sponsored by Region IV of the American Guild of Organists and Wayne Leupold Editions. Most recently, he was commissioned by the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists to compose a piece for the 2014 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists.
From 1985 to 2005, Mr. Lasky served as a classical music reviewer for The Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette, and has written CD and composition reviews for The New England Organist. He taught as an adjunct professor at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts (1989-1990), and in the Music Theory department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1991-1992)
About the Piano Music:
For the Beauty of the Earth - Mark Hayes
(c.2006, Lorenz Pub)
Folliott Piermont (1835-1917) was born in Bath, England and was a lay member of the Anglican Church. Following his graduation from Queen's College, Cambridge, he taught the classics for a time at Somerset College, later becoming a freelance writer. During his 82 years of life, Pierpoint published seven volumes of poems and hymn texts, many of them showing his love for nature. He is most remembered for this beautiful hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth.
Piermont was about 29 years old when he wrote the text for this joyful hymn. It was a lovely day in late spring. While enjoying the surrounding area of his native city of Bath, in England, he was inspired by the beautiful countryside with its winding cool and peaceful river, Avon, in the distance. The tuneful songbirds, the wind whispering over a vibrantly colored hillside, all seemed to be praising the Creator with their unrestrained gladness and peace. Overwhelmed with emotion, he expressed his feelings of gratitude in the penning of this sacred song. The text was inspired by Hebrews 13:15: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." It first appeared in 1864 in a book of Eucharistic hymns and poems entitled Lyra Eucharistica, Hymns and Verses on The Holy Communion, Ancient and Modern, with other Poems with the title "The Sacrifice of Praise".
An early form of the tune DIX was composed by Conrad Kocher (1786-1872). Trained as a teacher, Kocher moved from Germany to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a tutor at the age of seventeen. But his love for the music of Haydn and Mozart impelled him to a career in music. He moved back to Germany in 1811, settled in Stuttgart, and remained there for most of his life. The prestigious Cotta music firm published some of his early compositions and sent him to study music in Italy, where he came under the influence of Palestrina's music. In 1821 Kocher founded the School for Sacred Song in Stuttgart, which popularized four-part singing in the churches of that region. He was organist and choir director at the Striftsckirche in Stuttgart from 1827 to 1865. Kocher wrote a treatise on church music, Die Tonkunst in der Kirche (1823), collected a large number of chorales in Zions Harfe (1855), and composed an oratorio, two operas, and some sonatas. William H. Monk created the current form of DIX by revising and shortening Conrad Kocher's chorale melody for “Treuer Heiland, wir sind hir,” found in Kocher's Stimmen aus den Reiche Gottes (1838). Monk's tune was published in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, of which Monk was music editor.
For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies.
For the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light,
For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight;
For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild,
For thy church, that evermore lifteth holy hands above,
offering up on every shore her pure sacrifice of love;
For Thyself, best gift divine, to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of Thine, peace on earth, and joy in heaven.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
Christ, our God, to Thee we raise, this our sacrifice of praise.
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:
Put Something Back - Joe Huffman & Aaron Wilburn
(c.1983, Prime Time Music, a div of Meadowgreen Music)
Aaron Wilburn (1950-2020) first gained national attention as a band member of The Happy Goodman Family. Playing rhythm guitar and often singing as a guest soloist during the group's appearances, Aaron traveled with the legendary family group during the early 1970s. It was also during Aaron's time with The Happy Goodman Family that his talent as a songwriter began moving to the forefront of Gospel music. Throughout Aaron's five decades of songwriting, he either wrote or co-wrote dozens of gospel songs.
Aaron's ability to present family-friendly comedy was quickly discovered as he developed the solo career that he enjoyed for more than 40 years. By blending humorous tales with quick one-liners and a seemingly endless repertoire of comical songs, Aaron was able to share his talents in Gospel concerts, church services, secular conventions, corporate banquets, and events of all sizes throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and numerous other countries. Frequently seen on Bill Gaither's Homecoming Concerts and videos, Aaron was also a pioneering Christian performer on YouTube, quickly garnering more than 4,000,000 views in the video sharing website's earliest days.
During his career, Aaron was honored with several No. 1 songs, multiple Dove Awards, and numerous Grammy nominations. Two songs, "What A Beautiful Day (For The Lord To Come Again)" and "Four Days Late," were voted as "Song Of The Year" by subscribers of Singing News Magazine in 1975 and 2001. In 2005, Aaron was honored in his home state by being inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
The day Joe C. Huffman (1941-2022) picked up a guitar his brother, James, brought home from the service, his charted course in music began. “That’s the first introduction we had to guitar. And that thing got in such bad shape from us trying to learn to play it,” remembers Bill. “It was a cheap guitar and the tension on the strings had caused the neck to (bow). Well, we took a belt and hooked it to the end up where you tune it and brought it around the back to put the tension on it so it pulled the strings down close enough to the fretboard where we could play it. We’d fight over who got to play next. We finally developed a way two of us could play at the same time. One would play the chords and the other would reach under and play the lead. Stupid stuff, but you do what you have to do when you’re trying to learn.” Eventually Bill, Harold and Joe got their hands on some more playable instruments. By emulating their guitar heroes, they began developing technique and that ineffable quality known as “ear”. “We both learned to play listening to Chet Atkins records, Merle Travis and Hank Garland,” Joe Huffman told me. “If you weren’t those three people you didn’t play guitar, in our minds.”
In the ‘60s, he and brothers Bill and Harold opened Mark Five Recording studios in Greenville, where countless gospel touring groups were able to record and distribute their music. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Joe was recruited to come to Nashville as a producer, where he worked with many gospel recording artists, winning numerous industry Dove Awards along the way. In the early ‘80s he co-founded Meadowgreen Music, the Christian division of country giant Tree Publishing.
I have borrowed from the sunshine, as a child out at play,
I have marveled at creation as the moonlight kissed my face.
I’ve enjoyed the good Lord’s blessings as he poured His love on me.
I want to put something back in this world before I leave.
I want to put something back in this world before I go:
Pass along a smile for the laughter I have known.
I love this life I’m living, I need to show it by my giving;
I want to put something back before I go.
I have had my friends to lean on when I wasn’t very strong,
and I’ve felt the love of millions as I sang the world my song,
And for all that’s made me happy, gave me reason to believe,
I’d like to put something back for all that I’ve received.
I want to put something back in this world before I go:
Pass along a smile for the laughter I have known.
I love this life I’m living, I need to show it by my giving;
I want to put something back before I go.
About the Hymns:
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
Philip Spener became the pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Frankfurt am Main in the mid-1600s, and effected a revival by fervent preaching that emphasized repentance, personal piety, and discipleship. He encouraged prayer and Bible study as a means to personal spiritual growth. He spelled out his five guiding principles in a document entitled Pia Desideria (Pious Desires). These included: the increased use of scripture; lay participation in small groups, emphasizing prayer and Bible study; a balance of faith and actions; an emphasis on a pious clergy; sermons that encourage an active faith. Not only did the church that Spener was serving in Frankfurt prosper, but a pietistic movement swept across Germany through his influence.
An enthusiastic member of Spener's congregation was a young attorney, Johann Jakob Schutz, who not only encouraged Spener's work but also wrote hymns. He wrote "Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above" in 1675, and published it in Christliches Gedenkbüchlein that same year. The hymn is usually sung to the tune, "Mit Freuden Zart" ("With great delight!").
The most common English translation in use is by Frances E. Cox from 1864, which was published in Orby Shipley's Lyra Eucharistica and her own Hymns from the German. Deuteronomy 32:3 was the basis for this hymn of praise – “For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!” (ESV) Using a variety of metaphors for God and for His works, this text overflows with proclamations of God's loving care for His people. Note the second verse, which emphasizes the presence of the Lord, a typical pietistic emphasis: "The Lord is never far away, but thru all grief distressing an ever-present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing.”
MIT FREUDEN ZART has some similarities to the French chanson "Une pastourelle gentille" (published by Pierre Attaingnant in 1529) and to GENEVAN 138. The tune was published in the Bohemian Brethren hymnal Kirchengesänge (1566) with Vetter's text "Mit Freuden zart su dieser Fahrt." Splendid music for a great text, it is one of the great hymn tunes of the Reformation.
Sing praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation,
the God of power, the God of love, the God of our salvation.
With healing balm my soul is filled and every faithless murmur stilled:
To God all praise and glory.
The Lord is never far away, but through all grief distressing,
an ever present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother's tender hand, God gently leads the chosen band:
To God all praise and glory.
Thus all my toilsome way along, I sing aloud thy praises,
that earth may hear the grateful song my voice unwearied raises.
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory.
Let all who name Christ's holy name give God all praise and glory;
let all who own his power proclaim aloud the wondrous story!
Cast each false idol from its throne, for Christ is Lord, and Christ alone:
To God all praise and glory.
Take My Life and Let it Be Consecrated
Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879) originally composed her text in eleven couplets as a hymn of "self-consecration to Christ" on February 4, 1874. She told the following story about writing this hymn:
I went for a little visit of five days [to Areley House, Worcestershire, in December 1873]. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. [God] gave me the prayer, "Lord, give me all this house." And He just did! Before I left the house, everyone had got a blessing. The last night of my visit. . . I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart, one after another, till they finished with "Ever, only, all, for Thee."
The text is a "catalog" hymn that lists aspects of our lives and offers them in Christ's service. "Take My Life and Let It Be" was first published in the 1874 appendix to Charles B. Snepp's Songs of Grace and Glory (1872). A twelfth couplet was added at some later point, producing the six stanzas published in the Psalter Hymnal.
Although her formal education was sporadic because of poor health, Havergal learned six foreign languages, including Greek and Hebrew, and was well read in many subjects. She began writing poetry at an early age and was also an accomplished singer and pianist. The daughter of a clergyman, she had a conversion experience at the age of fourteen and was confirmed in the Church of England in 1853. Taking seriously her own words "take my silver and my gold," she sent all her jewelry to the Church Mission Society to be sold. She also supported other charitable organizations. Her more than one hundred hymns were originally published in leaflets and later gathered into seven collections: Ministry of Song (1869), Twelve Sacred Songs for Little Singers (1870), Under the Surface (1874), Loyal Responses (1878), Life Mosaic (1879), Life Chords (1880), and Life Echoes (1883), as well as in one large volume, Poetical Works (1884).
The tune MESSIAH, also sometimes called HEROLD, was written by Ferdinand Herold (1791-1833).
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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