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:
The People of Israel Shall Keep the Sabbath - Charles Ore
(c.2002, Concordia Publishing House)
The song V'sham'ru is a biblical quotation about Shabbat from the book of Exodus. The verses, Exodus 31:16-17 are recited several times over the course of the Sabbath Day. Most notably, they are sung as an introduction to the kiddush on Shabbat morning.
Elsewhere in the Torah, Shabbat is described as a remembrance of God's creation of the world and of God's rest on the seventh day of creation. Shabbat is described in other parts of the Torah as a day to remember the exodus from Egypt and as a day of giving just and necessary rest to workers.
This passage, however, is unique in the Torah for describing Shabbat as a sign of God's covenant with the Jewish people from one generation to the next. In the passage, God states that Shabbat "shall be a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel." Observing Shabbat, according to this idea, is not just a way to remember what God has done for us in the past, it is a way of keeping the relationship between God and the Jewish people alive forever.
This is the meaning behind a famous statement by the early Zionist writer Ahad Ha'am (1856-1927). He wrote, "More than the Jewish people have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews." By observing Shabbat, we maintain our identity as Jews and sustain our relationship with the God of every Jewish generation.
Visham'ru venei Yisrael et haShabbat,
la'asot et haShabbat I'dorotam brit olam.
Beini uvein b'nei Y israel ot hee l'olam.
Kee sheshet yamim ash Adonai
et hashamayim vet ha'aretz.
Uvayom hashvi'i shavat vayinafash.
The people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the
Sabbath in every generation as a covenant for all time.
It shall be a sign forever between Me and the people of
Israel, for in six days the Eternal God made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day God rested.
Charles W. Ore (b.1936) was born in Winfield, Kan. A 1958 graduate of Concordia University in Seward, he was awarded a master of music degree from Northwestern University in. Evanston, Ill., and a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From 1966 to 2001, Charles was professor of music and chair of the Music Department at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. He was also the cantor of Pacific Hills Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska from 1975-2001 and Associate Organist at First-Plymouth Congregational Church, Lincoln, Nebraska from 2001-2006. Charles is an accomplished organ recitalist, composer of organ and choral music, and is a leader in the use and development of improvisation in organ playing. Charles Ore is best known for his organ compositions. His nine volumes of 11 Compositions for Organ, which appeared from 1971 to 2012, comprise the longest-running series in Concordia Publishing House history.
Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebote - Johann Christoph Bach
"Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot" (These are the holy Ten Commandments) is a hymn by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther based on the Ten Commandments. Luther wrote the hymn in twelve stanzas of four lines each as a catechetical setting of the Ten Commandments. In 1524, Luther published the hymn in the Erfurt Enchiridion with a hymn tune, Zahn No. 1951, based on an older melody ("In Gottes Namen Fahren wir”). The hymn is a "Leise", concluding each stanza by "Kyrieleis" (Lord, have mercy.)
An early English translation was titled "That men a godly life might live". It was published in Richard Massie's M. Luther's Spiritual Songs in 1854, and in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal in 1880. Another English translation, used in various Lutheran hymnals since the 1950s, is titled "These Are the Holy Ten Commands.”
These are the holy Ten Commands
Which our Lord God placed in our hands
Through Moses, His own servant true,
When he to Mount Sinai drew. Kyrieleis!
I am alone thy God the Lord,
Thou shalt false worship not afford;
Put thy whole confidence in Me
And love Me right faithfully. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt not take My name in vain
By idle word or speech profane,
And praise but that as good and true
Which I Myself say and do. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt the day which God hath blest
Keep holy, that thy house may rest;
Keep hand and heart from labor free,
That God may thus work in thee. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt give love and honor due
To father, and to mother too,
And help them when their strength decays;
So shalt thou have length of days. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt in sinful wrath not kill,
Nor hate, nor render ill for ill;
Be patient and of gentle mood,
And to thy foe do thou good. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt respect thy marriage vows,
Thy heart give only to thy spouse;
Thy life keep pure, and lest thou sin,
Use temp’rance and discipline. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt abhor
To wring their life-blood from the poor;
But open wide thy kindly hand
To all the poor in the land. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt no faithless witness be,
Nor neighbor harm with calumny;
Defend his innocence from blame;
With charity hide his shame. Kyrieleis!
Thou shalt not seek thy neighbor’s house,
Nor wife, nor servants, nor aught else,
But wish that his such good may be
As thy heart doth wish for thee. Kyrieleis!
God hath giv’n us all these commands
That thou thy sin, O child of man,
Might know, and also well perceive
How unto God man should live. Kyrieleis!
Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, for we
A Mediator have in Thee.
With works we’d perish from the path;
They merit but endless wrath. Kyrieleis!
Johann Sebastian Bach’s life was surrounded by Johann Christophs: an uncle, a cousin, an older brother, and a son. Here we have a chorale prelude by his 1st cousin once removed, who became the town organist in Eisenach in the year 1665 and court chamber musician there in 1700. Prior to Johann Sebastian, Johann Christoph (1642-1703) would have been considered the most famous musician of the Bach family. His work is of the highest quality and, in some instances, has been improperly attributed to Johann Sebastian himself (e.g. the motet Ich lasse dich nicht). Johann Christoph composed choral works (motets and cantatas) and works for organ (preludes and fugues). Johann Sebastian described his cousin as "the great and expressive composer," and performed his works often as did Carl Philipp Emanuel.
About the Hymns:
Go Down, Moses
"Go Down Moses" is an American Negro spiritual. It describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 8:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.
This African American spiritual dates from before the Civil War. It was published in the Jubilee Songs(1872), made popular by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in their concert tours. Often known by its refrain line, "Go down, Moses," the spiritual was also published in J. B. T. Marsh's The Story of the Jubilee Singers with their Songs (1876). "When Israel Was in Egypt's Land" originally had twenty-four stanzas of which modern hymnals usually include four. Commenting on the spiritual’s message, John Lovell, Jr., writes:
"Go Down, Moses" does not employ the undercurrent symbolism of "Steal Away to Jesus" and other such poems. Only a very obtuse listener can miss its point. It says flatly that Moses freed these Egyptian slaves boldly and justly because slavery is wrong. It clearly projects the principles of this experience to all the world: wherever men are held in bondage, they must and shall be freed. The "Let my people go!" refrain is thunderous. It does not argue economic, sociological, historical, and racial points. . . . It wastes no words and moves relentlessly toward its goal of filling every listener with a pervasive contempt for oppression and a resounding enthusiasm for freedom.”
A stanza omitted from modern hymnals makes his point:
We need not always weep and moan. Let my people go!
And wear these slavery chains forlorn. Let my people go!
Sarah Bradford's authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869), quotes Tubman as saying she used "Go Down Moses" as one of two code songs fugitive slaves used to communicate when fleeing Maryland.
When Israel was in Egypt's land, Let my people go,
oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go.
The Lord told Moses what to do, Let my people go,
to lead the Hebrew children through, Let my people go.
As Israel stood by the waterside, Let my people go,
at God's command it did divide, Let my people go.
When they had reached the other shore, Let my people go,
they let the song of triumph soar, Let my people go.
Lord, help us all from bondage flee, Let my people go,
and let us all in Christ be free, Let my people go.
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt's land,
tell old Pharaoh: Let my people go.
Blessed Be the Name
Charles Wesley wrote the hymn "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" in 1738 on the 1st anniversary of his conversion to Christianity. During the Great Revival camp meeting period, Ralph E. Hudson (1803-1901) was professor of vocal music at Mount Union College and was a well known hymn writer and music publisher. He wrote and published nine Christian songbooks during the late 1800s. In 1888, Hudson took lines from Wesley's hymn text, interposed them with the phrase "Blessed be the name of the Lord," and added a chorus.
O for a thousand tongues to sing, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
The glories of my God and King, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Jesus, the name that calms my fears, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
He breaks the pow’r of canceled sin, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
His blood can make the foulest clean, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
I never shall forget that day, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
When Jesus washed my sins away, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, Blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, Blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord!
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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