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:
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - James Mansfield
(c.1987, Lorenz Publishing)
"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" ("A rose has sprung up"), most commonly translated to English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" or "A Spotless Rose", is a Christmas carol and Marian Hymn of German origin. The text is thought to be penned by an anonymous author, and the piece first appeared in print in the late 16th century. The English translation "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" was written by Theodore Baker in 1894.
This German carol from the Rhineland region combines the story of Luke 1-2 and Matthew 2 with Isaiah's prophecies about the "rose" from the "stem of Jesse " (Isa. 11:1; 35:1-2). Stanzas 1 and 2 are a combination of folklore ("amid the cold of winter") and Christological interpretation of Isaiah 11:1 and 35: 1-2. Stanza 3 introduces imagery from John 1.
"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," may date to the fifteenth century. However, the earliest manuscript containing the text, found in St. Alban's Carthusian monastery in Trier and preserved in the Trier municipal library, is dated around 1580. It was first published with twenty-three stanzas in Alte catholische geistliche Kirchengesiinge (Cologne, 1599). Originally stanza 2 interpreted the "rose" as being Mary, mother of Jesus, but in Musae Sionae (1609) Michael Praetorius changed the interpretation to point to Christ as the rose in accord with actual biblical imagery.
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to improve the relationship between Protestants and Catholics. After receiving his musical education, from 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he served at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He served in the duke's State Orchestra, first as organist and later (from 1604) as Kapellmeister.
His first compositions appeared around 1602/3. Their publication primarily reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the first in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices; as a result, they established him as a proficient composer. These "modern" pieces mark the end of his middle creative period. The nine parts of his Musae Sioniae (1605–10) and the 1611 published collections of liturgical music (masses, hymns, magnificats) follow the German Protestant chorale style. From 1613 until his death, Praetorius was employed by the court in Dresden, where he was declared Kapellmeister von Haus aus and worked with Heinrich Schütz.
A literal translation of the original German text is:
A rose has sprung up, from a tender root.
As the old ones sang to us, Its lineage was from Jesse.
And it has brought forth a floweret In the middle of the cold winter
Well at half the night.
The rosebud that I mean, Of which Isaiah told
Is Mary, the pure, Who brought us the floweret.
At God’s immortal word, She has borne a child
And remained a pure maid. Who makes us blessed.
The floweret, so small That smells so sweet to us
With its clear light Dispels the darkness.
True man and true God! He helps us from all trouble,
Saves us from sin and death.
Regular text:
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a Floweret bright, Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night.
Isaiah ‘twas foretold it, The Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, The Virgin Mother kind.
To show God’s love aright She bore to men a Savior
When half-spent was the night.
This Flower, whose fragrance tender With sweetness fills the air;
Dispels with glorious splendor The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God, From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load.
James Mansfield (1927–2018) was born in Toronto, Canada. He earned a B.M. in Theory/Piano from Cornell College (1949; Mt. Vernon, Iowa) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Iowa (1950, 1961). He served as professor at two universities (including the University of Guam) before joining The Lorenz Corporation as an editor and staff composer in 1981. Mansfield retired from the Lorenz editorial staff in 1992. He also wrote a number of concert music works and several novels. In his many years of association with Lorenz, Mansfield published numerous compositions and arrangements both with his own name and using several pen names, including Thomas Chesterton, Brian Glyncannon, Humphrey Turner, Lucy Ann Warringer, Charity Boyles, Mercy Bartlett, Thomas Bliss, John Scriveyner, and Joseph Prentiss.
Ave Maria - Noel Jones
(c.2000, Frog Music Press)
Every faith has its important creeds and prayers. In Christian denominations, one such example is 'The Lord's Prayer', which many members have memorized at an early age. An important prayer for the Roman Catholic Church is Ave Maria or 'Hail, Mary'. It's the best known of their Marian prayers. The Ave Maria is also used in the Greek Orthodox and Lutheran churches. The text is historically divided into two parts, with the third part being added later. The first part is based on Luke 1:28 which recounts the Angel Gabriel greeting the Blessed Virgin Mary on the day of the Annunciation. This is when the Angel tells Mary that she will be overcome by the Holy Spirit and bear a son. The middle section is based on Luke 1:40-42 and recounts St. Elizabeth greeting Mary. Mary, now pregnant, has gone to visit her relative Elizabeth who's also pregnant. When Elizabeth hears Mary's greeting, the baby in her own womb (who will be John the Baptist) leaps for joy. Elizabeth tells Mary that she is blessed, as is the child she is carrying (who will be Jesus Christ). A final portion was added around 1440. It identifies Mary's holiness and adds a petition for intercession.
Hail Mary, full of grace, Mary, full of grace,
Mary, full of grace,
Hail, Hail, the Lord. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed,
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Thy womb, Jesus.
Hail Mary!
This setting of the "Ave Maria" is a much-recorded aria, composed by Vladimir Vavilov around 1970. Vavilov himself published and recorded it in 1970 on the Melodiya label with the ascription "Anonymous". It is believed that organist Mark Shakhin, one of the performers on the "Melodiya" LP, first ascribed the work to Giulio Caccini after Vavilov's death, and gave the "newly-discovered scores" to other musicians.
Vladimir Fyodorovich Vavilov (1925-1973) was a Russian guitarist, lutenist and composer. He was a student of Pyotr Isakov (guitar) and Iogann Admoni (composition) at the Rimski-Korsakov Music College in Leningrad. Vavilov was active as a performer on both lute and guitar, as a music editor for a state music publishing house, and more importantly, as a composer. He routinely ascribed his own works to other composers, usually of the Renaissance or Baroque (occasionally from later eras), usually with total disregard of the appropriate style, in the spirit of other mystificators of the previous eras. His works achieved enormous circulation, and some of them achieved true folk-music status, with several poems set to his melodies.
Noel Jones has arranged this aria for organ solo. Jones is the director and composer for Frog Music Press, and has written hymn and chant settings, as well as anthems, solo organ works, and many other music settings for Catholic worship.
From Heaven Above - Robert Benson
(c.2003, Augsburg Fortress)
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") is a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus, written by Martin Luther in 1534. The hymn is most often sung to a melody that first appeared in 1539 and that was likely composed by Luther as well. That version became a classic Christmas carol, and many composers referred to it in their compositions. "Vom Himmel hoch" was first published as a hymn with 15 stanzas of four lines in the "Wittenberg hymnal" of 1535, under the header "Ein kinderlied auff die Weinacht Christi" ("A children's song on the Nativity of Christ"). In that publication, the text was coupled to the melody of the then well-known secular song "Ich kumm aus frembden Landen her." It was Luther's only contrafactum, reusing a tune of a secular composition for a religious text. In 1539, the hymn was published with a new melody that was probably composed by Luther himself, in Geistliche lieder / auffs new gebessert vnd gemehrt /zu Witteberg. D. Marti. Luther. Viel Geistliche gesenge / von andern frommen Christen gemacht. Gedruckt zu Leyptzick durch Valten Schumann (Spiritual Songs / newly improved and extended / … made by other pious Christians …).
The traditional English lyrics are a translation made by Catherine Winkworth (with all 15 verses) in 1855:
From heaven above to earth I come To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring, Whereof I now will say and sing:
To you this night is born a child Of Mary, chosen virgin mild;
This little child, of lowly birth, Shall be the joy of all the earth.
This is the Christ, our God and Lord, Who in all need shall aid afford;
He will Himself your Savior be From all your sins to set you free.
He will on you the gifts bestow Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair, You may with us His glory share.
These are the tokens ye shall mark: The swaddling-clothes and manger dark;
There ye shall find the Infant laid By whom the heavens and earth were made.
Now let us all with gladsome cheer Go with the shepherds and draw near
To see the precious gift of God, Who hath His own dear Son bestowed.
Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes! What is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this child, so young and fair? The blessed Christ-child lieth there.
Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest, Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com’st to share my misery; What thanks shall I return to Thee?
Ah, Lord, who hast created all, How weak art Thou, how poor and small,
That Thou dost choose Thine infant bed Where humble cattle lately fed!
Were earth a thousand times as fair, Beset with gold and jewels rare,
It yet were far too poor to be A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
For velvets soft and silken stuff Thou hast but hay and straw so rough,
Whereon Thou, King, so rich and great, As ’twere Thy heaven, art throned in state.
And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee To make this truth quite plain to me,
That all the world’s wealth, honor, might, Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy doth leap, My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue That sweetest ancient cradle-song:
Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto us His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth A glad new year to all the earth.
Dr. Robert Benson received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He has been an organist and choir master since the age of 16, serving churches throughout the Midwest including St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, Michigan, and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Oxford, Ohio. Benson currently composes for choir, organ and other instruments. He is professor emeritus at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Benson is an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and former dean of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
About the Choral Music:
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - John A. Behnke
(c.2019, Birnamwood Publications)
O come, O come, Emmanuel is a Christian hymn for Advent. While it is most commonly known by that English title, it is in fact a translation of the original Latin, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel; translations into other modern languages (particularly German) are also in widespread use. The 1861 translation from Hymns Ancient and Modern is the most prominent by far in the English-speaking world, but other English translations also exist. The hymn is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas. The words and the music of "O come, O come, Emmanuel" developed separately. The Latin text is first documented in Germany in 1710, whereas the tune most familiar in the English-speaking world has its origins in 15th-century France.
The pre-history of the text stretches back to the origins of the O Antiphons, which were in existence by, at the latest, the eighth century. They were paraphrased extensively by the English poet Cynewulf in a poem written before the year 800. While "O come, O come, Emmanuel" is often linked with the 12th century, the earliest surviving evidence of the hymn's text is in the seventh edition of Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. That hymnal was a major force in the history of German church music: first assembled by Jesuit hymnographer Johannes Herringsdorf in 1610 and receiving numerous revised editions through 1868, it achieved enormous impact due to its use in Jesuit schools.
The text of the Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum version is essentially expanded, rather than altered, over the subsequent centuries. That version exhibits all of the hymn's characteristic qualities: it is strophic and metrical, and the order is altered so that the last of the O Antiphons (the titular "Veni Emmanuel") becomes the first verse of the hymn. Each stanza consists of a four-line verse, which adapts one of the antiphons, and a new two-line refrain ("Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel \ nascetur pro te, Israel," i.e. "Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel \ Shall come to thee, O Israel"), which provides an explicitly Advent-oriented response to the petition of the verse.
The familiar tune called Veni Emmanuel was first linked with this hymn in 1851, when Thomas Helmore published it in the Hymnal Noted, paired with an early revision of Neale's English translation of the text. The volume listed the tune as being "From a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon." The pairing of the hymn text with the Veni Emmanuel tune was an extremely significant combination. The hymn text was embraced both out of a Romantic interest in poetic beauty and medieval exoticism and out of a concern for matching hymns to liturgical seasons and functions rooted in the Oxford Movement in the Church of England. The Hymnal Noted, in which the words and tune were first combined, represented these goals. This hymnal consisted entirely of versions of Latin hymns, designed for use as Office hymns within the Anglican Church despite the fact that Office hymns had no part in the authorized liturgy. The music was drawn chiefly from plainchant, as was the case with the Veni Emmanuel tune for "O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
John Behnke is Professor of Music at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin where he teaches organ, graduate handbell courses, directs The Alleluia Ringers, Concordia's touring handbell choir and the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble. He is also the Music Editor for AGEHR Music - Handbell Musicians of America. Behnke is a frequent organ recitalist, handbell clinician, and festival director. He enjoys composing and arranging having over 250 handbell, choral, and organ compositions in print.
O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear,
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high, And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, desire of nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease And be Thyself our King of peace
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel
Shall come to thee, O Israel. Emmanuel.
Blessed Be the God of Israel
Canon Michael Perry (1942-1996), a most beloved Anglican priest and hymn writer, was born in Beckenham, Kent, England. He was elected to the General Synod of the Church of England in 1985. In 1989 he was appointed to his last posting as Vicar of Tonbridge, Kent. He was appointed chairman of the Church Pastoral Aid Society in 1993. In the early 1960s, Michael Baughen founded the Jubilate group. According to Perry, the group pooled their talents to meet the challenge of a new generation in the UK who wished to extend their singing beyond the foursquare ways of metrical hymnody and the unpredictability of Anglican chant. With the newfound popularity of his “Calypso Carol” and the support of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, Youth Praise 2 was published in 1969.
In that same year, Baughen began a new project to revitalize the use of Psalms. Perry had been working on paraphrases, including his famous paraphrase of the “Benedictus,” “O praise the God of Israel,” as well as several Psalms. Baughen asked him to join this project, which was published in 1973 as Praise Psalms. Perry felt that chant settings of the canticles were difficult for ordinary congregations to easily sing. Soon after his ordination, he began to render the canticles from the Book of Common Prayer (1662) into metrical paraphrases. He wanted not only to make them easier to sing, but also to be more easily understood. “Blessed be God” is one such paraphrase of the “Benedictus” or the “Song of Zechariah.” One of 300 hymns, Perry first published his paraphrase in Praise Psalms under the title “O Praise the God of Israel.”
The text of the “Benedictus” comes from Luke 1:68-79. Zechariah had been made dumb during his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. When he hears of his son’s birth, his tongue is loosed for his song of praise to the Lord God of Israel. The first eight verses of the “Benedictus” parallel the “Magnificat” and the last four identify John the Baptist as Jesus’ forerunner. Because of its imagery of Christ as the “dayspring” or “dawn” of God’s new creation, it became associated with the morning office of Constantinople and with lauds in the Roman and Benedictine offices. A variety of terms refer to John the Baptist in stanza two including “herald,” “forerunner,” “prophet of salvation” and “harbinger.” Perry condenses the metaphor in the canticle referring to Christ as the “day-spring from on high” and John as the messenger as the “harbinger of Day.” The last line of the hymn—“with songs that never cease!”—would seem to be a hyperbole at first glance, but the text is a literal understanding of eschatology. Our songs will never cease in heaven.
MERLE’S TUNE is a hymn tune composed by American composer Hal Hopson (b.1933) in 1983. Hal Hopson was born in Mound, Texas, in a family of thirteen children where music making figured prominently. His first piano teacher was his older sister, Merle, whom he holds in deep regard for her enormous musical and personal influences on his life. The hymn tune, MERLE'S TUNE, is named in her honor.
Blest be the God of Israel, who comes to set us free,
who visits and redeems us, and grants us liberty.
The prophets spoke of mercy, of freedom and release;
God shall fulfill the promise to bring the gift of peace.
Now from the house of David a child of grace is given,
a Savior comes among us to raise us up to heaven.
Before him goes the herald, forerunner in the way,
the prophet of salvation, the harbinger of day.
On prisoners of darkness the sun begins to rise,
the dawning of forgiveness upon the sinner's eyes,
to guide the feet of pilgrims along the paths of peace.
O bless our God and Savior with songs that never cease!
About the Hymns:
Hail to the Lord’s Annointed
James Montgomery (1771-1854) was a Moravian minister and writer. In addition to his religious writings and hymns, he was the editor and a writer for a newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. As such, he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hymns, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety to his life. After his death, a statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honor.
As a writer of hymns, he ranks in popularity with Wesley, Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Cowper. Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms) more than 100 are still in common use. His finest lyrics are "Angels from the realms of glory," "Go to dark Gethsemane," "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," and "Songs of praise the angels sang." “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” is Montgomery's best psalm rendering. It is based on Psalm 72 and was written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements, perhaps Fulneck, in the United Kingdom, Christmas, 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm (Tune: Culmstock)."
Published in a chapel hymnal for the Duke of Würtemberg (Gesangbuch der Herzogl, 1784), ELLACOMBE (the name of a village in Devonshire, England) was first set to the words "Ave Maria, klarer und lichter Morgenstern." During the first half of the nineteenth century various German hymnals altered the tune. Since ELLACOMBE's inclusion in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, where it was set to John Daniell's children's hymn "Come, Sing with Holy Gladness," its use throughout the English-speaking world has spread.
Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free;
to take away transgression, and rule in equity.
He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying are precious in his sight.
He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;
love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.
Before him on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;
his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love.
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
Kathleen Thomerson (b. 1934) is Organist and Music Director at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. She was born in Tennessee and grew up in Mississippi, California, and Texas. College music study was at the Universities of Colorado and Texas, the Flemish Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, and privately in Paris. Before retirement in Austin, she lived in Collinsville, Illinois, when her husband was a biology professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Her best-known hymn text is "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light." It was written as a scriptural meditation and prayer. It was inspired by many Bible verses, including Genesis 1:17, Isaiah 60:19, Psalm 75:16, Psalm 139:12, Ephesians 3:17, Ephesians 5:8, Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 2 Peter 1:19, 1 John 1:5-7, and Revelation 21:23.
I want to walk as a child of the light; I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to give light to the world;
The star of my life is Jesus.
I want to see the brightness of God. I want to look at Jesus.
Clear Sun of Righteousness, shine on my path,
and show me the way to the Father.
I’m looking for the coming of Christ. I want to be with Jesus.
When we have run with patience the race,
we shall know the joy of Jesus.
In him there is no darkness at all;
The night and the day are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
