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:
Come, Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire - John Leavitt
(c.1991, Augsburg Fortress)
The ninth-century text “Veni Creator Spiritus” is attributed to Rabanus Maurus (ca. 780-856), the archbishop of Mainz. The Latin text appeared in nine manuscripts during the tenth century and was widely circulated in hymnals and breviaries by the twelfth century. There are over 50 different translations of this text into English. John Cosin (1595-1672), an Anglican priest who became the Bishop of Durham during the English Restoration period, provided the 1627 translation, which is the shortest and appears most often in hymnals. Included in the ordination service of the Book of Common Prayer (1662), Cosin’s translation replaced an older translation, “Come, Holy Ghost, eternal God,” and became the first nonbiblical English hymn to gain prominence in a musical world dominated by metrical psalmody. Some sources indicate that it may have been written for the coronation of King Charles I in 1625, a state event at which Cosin was the master of ceremonies.
The images incorporated in this hymn have a strong connection with both ordination and Pentecost. John Wesley (1703-1791) brought the hymn into wider use when he included it anonymously in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738), the same year as the Wesley brothers’ “conversion,” in the section “Psalms and Hymns for Wednesday or Friday.” He also included it in the ordinal he sent to the Methodist churches in the United States in 1784. Since that time it has been included in our services of ordination of elders and consecration of bishops. This hymn should not be confused with Charles Wesley’s “Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire” which first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1740.
The chorale melody “Komm, Gott Schopfer” was written by Joseph Klug (1500-1552) and published in his Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert, Wittenberg, 1535.
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire and lighten with celestial fire;
thou the anointing Spirit art, who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above is comfort, life, and fire of love;
enable with perpetual light the dullness of our mortal sight.
Teach us to know the Father, Son, and thee, of both, to be but one;
that through the ages all along this may be our endless song:
Praise to thine eternal merit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Built on the Rock - Robert Hobby
(c.1994, MorningStar Music Publishers)
Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) the son of a pastor, was born at Udby, in Seeland. He studied in the University of Copenhagen. H is mind was too active and his imagination too versatile to bear the restraint of the academic course. After leaving the university he devoted his attention to poetry, literature, and Northern antiquities. In 1810 he became assistant to his father in a parish in Jutland. The sermon he preached at his ordination, on the subject "Why has the Lord's word disappeared from His house," attracted much attention, which is rarely the case with "probationers'" sermons. He became chaplain of St. Saviour's church in Christianshavn. From the time of his ordination, he had been deeply impressed with Evangelical church sentiments, in opposition to the fashionable Rationalism and Erastianism of the day; and adhered to the anti-rationalist teaching of Hauge, whose death at this time (1824) seemed to be a call to Grundtvig to lift up his voice. An opportunity soon presented itself; Professor Clausen brought out a book entitled Katholicismens og Protestantismens Forfatning, Ldre, og Ritus ("The condition, teaching, and ritual of Catholicism and Protestantism"). This book was replete with the Erastian Rationalism which was so especially distasteful to Grundtvig, who forthwith, in his Kirkens Gjenmsele ("The Church's Reply," 1825), strongly opposed its teaching, and laid down truer principles of Christian belief, and sounder views of the nature of the Church. This caused a sensation: Grandtvig (who had not spared his opponent) was fined 100 rixdollars, and the songs and hymns which he had written for the coming celebration of the tenth centenary of Northern Christianity were forbidden to be used. He resigned his post at St. Saviour's, or rather was forced to quit by a sentence of suspension which was pronounced in 1826, and under which he was kept for 13 years. After this time, he was allowed to hold an afternoon service in the German church at Christianshavn. He preached there for eight years, and compiled and wrote his hymn-book, Sang-Vdrk til den Danske Kirkce ("Song-work for the Danish Church").
The tune KIRKEN DEN ER ET was composed for this text by Norwegian Ludwig M. Lindeman (1812-1887). It was published in Wilhelm A. Wexel's Christelige Psalmer (1840). KIRKEN (also called LINDEMAN) was the first hymn tune Lindeman wrote. Born into a family of musicians, Lindeman received his early organ training from his father, for whom he became a substitute organist at the age of twelve. Although he studied theology in Oslo (then called Christiana), after 1839 he turned to a career in music. He was the organist of the Church of the Savior in Oslo (1839-1887) and became a virtuoso performer. Lindeman published hymn collections and organ works as well as the influential Koralbog (1877), which contained tunes (restored to rhythmic shape) for Landstad's hymnal of 1869. He was also an excellent teacher and founded an organ school (later the Oslo Conservatory) with his son in 1883. A scholarly collector of Norwegian folk music, Lindeman traveled the country collecting folk songs, which he published in a series of volumes (1853-1867) and which influenced the works of composer Edvard Grieg.
Built on the Rock, the church shall stand even when steeples are falling;
Christ builds His church in ev'ry land; bells still are chiming and calling,
calling the young and old to rest, calling the souls of those distressed,
longing for life everlasting.
Not in a temple made with hands God the Almighty is dwelling;
high in the heav'ns His temple stands, all earthly temples excelling.
Yet He who dwells in heaven above chooses to live with us in love,
making our body His temple.
We are God's house of living stones, built for His own habitation;
He fills our hearts, His humble thrones, granting us life and salvation.
Yet to the place, an earthly frame, we come with thanks to praise His name;
God grants His people true blessing.
Thro' all the passing years, O Lord, grant that, when church bells are ringing,
many may come to hear God's Word where He the promise is bringing:
"I know My own, My own know Me, you, not the world, My face shall see;
My peace I leave with you. Amen."
About the Vocal Solo Music:
On to Higher Ground – Mark Hayes
(c.2011, Lorenz Publishing Co.)
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". This arrangement by Mark Hayes combines two gospel hymns, “When the Morning Comes” and “Higher Ground”.
“When the Morning Comes” is a revision of Charles Tindley’s "We are tossed and driven (We'll understand it better by and by)" (1905) was produced byB.B. McKinney for Songs of Victory (1937). It reduces and reorders Tindley's original four stanzas into three, with some of the text being heavily edited. Charles Tindley was born near Berlin, Maryland, in July of 1851, the son of a slave, Albert Tindley, and a freewoman, Hester Miller Tindley. Hester passed away when Charles was only four, and a year later he was separated from his father. When he became old enough to work, he was hired out to work with slaves, although his status as “freeborn” was recognized. Little did the people of Berlin realize that a theological and musical giant was springing up in their midst. Tindley is often called a founding father of American gospel music. In 1902, after finishing his educational ventures and pastoring several churches in Philadelphia, he became pastor of the church where he had served as janitor 25 years earlier. After bearing eight children, his wife Daisy, passed away in 1924, the very day the congregation entered the new sanctuary for the first time. Initially struggling with her death, he would later explain, “one day I will understand it better by and by”.
Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1856-1922) wrote “I’m Pressing On (Higher Ground)”. His father was an excellent singer, and it always delighted the son to sit by his side and hear him sing the songs of the church. Oatman received his education at Herbert's Academy, Princetown, N. J., and the New Jersey Collegiate Institute. At the age of nineteen, he joined the M.E. Church, and a few years later, he was granted a license to preach the Gospel, and still later he was regularly ordained by Bishop Merrill. He wrote over three thousand hymns, and no gospel song book is considered complete unless it contains some of his hymns.
Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand
all the ways that God would lead us to that blessed promised land.
But he’ll guide us with His eye, and we’ll follow till we die;
We will understand it better by and by.
Of our cherished plans have failed, disappointments have prevailed,
And we’ve wandered in the darkness, heavy hearted and alone.
But we’re trusting in the Lord, and, according to His Word,
We will understand it better by and by.
By and by, when the morning comes, when the saints of God are gathered home,
We will tell the story how we’ve overcome; We will understand it better by and by.
I’m pressing on the upward way, new heights I’m gaining every day.
Still praying as I’m onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
I want to scale the utmost height and catch a gleam of glory bright.
But still I’ll pray till heaven I’ve found, “Lord, lead me on to higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand, by faith, on heaven’s tableland.
A higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
About the Hymns:
God Has Spoken by the Prophets
George Wallace Briggs (1875-1959) was a Canon of Worcester Cathedral and one of the most distinguished British hymn writers and hymnologists. Six of his hymns appear in the Episcopal Hymnal of 1940 (American). Another hymn on the Bible entitled "Word of the living God" was written for the 25th Anniversary of the British Bible Reading Fellowship and was sung in Westminster Abbey on June 5, 1947. Canon Briggs was a leading member of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also the composer of several hymn times, six of which appeared in British hymnals. In addition to his work as a clergy man of the Church of England and hymnologist, he was active in the field of religious education, being largely responsible for two books with wide circulation in Britain, Prayers and Hymns for used in Schools and The Daily Service. These books had great influence on the worship practices of British schools, public and private. It is of historic interest that he is the author of one of the prayers used at the time of the meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt on H.M.S. Prince of Wales in 1941 when the Atlantic Charter was framed.
“God has Spoken by the Prophets” was first published in Ten New Hymns from the Bible, 1953.
God has spoken by the prophets, Spoken the unchanging Word;
Each from age to age proclaiming God the One, the righteous Lord!
’Mid the world’s despair and turmoil One firm anchor holding fast:
God eternal reigns forever, God the first and God the last.
God has spoken by Christ Jesus, Christ, the everlasting Son,
Brightness of the Father’s glory, With the Father ever one;
Spoken by the Word incarnate, God of God ere time was born;
Light of light, to earth descending, Christ as God in human form.
God is speaking by the Spirit, Speaking to our hearts again,
In the age-long word declaring God’s own message, now as then.
Through the rise and fall of nations One sure faith is standing fast:
God abides, the Word unchanging, God the first and God the last.
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
The simplicity of this profound hymn belies the education and knowledge of its author, Edwin Hatch (1835-1889). Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, Hatch ministered in an Anglican parish in the slums of east London before accepting a position at Trinity College in Quebec where he taught classics. After serving as Rector of Quebec High School, he returned to Oxford to become the vice-principal of St. Mary’s Hall, and took several posts including the Bampton Lecturer, Reader in Ecclesiastical History, and the Hibbert Lecturer. Hatch was recognized as an authority on the early church as a result of his Bampton Lectures, “On the Organization of Early Christian Churches,” which were acknowledged by a leading continental scholar on this topic and translated into German.
In spite of Hatch’s scholarship, his one remaining hymn reflects both a profound simplicity and a deep knowledge of Scripture. Our hymn draws largely from John 20:21-22, following John’s account of the Resurrection, for its inspiration: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even, so send I you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (RSV) This passage in John correlates with Genesis 2:7 where “the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The author invokes the Holy Spirit to come into his life and transform it. Using the first-person perspective throughout the hymn adds to the hymn’s power as the singer seeks the breath of God (Genesis 2:7) as a source for renewal.
British hymnologist J.R. Watson notes that the hymn “was given the title of ‘Spiritus Dei’ [Spirit of God], thus linking the image of ‘breath’ with that of the Holy Spirit (as in the Greek, where the same word is used for ‘spirit’ and ‘breath.’)” Mr. Watson also finds echoes of John 3:3-8, especially verses 5-7: “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’” Summarizing the message of the hymn, Mr. Watson suggests that the breath of God “brings new life and love, purity and obedience, surrender and inspiration, and finally eternal life, as the hymn moves through various stages of Christian experience and discipline towards a unity with God.”
The hymn was first published by Hatch in Between Doubt and Prayer (1878), a privately printed volume. Henry Allon included it in the hymnal, The Congregational Psalmist in 1886. Hatch’s widow then published this hymn posthumously in Towards Fields of Light: Sacred Poems (1890).
The tune most often used in the U.S. is Trentham, named for a small village in Staffordshire, England, which was composed by Robert Jackson (1842-1914) in 1888 originally for a text by Henry W. Baker, “O Perfect Love of Life.” For those who appreciate the intricacies of text and tune relationships, Trentham is the only Short Meter tune (6.6.8.6) in The UM Hymnal that works well with this text. Most Short Meter tunes are set with iambic texts (beginning on a weak beat) while this hymn requires a tune that begins on a strong beat because each stanza starts with an imperative verb invoking God to “Breathe on me.”
Breathe on me, Breath of God, Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love, And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will, To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life Of Thine eternity.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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