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:
Kuckuck in Stiller Nacht - Andrej Harinek
(c.2018, Andrej Harinek)
Andrej Harinek (b.1981) was born in Bánovce nad Bebravou, Slovakia. He graduated from the St.Ursula´s Gymnasium in Bratislava and Medical Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava in general medicine. He studied church music at Diocesan Conservatory for Church Music in Vienna, and organ at University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. From 1994-2015 he was an organist at the “Triumph of the Cross” Church in Bratislava. In 2011-2015, he worked as assistant at the Institut for physiology at Comenius University in Bratislava. Since 2015, he is a doctor at a neurological clinic in Landshut, Germany.
“Kuckuck in Stiller Nacht “ depicts the bird calls of a cuckoo at the manger, incorporating bits of “Silent Night”.
Fanfare on "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” - Robert Hobby
(c.2000 MorningStar Music Publishers)
The carol we now know as "Hark! the herald angels sing" did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Wesley's original, written as a Christmas Day hymn and first published in 1739, is made up of ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now. It is interesting to note that in the original version of Wesley's, the heavens ring with the phrase "Glory to the King of kings," echoing Luke's "Glory to God in the highest heaven." George Whitfield, who had been a student with Wesley, changed this to "Glory to the newborn King" in 1753. His fairly revolutionary Calvinist position was not compatible with Wesley's gentler reforming approach, which eventually bore fruit in the Methodist movement that he and his brother John inspired, Whitfield maintained the four-line verses of Wesley's original, but changed the angels' emphasis: "Glory to the newborn King" means something slightly but significantly different from "Glory to the King of kings." In the Gospel account, the angels praise God, whereas in "Hark! the herald angels sing," they are inaccurately described as praising Jesus. Furthermore, Luke does not say that the angels "sing," and so it may well be that this reinterpretation by Whitfield has emphasized the popular but unscriptural picture of angels singing the Gloria. ("While shepherds watched" also implies that they sang.) Whitfield also cut the final verses, which are now largely forgotten:
Come, desire of nations, come, Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman's conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent's head.
Now display thy saving power, Ruin'd nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join Thine to ours, and ours to thine.
Adam's likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in thy love.
Let us thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the life, the inner man:
O, to all thyself impart, Form'd in each believing heart.
There is some real theological insight in these neglected verses. First of all we notice the Advent antiphon "Come, desire of nations, come," followed by a reference to the Fall, with the serpent bruising the heel of humanity and Adam bruising its head (Genesis 3:15). Wesley cleverly alters the meaning, asking that the serpent in us (sin) should be bruised (defeated) by Christ, the second Adam, who reinstates us as beloved sons and daughters of God. In the restoration of sinful humanity to a state of grace through the incarnation of Christ, the joining of divine and human nature is also achieved. Consequently, that which was lost (salvation) is gained and a new life is granted to all believers.
The familiar tune, MENDELSSOHN, is an adaptation of a melody from Felix Mendelssohn’s Festgesang for male chorus and orchestra.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”
Joyful, all you nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,
Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail, incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with us to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail, the Son of righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise each child of earth, Born to give us second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
Robert A. Hobby (b. 1962) currently serves as Director of Music for Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his responsibilities include playing for many of the worship services, overseeing the graded choral program, and managing the concerts the church offers. Numerous activities during his tenure include Trinity Church establishing a choral series with seventeen composers commissioned thus far, hosting a regional convention of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, producing four recordings, and expanding the opportunities for music ministry.
About the Piano Music:
The Manger Song - Linda McKechnie
(c.2003, Pilot Point Music)
McKecknie has written a medley of three Christmas Carols: Away in a Manger, Coventry Carol, and Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.
The origin of this popular Christmas hymn is shrouded in apocryphal associations with Martin Luther (1483-1546). Methodist hymnologist Fred Gealy (1894-1976) noted that “evidence suggests that [“Away in a Manger”] is wholly an American product. The original two-stanza form probably originated among German Lutherans in Pennsylvania about 1885.” The hymn first appeared with two stanzas in Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families, a Sunday school collection published in 1885 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America.
Stanza three first appeared unattributed in Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs (1892), compiled by gospel composer Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932). Gealy conjectured “the song may have been contributed by an editor or publisher who thought the two narrative stanzas needed to be supplemented by a prayer.”
The only German version of the carol is clearly a translation from the English because the metrics are not natural to the German language. Furthermore, this version was first included in Herbert W. Werneke’s Christmas Songs and Weihnachts-Lieder (1934), a privately published collection. The false association between “Away in a Manger” and Luther appears to have been made by James R. Murray (1841-1905), who in his Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887) called it “‘Luther’s Cradle Hymn,’ composed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.” However, no one has uncovered an original German version by the reformer. Theophilus Baker Stork (1814-1874) wrote Luther at Home (1872), in which he stated, “Luther’s carol for Christmas, written for his own child Hans, is still sung.” The irony of this assertion is that we actually have a Luther hymn that may have been written for young Hans, “Von Himmel hoch da komm ich her” (1531), published in Joseph Klug’s Gesangsbuch (1535).
“Away in a Manger” is sung to several tunes. With the original two-stanza text, AWAY IN A MANGER, also known as MUELLER, was first published in James R. Murray's Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887) and initialed “J. R. M.” Murray (1841-1905) compiled the songbook and is now thought to be the tune's composer. However, Murray's hymnbook erroneously described this song as: "Luther's Cradle Hymn. Composed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones." As a result, the hymn was wrongly attributed to Luther for many years. As a young man taught by such famous music teachers as Lowell Mason, George Root, and William Bradbury, Murray also studied at the Musical Institute in North Reading, Massachusetts. From 1868 until the Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed the company, he edited the Song Messenger for the publishing firm of Root and Cady. He then returned to his birth place, Andover, and taught music in the public schools. From 1881 to 1905 he was an editor for the John Church Company of Cincinnati, an important publisher of church school materials and gospel music, including the monthly Musical Visitor. Murray composed many gospel songs and tunes and compiled a number of church school songbooks that contained his music.
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.
The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes ,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky,
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.
Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with Thee there.
"Coventry Carol" is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew. Many think this is a lullaby to Baby Jesus, but rather, the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed, and takes the form of a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed children. It is a song of mourning and lament.
The carol is the second of three songs included in the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, a nativity play that was one of the Coventry Mystery Plays, originally performed by the city's guilds.
The exact date of the text is unknown, though there are references to the Coventry guild pageants from 1392 onwards. The single surviving text of the carol and the pageant containing it was edited by one Robert Croo, who dated his manuscript 14 March 1534. Croo, or Crowe, acted for some years as the 'manager' of the city pageants. Over a twenty-year period, payments are recorded to him for playing the part of God in the Drapers' Pageant, for making a hat for a "pharysye", and for mending and making other costumes and props, as well as for supplying new dialogue and for copying out the Shearmen and Tailors' Pageant in a version which Croo described as "newly correcte". Croo seems to have worked by adapting and editing older material, while adding his own rather ponderous and undistinguished verse.
Religious changes caused the plays' suppression during the later 16th century, but Croo's prompt-book, including the songs, survived and a transcription was eventually published by the Coventry antiquarian Thomas Sharp in 1817 as part of his detailed study of the city's mystery plays. Sharp published a second edition in 1825 which included the songs' music. Both printings were intended to be a facsimile of Croo's manuscript, copying both the orthography and layout; this proved fortunate as Croo's original manuscript, which had passed into the collection of the Birmingham Free Library, was destroyed in a fire there in 1879.[2] Sharp's transcriptions are therefore the only source; Sharp had a reputation as a careful scholar, and his copying of the text of the women's carol appears to be accurate.
Within the pageant, the carol is sung by three women of Bethlehem, who enter on stage with their children immediately after Joseph is warned by an angel to take his family to Egypt: Sharp's publication of the text stimulated some renewed interest in the pageant and songs, particularly in Coventry itself. Although the Coventry mystery play cycle was traditionally performed in summer, the lullaby has been in modern times regarded as a Christmas carol. It was brought to a wider audience after being featured in the BBC's Empire Broadcast at Christmas 1940, shortly after the Bombing of Coventry in World War II, when the broadcast concluded with the singing of the carol in the bombed-out ruins of the Cathedral.
The carol's music was added to Croo's manuscript at a later date by Thomas Mawdyke, his additions being dated 13 May 1591. Mawdyke wrote out the music in three-part harmony, though whether he was responsible for its composition is debatable, and the music's style could be indicative of an earlier date. The three (alto, tenor and baritone) vocal parts confirm that, as was usual with mystery plays, the parts of the "mothers" singing the carol were invariably played by men.[10] The original three-part version contains a "startling" false relation (F# in treble, F in tenor) at "by, by".
Mawdyke, who may be identifiable with a tailor of that name living in the St Michael's parish of Coventry in the late 16th century, is thought to have made his additions as part of an unsuccessful attempt to revive the play cycle in the summer of 1591, though in the end the city authorities chose not to support the revival. The surviving pageants were revived in the Cathedral from 1951 onwards.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay;
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay.
O sisters, too, how may we do, For to preserve this day;
This poor Young thing for whom we do sing, By, by, lully, lullay.
Herod the King, in his raging, Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight, All children young to slay.
Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee, And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting nor say nor sing, By, by, lully, lullay.
“W Żkobie Leży” ("In a manger lies") may date back to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. However, it was not published until the early twentieth century, when it was included with its traditional tune in Spiewniczek Piesni Koscielne (1908). "W żłobie leży" was translated to English by Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed (1885-1933) as “Infant holy, Infant lowly” and was published in December, 1920, in Primary Education: A Monthly Journal for Primary Teacher.
Reed was an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and assisted Percy Scholes in editorial work. During World War I, she edited The Music Student, Music and Youth, and Panpipes, and continued as editor of the latter two after the end of the war. She traveled widely, was devoted to athletics and outdoor life, wrote two Christmas plays, and authored Story Lives of the Great Composers.
Infant holy, Infant lowly, For His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, Little knowing Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging Angels singing, Nowells ringing, Tidings bringing,
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Flocks were sleeping, Shepherds keeping Vigil till the morning new ;
Saw the glory, Heard the story, Tidings of a Gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, Free from sorrow, Praises voicing, Greet the morrow,
Christ the Babe was born for you!
Linda grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in a very musical family and started playing the piano at the age of four. As a 2nd grader, Linda remembers accompanying her 2nd grade class for their Christmas program. Unusual as it might seem, she loved to practice, play by ear, compose her own melodies, and had a real passion to express her young Christian faith through the hymns and choruses of the church. She has written arrangements for piano and for handbells. She served as organist/pianist at Grace Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX for 25 years. As a past President of the Handbell Musicians of America, Linda realized that ringing handbells could be accomplished by anyone, even the functionally challanged. Linda launched a handbell program at the Brookwood Community outside Houston, TX.
About the Choral Music:
Did the Stars Hold Their Breath? - Jay Rouse
(c.2019, Lorenz Publishing Company)
This Christmas anthem from Jay Rouse with text by Rose Aspinall is a meditation on how all of nature responded to the arrival of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Jay Rouse is one of the premier choral arrangers in Christian music. He has over three hundred and fifty compositions and arrangements published, including over thirty major sacred choral works, fifty best‑selling a cappella arrangements, a highly recognized hymn series for choir or piano and solo instrument entitled Piano Plus, and a number of best‑selling solo piano books and recordings. Mr. Rouse is a Dove Award winning producer and has logged many hours on the road traveling in the music ministry. He spent over ten years as musical director and accompanist for Sandi Patty. In addition to his work as a keyboard artist, composer, and arranger he has been the primary producer and conductor for all of the choral and instrumental publications from Praise Gathering Music Group and Gaither Music Company over the last two decades.
Did the stars hold their breath the night that You came?
The Divine wrapped in swaddling clothes?
Did they pause for a moment, Redeemer in flesh;
Did they weep while You made Yourself known?
Oh mystery, our God with us, by grace His Love made known.
Oh mystery, our God with us. Redemption to us is shown!
Redemption to us is shown!
Did the mountains all shiver a protest of fear when
when you came and You entered our pain?
Did the demons all tremble the night You appeared?
Did they shrink at the sound of Your name?
Oh mystery, our God with us, by grace His Love made known.
Oh mystery, our God with us. Redemption to us is shown!
Emmanuel has come! God’s only Son.
Now by grace His Love is made known!
Oh mystery, our God with us, by grace His Love made known.
Oh mystery, our God with us. Redemption to us is shown!
Redemption to us is shown!
Did the stars hold their breath the night You came?
About the Hymns:
Come, Let Us Use the Grace Divine
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepened, and he became one of the first band of "Oxford Methodists.” In 1735 he went with his brother John to Georgia, as secretary to General Oglethorpe, having before he set out received Deacon's and Priest's Orders on two successive Sundays. His stay in Georgia was very short; he returned to England in 1736, and in 1737 came under the influence of Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians. On Whitsunday, 1737, he "found rest to his soul," and he became curate to his friend, Mr. Stonehouse, Vicar of Islington, but the opposition of the churchwardens was so great that the Vicar consented that he "should preach in his church no more." Henceforth his work was identified with that of his brother John, and he became an indefatigable itinerant and field preacher. On April 8, 1749, he married Miss Sarah Gwynne, who would accompany him on his evangelistic journeys, which were as frequent as ever until the year 1756," when he ceased to itinerate, and mainly devoted himself to the care of the Societies in London and Bristol and the spiritual care of prisoners in Newgate.
As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly marvellous how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumours of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift. Nor must we forget his hymns for little children, a branch of sacred poetry in which the mantle of Dr. Watts seems to have fallen upon him. It would be simply impossible within our space to enumerate even those of the hymns which have become really classical. The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.
The Wesleys used hymns to highlight specific occasions and theological concepts. Charles Wesley’s “Come, Let Us Use the Grace Divine” has regularly been used for the annual Covenant Renewal Service, in both England and the United States, usually taking place on the first Sunday of the year. Though this is a natural use for this hymn, there is no direct evidence that this was its intended use by the Wesleys. This hymn is from the collection, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (1762), originally published in three, eight-line stanzas. Later, it was included in the primary hymn source compiled by John Wesley, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) under the section “For the Society Praying.” A signature hymn of the Wesleys, it has appeared in virtually all nineteenth- and twentieth-century Methodist hymnals. Except for very minor changes in a few phrases for the sake of improving prosody, the hymn comes to us virtually intact from its original publication.
The hymn was based on Jeremiah 50:5, “Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” (KJV) Scripture so permeated the lives of the Wesleys that their hymns contain many allusions to, and sometimes direct quotations from, the Bible. This covenant is one of individuals made within a Christian community. It is a solemn promise that we will “no more our God forsake” and “never will throw off the fear of God who hears our vow.” The final line of stanza two petitions God to “come down and meet us now” if God is pleased with our promise. For those who keep this covenant, the final stanza states that Christ’s “blood appl[ies]” and “takes our sin away.” The phrase “blood apply” is a favorite of Charles Wesley. As Methodist scholar Paul Chilcote has noted, for Charles Wesley, to say “blood applied” is virtually synonymous with another favorite Wesleyan phrase, “grace applied.” As is often the case in Charles Wesley’s hymns, the ultimate reward is found in heaven where Christ “will register our names on high and keep us to that day!”
Thought by some scholars to date back to the Middle Ages, KINGSFOLD is a folk tune set to a variety of texts in England and Ireland. The tune was published in English Country Songs (1893), an anthology compiled by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal (1906) as a setting for Horatius Bonar's "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”.
Come, let us use the grace divine, and all with one accord,
in a perpetual covenant join ourselves to Christ the Lord;
Give up ourselves, thru Jesus' power, his name to glorify;
and promise, in this sacred hour, for God to live and die.
The covenant we this moment make be ever kept in mind;
we will no more our God forsake, or cast these words behind.
We never will throw off the fear of God who hears our vow;
and if thou art well pleased to hear, come down and meet us now.
Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, let all our hearts receive,
present with thy celestial host the peaceful answer give;
to each covenant the blood apply which takes our sins away,
and register our names on high and keep us to that day!
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Fisk Jubilee Singers (drawing their name from Leviticus 25—the year of jubilee) were founded as a ten-member touring ensemble to raise funds for debt-ridden Fisk University. Taking the entire contents of the University treasury with them for travel expenses, they departed on October 6, 1871, from Nashville on their difficult, but ultimately successful eighteen-month tour, a triumph that is still celebrated annually as Jubilee Day on the campus. Though not the original repertoire of the group, by the time they reached New York in December of that year, their concerts grew to include more and more spirituals, until their program consisted primarily of choral arrangements of spirituals or, according to African American scholars C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya, “anthemized spirituals.”
They have been credited with keeping the Negro spiritual alive. Spirituals scholar Sandra Jean Graham places this development in context: “The students were at first reluctant ambassadors for the songs of their ancestors. As [Jubilee] singer Ella Sheppard recalled, ‘The slave songs were never used by us then in public. They were associated with slavery and the dark past and represented the things to be forgotten. Then, too, they were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship . . . It was only through persuasion that the students sang their spirituals privately for [the University’s treasurer, George L.] White [who was a white man], and through White’s coercion that they sang them in concert.”
Taking the spiritual to white and black audiences in the United States and Europe earned the school and the spiritual an international reputation. The small ensemble of two quartets and a pianist grew to a full choral ensemble. Other historically black colleges eventually followed the same pattern, including Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and Tuskegee Institute (now University, Tuskegee, Alabama).
The earliest version of the spiritual appeared in in Religious Folk Songs of The Negro, as Sung on The Plantations, new edition (1909) with the heading “Christmas Plantation Song” with different stanzas and in slave dialect:
When I was a seeker
I sought both night and day.
I ask de Lord to help me,
An’ He show me de way.
He made me a watchman
Upon the city wall, [a reference to Isaiah 21:11-12]
An’ if I am a Christian
I am the least of all.
Chorus:
Go tell it on de mountain,
Over de hills and everywhere.
Go tell it on de mountain,
Dat Jesus Christ is born.
A few smaller and less broadly circulated versions use these stanzas or a variation, for example, “When I was a sinner . . ..”
African Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) added another harmonization and stanza in the volume he edited, Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro As Sung At Hampton Institute (1927). His stanza follows:
If you cannot sing like Angels,
If you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say he died for all.
Dett’s stanza, or some version of it, is now most commonly associated with the spiritual, “There is a balm in Gilead.”
John Wesley Work, Jr. (1872?-1925), along with his brother Frederick Jerome Work (1878?-1942), led the Fisk Jubilee Singers from 1898-1904. Baptist hymnologist William J. Reynolds cites recollections by John Wesley Work, Jr.’s son about the role of “Go, tell it” on the campus: “[John Wesley Work, III] took pleasure in recalling his early days as a child on the campus of Fisk University where his father was a teacher. Very early on Christmas morning, long before sunrise, it was then the custom for students to gather and walk together from building to building singing [“Go, tell it on the mountain].”
Concert arrangements of spirituals were published in Frederick Work’s New Jubilee Songs, as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1902), a collection that may have been co-edited by John Wesley Work, though his name does not appear in this collection. “Go, tell it” appears in another collection for solo voice and four-part choir edited by John Wesley Work, III (Work, Jr.’s son) in American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular (1940).
Drawing on an adaptation of the Work brothers’ setting, The Pilgrim Hymnal (1958), edited by Hugh Porter (1897-1960), professor in the Sacred Music Department at Union Seminary (New York), was the first mainline hymnal to include the spiritual. John Wesley Work’s stanzas based on Luke 2:8-20 have become the standard versions in hymnals. From this hymnal, versions of “Go, tell it” have spread to the point that it has become one of a “canon” of spirituals found in virtually every hymnal today.
John Wesley Work, Jr. (sometimes designated John Wesley Work II to distinguish him from his son) received his master’s degree from Fisk University, and after further study at Harvard, began teaching Latin and Greek at the University in 1898. He trained the Jubilee Singers and was a leader in preserving and performing African American spirituals. He taught at Fisk University until 1923 when he was relieved of his duties due to changing attitudes toward the spiritual. He then went on to be President of Roger Williams University in Nashville until his death in 1925.
The spiritual has inspired works in other media. Author James Baldwin’s (1924-1987) first major work and semi-autobiographical novel was titled Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953). The novel discusses the role of the paradoxical church as experienced by African Americans, both as the incubator for repression and hypocrisy and as a foundation for hope, identity, and community. The ABC network produced a movie using this title in 1984.
In 1963, the musical team “Peter, Paul and Mary”, along with their musical director, Milt Okun, adapted and rewrote "Go Tell It on the Mountain" as "Tell It on the Mountain", their lyrics referring specifically to Exodus and using the phrase "Let my people go," but referring implicitly to the Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s. According to Religious Studies professor and Civil Rights historian Charles Marsh, it was African American Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer who combined this song with the spiritual "Go Down Moses," taking the last line of the chorus, "Let my people go" and substituting it in the chorus of "Go Tell it on the Mountain". Marsh does not document this claim, but given that Hamer was highly active in Civil Rights work beginning in the 1950s, and that the use of the Exodus story and the singing of spirituals played a central role in her activities, this claim is compelling. The song was recorded by Yarrow, Stookey and Travers on their “Peter, Paul and Mary” album In the Wind and was also a moderately successful single for them.
Regardless of which version that is sung, “Go, tell it on the mountain” has become a truly American contribution to the telling of the Christmas story that is now sung around the world.
Go, tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light
The shepherds feared and trembled When lo! Above the Earth
Rang out the angel chorus That hailed our Savior's birth
Down in a lowly manger Our humble Christ was born,
And God sent us salvation That blessed Christmas morn
Christ Be Beside Me
(c.1987, Faith Alive Christian Resources)
Scottish Jesuit Father James Quinn (1919-2010) was born in Glasgow, Scotland and educated at St. Aloysius' College in Glasgow and Glasgow University. His first hymn collection, New Hymns for All Seasons, was published in 1969, and Praise for All Seasons, which contained texts drawn from some of his earlier works, was published in 1994. In 2017, after becoming sole publisher and licensing agent, OCP published Hymns for All Seasons, the first-ever complete edition of Fr. Quinn's hymn texts. Fr. Quinn worked for decades to make the theology of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) accessible and easily sung by worshipers. He wrote paraphrases of psalms and Scriptures or English translations of Marian prayers to the number of beats in the lines of existing melodies. Many of his texts, set to traditional hymn tunes appear in the English-language hymnals of nearly every Christian denomination around the world. In 1998, the “Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians” praised Father Quinn's ability to articulate the orthodox aspects of Christianity in new and fresh ways. He published more than 200 texts during his lifetime.
This hymn is a reworking of the prayer known as ‘St Patrick’s Breastplate’. The tune ‘Bunessan’ is said to have been noted down by Alexander Fraser from the singing of a wandering Highland singer and appeared in print first in Songs and Hymns of the Gael, which Lachlan McBean published in 1888. McBean was a major influence in widening the appreciation of Gaelic culture in his time.
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart.
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me, shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my life.
Christ be in all hearts thinking about me,
Christ be on all tongues telling of me.
Christ be the vision in eyes that see me,
In ears that hear me Christ ever be.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
