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:
Sweet Prospect - Don Husted
(c.1972, Broadman Press)
John Granade (1770-1807) came to Christ in 1800 at a Presbyterian camp meeting at Desha’s Creek, Sumner County, Tennessee, after a period of desperate depression. Ordained a Methodist circuit riding preacher, Granade was referred to by the Nashville Banner as the "wild man of Goose Creek" (Sumner County, Tennessee) and was also variously known as "the poet of the backwoods" and "the Wild Man of Holston." For three years he rode the Green, Holston, and Hinckstone circuits. He then settled in southwest Tennessee as a physician-farmer. Granade worked in part in the world of shape-note singing in the Shenandoah Valley, where a variety of musical sources, both sacred and profane, were at play. He had a number of campmeeting hymns in Thomas Hinde's Pilgrim Songster (Cincinnati, 1810) whose preface states: " . . . our two western bards Mr. John A. Granade and Caleb J. Taylor, composed their songs during the great revivals of religion in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee about 1802-1804.”
The tune SWEET PROSPECT was written by William Walker and first published in the shape-note hymnal Southern Harmony, 1835. William Walker was a teacher, singing school master, composer, arranger, and tunebook compiler. He lived most of his life in Spartansburg. His four books were exceptionally influential and are still cited as sources for many early American psalm-tunes and hymn-tunes. His first book, Southern Harmony (1835), was in four-shape "fa-sol-la" notation, and contained many songs for three part a cappella harmony; it became a principal basis for The Sacred Harp (1844). Many of the songs that he wrote or transcribed from oral sources are still sung today in churches, Sacred Harp singings, concerts, and in recordings.
Sweet rivers of redeeming love Lie just before mine eye,
Had I the pinions of a dove I’d to those rivers fly;
I’d rise superior to my pain, With joy outstrip the wind,
I’d cross o’er Jordan’s stormy waves, And leave the world behind.
A few more days, or years at most, My troubles will be o’er;
I hope to join the heav’nly host On Canaan’s happy shore.
My raptured soul shall drink and feast In love’s unbounded sea:
The glorious hope of endless rest Is ravishing for me.
Don Hustad (1918-2013) was one of the giants of Christian music of the 20th century. Hustad had a distinguished ministry and a life-long profession as a recording artist, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor, hymnal editor, and author. He began work as staff musician of Chicago's WMBI in the early 1940s, worked with soloist George Beverly Shea on a weekly broadcast called "Club Time," and served for some 20 years as organist for a popular radio broadcast "Songs in the Night." He taught at Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1946 to 1950, at which time Hustad was appointed director of the Sacred Music Department at Moody Bible Institute—a position he held until 1961. During his 11-year tenure at Moody he developed the Moody Chorale into a superior choral ensemble that achieved fame nationally and internationally. In 1961 he became Crusade organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and directed the Crusader Men Choir in the "Hour of Decision" broadcasts. His publications include over 100 articles and five books. Throughout his career, Hustad devoted considerable energy to music arranging and hymnal editing, serving as editorial consultant and musical advisor to Hope Publishing Company. Among his editorial contributions are fourteen hymnals and songbooks, as well as dozens of collections. In 1989, Hustad was awarded Fellow of the Hymn Society for his outstanding contribution to American hymnody. In 2008, he was honored by the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Conference for his contributions to church music. He earned diplomas as an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), London, UK.
About the Piano Music:
My Shepherd Will Supply My Need - Mark Hayes
(c.2006, Lorenz Publishing)
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was the son of a schoolmaster and was born in Southampton. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, 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 composed for religious worship, "Behold the glories of the Lamb," was written at the age of twenty. 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. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honor can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred. There is a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. The inscription reads, "Happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God.”
Psalm 23 has inspired numerous paraphrases and hymn texts, including this text by Isaac Watts. Watts included it in his large 1719 collection of psalm paraphrases, The Psalms of David Imitated. Psalm 23 remains the most well-loved and often recited psalm, and Isaac Watts' powerful paraphrase, coupled with the peaceful yet strong American folk tune, make this hymn a moving rendition of that psalm. Watts’ interpretation of the last line of psalm, “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever,” gives a new understanding to the original psalm: “No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.” Watts gives us a concrete image of dwelling – a child, knowing he or she is safe and secure, and in a place of love and comfort – to help us understand what it is we hope for. The same peace we find in the pasture and by the stream, we find in the house of the LORD, to which our Shepherd is leading us day by day.
Watts’ text is set to the plaintive, pentatonic folk tune RESIGNATION. The anonymous tune was first printed in Freeman Lewis’ The Beauties of Harmony, 5th ed. (1828), where it was called HOPEWELL, set to “Come, humble sinner in whose breast” by Edmund Jones (1722–1765). This tune was renamed RESIGNATION in Joseph Funk’s Genuine Church Music (1832). It was first paired with Watts’ text in J.W. Steffy’s The Valley Harmonist (Winchester VA: Robinson & Hollis, 1836). This text-tune pairing was more widely disseminated via the Revised Edition of William Walker’s Southern Harmony (Philadelphia: E.W. Miller, 1854). As with the 1828 printing, Walker used shape notes, the four-shape system originally espoused by William Little and William Smith in their Easy Instructor (1801).
My Shepherd, you supply my need, most holy is your name;
in pastures fresh you make me feed, beside the living stream.
You bring my wand'ring spirit back. when I forsake your ways;
you lead me, for your mercy's sake, in paths of truth and grace.
When through the shades of death I walk, your presence is my stay;
one word of your supporting breath drives all my fears away.
Your hand in sight of all my foes, does still my table spread;
my cup with Blessings overflows, your oil anoints my head.
Your sure provisions gracious God attend me all my days;
oh, may your house be my abode, and all my work be praise.
Here would I find a settled rest, while others go and come;
no more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child at home.
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”.
About the Choral Music:
He Shall Feed His Flock – John Ness Beck
(c. 1986, Beckenhorst Press)
John Ness Beck (November 11, 1930 - June 25, 1987) graduated from Ohio State with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees with a major in English. After working for a year in Student Union activities at the State College of Washington, he spent two years in the U.S. Army. During this time, he became increasingly involved in arranging for various musical groups. After his discharge from military service, he returned to Ohio State and completed Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts degrees in music with composition as his major. Beck was a faculty member of Ohio State University School of Music for seven years, teaching harmony and theory. He left the university to become owner and manager of The University Music House, a retail sheet music store in Columbus. In this capacity, he was able to observe the business side of the music industry, gaining insight into the complexities of music publishing and merchandising. As his compositions found their way into print and popularity, he joined forces in 1972 with John Tatgenhorst in the creation of Beckenhorst Press. His reputation as a composer and his experience as a choral director soon led to an increasing demand for appearances as guest conductor and lecturer at various musical clinics and festivals throughout the country.
Tender and sincere are the two words which characterize John Ness Beck’s setting of these beloved verses from Isaiah 40 and Psalm 23.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom, and gently shall lead those that are with young.
He shall gather the lambs in his arm, He will shelter them,
And carry them close to His heart;
and gently, so gently, ever so gently shall lead those with young.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom, and gently, so gently, and ever so gently
shall lead those that are with young.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Amen.
Come My Way, My Truth, My Life
Not all texts in hymnals began as poetry for congregational singing. Such is the case of the mystical verse by the famous Welsh poet George Herbert (1593-1633). In his nearly 40 years of life, Herbert accomplished much. He held positions at Cambridge University and in Parliament, and later in life became a Anglican priest and one of the leading metaphysical poets of his time.
Herbert was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, with the intent of becoming a priest. But King James I, who shepherded the King James translation of the Bible, was interested in his scholarly skills. So Herbert was called to service in the court until the king died in 1625, followed soon by the death of Herbert’s patrons. Herbert then returned to his earlier calling in the church, serving for six years in two parishes. At the time, the Church of England employed many psalm singers. John Donne, Herbert and others contributed to a culture of devotional poetry that later inspired great 18th-century hymn writers like Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788), whose hymnody eventually broke the stranglehold of singing only metrical psalms in worship.
Herbert’s most enduring work was The Temple (1633). The Temple was popular for a time, then ignored until John Wesley made use of its poems in various collections, including the 1737 Charleston Collection [the first hymnal published in the American colonies], where he altered their meters and subdued their humor. This text comes from a section of The Temple entitled “The Call,” a work published the year after Herbert’s death from tuberculosis. He wrote poetry while serving as a parish priest, partly to supplement his own funds and to help to rebuild the church he was serving at Bremerton, a rural parish about 75 miles southwest of London. John Wesley included this poem in his Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739).
Herbert’s text expands John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” by incorporating additional metaphors: Light, Feast and Strength, and Joy, Love and Heart. The three-fold structure of the first verse is repeated in the other two; there is a trinity in each verse, and three verses, making a trinity of trinities.
Famous British composer and hymn tune writer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) set several of Herbert’s poems in a song cycle entitled Five Mystical Songs (1911). Vaughan Williams’ tune and harmonization were adapted by E. Harold Geer for congregational singing in Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1956). Singing 17th-century metaphysical poetry demands much from the 21st-century singer. However, each time one returns to Herbert’s poetry and Vaughan Williams’ majestic tune, something new is revealed.
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: such a way as gives us breath;
such a truth as ends all strife; such a life as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength: such a light as shows a feast;
such a feast as mends in length; such a strength as makes a guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: such a joy as none can move:
such a love as none can part; such a heart as joys in love.
About the Hymns:
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was written by the 18th century pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson. Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was eight years old at the time of his father's death. He was a very bright, headstrong boy who became increasingly more difficult for his mother to handle. When Robert turned 14, she sent him to London for an apprenticeship with a barber. Robert proceeded to get into even more trouble, taking on a life of drinking and gambling.
At 17, Robert and some of his drinking buddies decided to attend an evangelistic meeting, with a plan to make fun of the proceedings. When George Whitfield began to preach, Robert felt as if the sermon was just for him. He did not respond to the altar call that night, but the words of the evangelist would haunt him for the next three years. On Dec. 10, 1755, at age 20, Robert finally yielded his life to Christ, and very soon thereafter answered a call to the ministry. Three years later, as he was preparing to preach a sermon at the Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, Robert wrote “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” to complement his sermon. The music for the hymn was composed by Asahel Nettleton in 1813.
The lyrics, which dwell on the theme of divine grace, are based on 1 Samuel 7:12, in which the prophet Samuel raises a stone as a monument, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us". The English transliteration of the name Samuel gives to the stone is Ebenezer, meaning Stone of Help. The unusual word "Ebenezer" commonly appears in hymnal presentations of the lyrics.
The tune NETTLETON first appeared as a two-part tune in John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second(1813), where it was named HALLELUJAH. In the Index it is identified as a new tune, and no composer's name is given. The tune has been attributed by some to Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844), a well-known evangelist of the early nineteenth century, who compiled Village Hymns (1825). However, this compilation contained no music, and there is no evidence that Nettleton wrote any tunes during his life. It is not known where the tune name first appeared or who was responsible for it.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer Hither by Thy help I've come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood
Oh, that day when freed from sinning I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in blood washed linen How I'll sing Thy wondrous grace
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry Me to realms of endless day
Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above
Beyond Bethsaida’s Borders
Julia Harriet Johnston (1849-1911) was born at Salineville, OH, in Columbiana County. At the age of six she moved with her family to Peoria, Illinois where her father was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Peoria. Her mother and grandmother were poets, and Julia Johnston originally wrote verse under the pen name, "Juniata." In addition to authoring over 500 hymns, Johnston worked as a Sunday school superintendent and teacher for over forty years and served as president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society.
Beyond Bethsaida’s borders, The weary Savior went,
To rest with His disciples, Before the day was spent;
But eager people hastened, The Son of Man to seek;
The poor and heavy laden Desired to hear Him speak.
With patient love He taught them, Till shadows fell apace,
But all the people hungered In that far desert place.
His heart with pity melted; How many loaves have ye?
He said to the disciples, And bade them go and see.
A little lad among them, His loaves and fishes spared;
But Jesus blessed and brake them, And all the bounty shared.
With only this provision, Which Jesus blessed and brake,
They fed the hungry thousands, That day, beside the lake.
Then bring your all to Jesus, However poor and small;
Come, hasten now to bring it, The little lads and all.
’Tis not the gifts we offer, That help the world today,
But Jesus’ blessing on them, That sends them on their way.
Page that accompanies Johnston’s hymn in its original publication:
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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