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 Cello Music:
Vocalise - Sergei Rachmaninoff
(c.1960, International Music Co.)
Javi Betancourt, cello
"Vocalise" is a song by Sergei Rachmaninoff, composed and published in 1915 as the last of his 14 Songs or 14 Romances, Op. 34. Written for high voice (soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment, it contains no words, but is sung using only one vowel of the singer's choosing. It was dedicated to soprano singer Antonina Nezhdanova. It is performed in various instrumental arrangements far more frequently than the original vocal version.
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and rich orchestral colours. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output and he made a point of using his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.
Born into a musical family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at the age of four. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory and graduated in 1892, having already composed several piano and orchestral pieces. In 1897, following the disastrous premiere of his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful supportive therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. In the course of the next sixteen years, Rachmaninoff conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, relocated to Dresden, Germany, and toured the United States for the first time.
Following the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia, and in 1918 they settled in New York City. With his primary source of income coming from performances as a pianist and a conductor, Rachmaninoff had little time to compose. Because of this, he completed just six works between 1918 and 1943, including the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3, and Symphonic Dances. By 1942, his declining health led to his relocation to Beverly Hills, California, and he became a US citizen a few weeks before he died of advanced melanoma in 1943.
This arrangement for cello and piano is by Leonard Rose (1918-1984), who one of the very best American cello teachers and musicians of the twentieth century. His father was a cellist, and gave him his first lessons on the instrument. When he was ten he took lessons from Walter Grossman at the Miami Conservatory, and shortly after that studied with his cousin, Frank Miller, who was principal cellist with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York. When Rose was sixteen he began studying with Felix Salmond at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and two years later became Salmond's assistant. In 1936, at the age of 18, Rose graduated from the Curtis Institute, and began playing in the cello section of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Toscanini. In 1939 he became principal cellist in the Cleveland Symphony, directed by Artur Rodzinski. When Rodzinski became chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943, he took Leonard Rose with him to be principal cellist in New York. In 1946 he was offered a professorship at Julliard. Lynn Harrell, Yo Yo Ma and Stephen Kates are but three of the fine cellists that were taught by Leonard Rose; and they all revered him as a wonderful teacher.
About the Choral Music:
A Service of Shadows - Lani Smith
(c.1971, Sacred Music Press)
Lani (Kamiki) Smith (1934-2015), one of the most important composers in the Lorenz Publishing Company's history, was educated at the College‑Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (BM and MM), and in 1958 he was co‑winner (with Charles Wuorinen) of the Joseph H. Bearns Prize in Music from Columbia University, an award that honors America's most promising young composers. At age twenty‑five, Smith published his first piece with Lorenz, thus beginning a long career at the company. From 1967–82, Smith was a member of the editorial and composition staff in Dayton, where he had responsibility for a number of publications and organ magazines. He was a regular contributor to the Lorenz Corporation’s keyboard magazines The Church Pianist, The Organist, The Organ Portfolio, and The Sacred Organ Journal, as well as the choral magazines The SAB Choir and The Volunteer Choir. The grandson of Edmund Lorenz, he served as an editor, composer, and arranger on the Lorenz Publishing editorial staff between 1967 and 1982. Smith was such a prolific composer/arranger that he published under at least seven names: his own, plus the pseudonyms Tom Birchwood, Edward Broughton, Christopher Gale, David Paxton, Gerald Peterson, and Franklin Ritter, with more than 4,000 published compositions, written over sixty years as a professional composer. For Lorenz, he worked in every musical genre, including choral anthems, cantatas, children's musicals, instrumental pieces, piano/organ duos, and organ and piano solos. Outside of his writing for Lorenz, Smith also composed concert and film music, including works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voices, ballet, and musical theater. He received a grant for composition from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1967. As organist and choir director, Smith served churches in Ohio, Michigan, and California.
The ancient Tenebrae service, from which this service is derived, dates back to the early years of the church. Coming from the Latin word meaning “shadows”, Tenebrae depicts through the extinguishing of candles and the dimming of lights the flight of the disciples and the crucifixion. A Service of Shadows, is adapted from the ancient Tenebrae. The text and music are designed to draw the listener into the action and events that led to the crucifixion, and to relate them to the events and actions in their own life.
Who Will Betray the Son of God?
Matthew 26: 17-25
Who will betray the Son of God? Who will deliver the Lord to death?
Who will be the one who must bear the awful curse? Who will it be, O God, who will it be?
Who will the pawn of Satan be? Who will e traitor to Christ the Lord?
Who will sell his soul for the life of God’s own Son? Who will it be, O God, who will it be?
Who will bring the kiss of death to Christ? Who will give the Savior to sinful man?
Who will send the Lord on his road of pain and shame? I pray, O God, that it not be me!
Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour
Matthew 26: 36-46
“Could you not watch with me one hour?”
How strange to hear such words from such a man;
a man so self-sufficient, So strong of mind and soul!
What need has he for solace of companionship?
“Could you not watch with me one hour?”
Once more he cries aloud his anguished plea
That all that lies before him May not be his to bear.
But yet he takes the cup and drinks it willingly.
“Could you not watch with me one hour?”
The time has come and all his prayers are done.
He meets the task with courage, But somehow he has changed;
Perhaps he’s learned the loneliness of Saviorhood.
After the Arrest in the Garden
Luke 22: 47-53
The incident is over And peace rules the garden again.
The normal sounds of night have banished every trace of shouted curse.
The scuffling mob has long since gone And the disciples have fled in fear.
Most who were here will soon forget this night;
But a certain slave touches his ear In wonder mixed with gratitude,
And he will not, he will not soon forget.
The Defense of Simon Peter
Luke 22: 54-62
They asked me if I knew him; What else could I say?
For if I said I knew him They’d kill me right away.
And how then could I save him, Body rent from soul?
Denial was my pretext; His rescue was my goal.
But after I denied him Time and time again,
My eyes began to open; I saw how wrong I’d been.
It wasn’t for his rescue That I claimed him not;
The reason for my action Was fear of what men thought.
But judge me not too harshly If my ways seem grim;
How often has the cock crowed Since you first learned of him?
Since you first learned of him?
Jesus Before the People
Mark 15: 1-15
See him as he stands before the people.
See the patient suffering in his bruised and battered face.
See how he stands in utter silence.
He answers not; He breathes not a word.
Hear the accusations of the chief priests.
Hear the vicious slander from those van and jealous men.
Yet he betrays no hint of anger.
He answers not; He breathes not a word.
Hear the words of Pilate as he speaks to the people:
“I find this man not guilty. Shall I set him free?”
Give us Barrabas!
“What then should I do with this King of the Jews?”
Crucify him!
“But what has he done? Of what crime is he guilty?”
Crucify him!
O Lord, it appears that we have forsaken you!
He answers not; He breathes not a word.
Christ Crucified
Luke 23: 32-46
No more the heat, No more the nagging thirst,
No more the taunts of jeering mob, No more the scathing stings of whip and club,
No more the vicious racking pain, the vicious racking pain of nails and cross;
Only loneliness remains;
He takes it through the door of death unwillingly,
But with a depth of understanding only he could know.
He lived for us, He died for us,
And now he knows the loneliness of his death
Was no greater than the loneliness of his life.
About the Hymns:
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was the son of an English schoolmaster. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin at age four, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor.
The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His Horae Lyricae was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is best known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. His published hymns number more than eight hundred.
The Lutheran Hymnal Handbook includes this little narrative about the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross:” “With regard to the practical application of the final stanza, Father Ignatius of St. Edmund’s Church in London is reported to have blurted to his congregation: ‘Well, I’m surprised to hear you sing that. Do you know that altogether you put only fifteen shillings in the collection bag this morning?’” While Watts might not have been talking explicitly about money in the last line of his text, there is the expectation that we dedicate ourselves entirely to God, for God demands not just a piece of who we are, but “our soul, our life, our all.” This can be an incredibly difficult line to sing with any sense of honesty. Devotional author Jerry Jenkins writes in his book Hymns for Personal Devotions, “Perhaps it’s the distance between where Watts encourages me to be and where I truly am that makes this hymn so hard to sing. It’s a lofty and worthy spiritual goal to say that ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,’ but how short I fall!” And so as we sing this hymn of love and awe, we must sing it with a prayer in our hearts, asking God to enable us each day to live our life wholly for him.
Lowell Mason's hymn tune HAMBURG is one of the most familiar products of the church music reform that swept the United States during the early decades of the nineteenth century.1 Together with the English melody Rockingham (Old) it has become one of the two most common settings in United States hymnals for Isaac Watts's "When I survey the wondrous cross." The church music reform began as a reaction against the elaborate psalmody of eighteenth-century United States composers such as William Billings and the shape-note folk hymnody that was popular in rural areas of the country. In the estimation of the reformers, the complexity, harmonic "ineptitudes," and often dance-like rhythms of the eighteenth-century composers were both too difficult for congregations to sing and lacked the requisite devotional quality. Folk hymnody was suspect because of the secular background of many of its tunes and its association with shape notes, which, though intended to teach people how to read notation, was seen by the reformers as a stumbling block to a true understanding and performance of music.
Lowell Mason and his slightly older contemporary, Thomas Hastings, were the chief figures among the reformers. In their desire to provide what they considered to be acceptable congregational music they took a two-pronged approach: (1) adapting, arranging, and simplifying melodies from European classical masters such as Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven as hymn tunes, and (2) writing new tunes that were characterized by graceful melodies of limited range, clear harmonies emphasizing the primary chords, and easy rhythms. Mason's HAMBURG is representative of both of these techniques.
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done
Hymns have always been an important devotional resource for the people called Methodists. John and Charles Wesley published many collections of hymns. The hymns were sung in class, band, and society meetings and at Love Feasts. The people carried their hymns with them to the meetings and used them at home as part of daily prayer and devotional practices. In singing, praying, and meditating on the hymns the Methodist people learned and internalized the theology they heard in the preaching and teaching. The poetry of the hymns helped get the theology of Methodist preaching from the head into the heart. Here is a powerful reflection on the meaning of Christ’s death on the cross written by Charles Wesley in 1742.
The hymn tune SELENA was written by Isaac Baker Woodbury in 1850. Woodbury (1819-1858) studied music in nearby Boston, then spent his nineteenth year in further study in London and Paris. He taught for six years in Boston, traveling throughout New England with the Bay State Glee Club. He later lived at Bellow Falls, Vermont, where he organized the New Hampshire and Vermont Musical Association. In 1849 he settled in New York City where he directed the music at the Rutgers Street Church. He became editor of the New York Musical Review and made another trip to Europe in 1852 to collect material for the magazine. He published a number of tune-books, of which the Dulcimer, of New York Collection of Sacred Music, went through a number of editions. His Elements of Musical Composition, 1844, was later issued as the Self-instructor in Musical Composition. He also assisted in the compilation of the Methodist Hymn Book of 1857.
O Love divine, what hast thou done! The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son Bore all my sins upon the tree.
Th’immortal God for me hath died: My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
Is crucified for me and you, To bring us rebels back to God.
Believe, believe the record true, Ye all are bought with Jesu’s blood.
Pardon for all flows from his side: My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
Behold him, all ye that pass by, The bleeding Prince of life and peace!
Come, sinners, see your Savior die, And say, “Was ever grief like his?”
Come, feel with me his blood applied: My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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