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:
Variations on "Picardy" - Edward Good
(c.2001, H. W. Gray Company)
“Let all mortal flesh keep silence” is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on words from Habakkuk 2:20, "Let all the earth keep silence before him". The original was composed in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn for the Offertory of the Divine Liturgy of St James; it probably antedates the rest of the liturgy and goes back at least to 275 AD, with local churches adopting arrangements in Syriac.
The text expresses awe at Christ's coming and the mystery of our perception of Christ in the body and blood. With images from Isaiah 6 and Revelation 5, it portrays the glory of Christ and his victory over sin. Although it has eucharistic emphasis, the text pictures the nativity of Christ in a majestic manner and in a much larger context than just his birth in Bethlehem. We are drawn into the awe and mystery with our own alleluias.
Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885) translated the text from the Greek; his English paraphrase was first published in Orby Shipley's Lyra Eucharistica (1864) and entitled "Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn." The Psalter Hymnal alters that paraphrase in part to solve Reformed sensitivities about eucharistic theology. Moultrie's great-grandfather had settled in South Carolina, but after siding with England during the American Revolution, he had moved back to Britain. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, England, Moultrie served as a pastor and chaplain in the Church of England. In addition to writing his own hymns he prepared translations of Greek, Latin, and German hymns. He also edited several hymnals, including Hymns and Lyrics for the Seasons and Saints' Days (1867) and Cantica Sanctorum or Hymns for the Black Letter Saints' Days in the English and Scottish Calendars (1880).
The text contains much language which is unfamiliar today: the concept of approaching God with so much awe that it causes “fear and trembling”. Seraphim are a type of celestial being in the highest rank in the Christian angelic hierarchy. A passage in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) used the term to describe six-winged beings that fly around the Throne of God crying "holy, holy, holy". This throne scene, with its triple invocation of holiness (a formula that came to be known as the Trisagion), profoundly influenced subsequent theology, literature, and art. Its influence is frequently seen in works depicting angels, heaven and apotheosis. Seraphs are mentioned as celestial beings in an influential Hellenistic work, the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Revelation. Cherubim are a winged angelic beings who are represented in ancient Middle Eastern art as a lion or bull with eagles' wings and a human face, and regarded in traditional Christian angelology as an angel of the second highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy. Cherubim are mentioned throughout the Old Testament and once in the New Testament in reference to the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Hebrews 9:5).
Picardy is a hymn tune based on a French carol. Its name comes from the province of France from where it is thought to originate. The tune dates back at least to the 17th century, and was originally used for the folk song "Jésus-Christ s'habille en pauvre". First published in the 1848 collection Chansons populaires des provinces de France, "Picardy" was most famously arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1906 for the hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence", in the English Hymnal, the words of which are taken from the Byzantine Greek Liturgy of St. James translated by Gerard Moultrie a chaplain at Shrewsbury School.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in His hand,
Christ, our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary, As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture, In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful His own self for heav’nly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth From the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six-winged seraph, Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence, As with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Lord Most High!”
Tu es Petrus - Jeanne Demessieux
(c.1950, McLaughlin & Reilly Co.)
Tu es Petrus (you are Peter, the rock) is a Gregorian antiphon for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul found in a 14th century Italian chant manuscript. This setting is one of twelve Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes for Organ. Tu Es Petrus, in the style of a march, is a bold musical proclamation. In this setting Demessieux superimposes two different chant themes, both from the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The five-note pedal theme, presented in a descending sequence throughout the piece, is taken from the fifth antiphon at first vespers. Above this, the uppermost voice quotes the versicle of the Alleluia from the mass. For those familiar with these chants, Demessieux is musically referencing a double statement of the text Tu Es Petrus, simultaneously in the highest and lowest registers of the organ.
Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux (1921-1968), was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Between 1936 and 1939, she studied organ privately with Marcel Dupré, whose organ class at the Conservatoire she joined in 1939. After receiving a first prize in organ performance and improvisation in 1941, Demessieux studied five more years privately with Dupré in Meudon, before she played her début recital at Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1946. This was the beginning of her career as an international recitalist. In her brief life, she gave more than 700 concerts not just in France, but also in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, West Germany, and the United States. Blessed (like Dupré) with a prodigious memory, she knew more than 2,500 works by heart, including the complete organ works of Bach, Franck, Liszt, and Mendelssohn, as well as most of Dupré's compositions for the instrument. A prolific recording artist, she received in 1960 France's Grand Prix du Disque award for her Franck intégrale, committed to disc two years before. In 1962, Demessieux was appointed titular organist at La Madeleine in Paris. She wrote more than 30 compositions. Many of these were written for the organ, but she also produced pieces for piano, fairly numerous songs, a handful of choral works (including an oratorio, "Chanson de Roland"), and orchestral works.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
About the Piano Music:
More Love to Thee, O Christ - Mark Hayes
(c.2006, Lorenz Publishing)
Loss and sorrow often give birth to hymns. Such is the case of "More Love to Thee" by Elizabeth Payton Prentiss (1818-1878). A native of Maine, Prentiss was described as a "bright-eyed, little woman, with a keen sense of humor, who cared more to shine in her own happy household than in a wide circle of society." During the 19th century, middle-class women lived very separate lives from men, even their husbands. Prentiss' husband, Dr. George L. Prentiss, was a Presbyterian minister who later served as professor of homiletics and polity at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His wife, having demonstrated a gift for both prose and poetry from a young age, wrote books, one of which, Stepping Heavenward, sold over 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Prentiss also had an important, yet difficult, domestic role. For much of her life she lived the life of a near invalid, her body often wracked with pain. It was during these times that she had to refocus her understanding of her own value and worth from doing to being: "I see now that to live for God, whether one is allowed ability to be actively useful or not, is a great thing, and that it is a wonderful mercy to be allowed even to suffer, if thereby one can glorify Him."
"More Love to Thee" emerged out of a time of personal tragedy. During the 1850s, the Prentisses lost a child and shortly thereafter a second. Through her grief she confided in her diary, "Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences." Inspired by Sarah Adams' hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," Prentiss began to write her own hymn in an almost identical metrical pattern. She had been reflecting on Jacob's struggles in Genesis 28:10-22 and found Adams' hymn on this same theme to be of comfort. In the Genesis narrative of Jacob's experience at Bethel, Jacob was a traveler who, finding a stone for a pillow one night, had a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder. Following his dream he builds an altar at Beth-El (God's house) out of the stone on which he had slept and anointed it with oil.
Prentiss completed the four stanzas of her hymn in a single evening, but never showed it to anyone for 13 years. Finally, in 1869 the poem appeared in leaflet form and in 1870 was published for the first time in a hymnal, Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations.
William Doane (1832-1915), composer of over 2,000 gospel songs including many for Fanny Crosby, provided the music associated with this text. The simple step-wise movement of the melody, slower tempo, and straightforward harmonies provide a prayerful vehicle for the central petition, "More love to thee."
Just as Sarah Adams repeated "Nearer to thee" 16 times in her hymn, Elizabeth Prentiss repeats "More love to thee" 13 times. This repetition provides the singer with that sense of intimacy with Christ for which this era of hymnody is so known. On one occasion, Prentiss wrote, "To love Christ more is the deepest need, the constant cry of the soul . . . out in the woods, and on my bed, and out driving, when I am happy and busy, and when I am sad and idle, the whisper keeps going up for more love, more love, more love!”
More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make On bended knee;
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Once earthly joy I craved, Sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, Give what is best;
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Then shall my latest breath Whisper Thy praise;
This be the parting cry My heart shall raise;
This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
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:
Tend My Sheep – John Purifoy
(c.1999, Lorenz Publishing)
“Tend My Sheep” was written by Ken Canedo, using text from John 21: 15-19. It was arranged for SATB choir by John Purifoy.
Born in Los Angeles, Ken Canedo received his Master of Divinity degree from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California. He is now involved in youth and music ministry at parishes in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and is a clinician for the “We Remember, We Believe” liturgy & leadership conference in Northern California. Ken also serves as co-director of the youth choir at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Beaverton, Oregon. He is actively involved with spiritandsong.com, most notably as the voice behind the popular weekly Liturgy Podcast. Ken Canedo composes liturgical music in the styles that have inspired him, from traditional chant and hymnody to gospel, jazz and rock. Proficient in piano, guitar and electric bass, Ken gives workshops around the country on liturgy and youth ministry, bringing youth and adults together in discovery and empowerment.
John Purifoy (b. 1952) is a composer and arranger with numerous published choral cantatas, anthems and keyboard collections. His stage musical "Lambarene," based on the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, received workshop productions at the state theatre of New Jersey and the North Shore Musical Theater near Boston. Mr. Purifoy served as editor and director of music publishing for Word, Inc. from 1975-1982. He is the recipient of the Freedom’s Foundation Award and five-time recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award.
Simon, son of John, do you love me?
Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
Feed my lambs.
Simon, son of John, do you love me?
Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
Tend my sheep.
Simon son of John, do you love me?
Lord, you know everything. You know I love you.
Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep
Over them all your vigil keep.
Hear my voice, follow me.
Come now, my friend, tend my sheep.
I tell you most solemnly, when you were young, you did as you pleased.
But someday you’ll stretch your hands and you’ll be taken against your will.
Do not be afraid. I am with you always.
Feed my lambs, tend my sheep.
Over them all your vigil keep.
Hear my voice, follow me.
Come now, my friend, tend my sheep.
Come now, my friend, tend my sheep.
Abide With Us - Greg Scheer
(c.2021, Greg Scheer)
Greg Scheer has composed over a thousand pieces of music in a variety of styles. Jeremy Begbie calls it “music that will disturb your imagination and delight your heart–a rare combination. Scheer’s sacred music appears in numerous hymnals and choral catalogs: over 300 Psalm settings, global worship song translations, choral anthems, and hymn arrangements. Scheer has received commissions from the Holland Symphony Orchestra, Baylor University, the Chagall String Quartet, the St. Cecilia Music Society, and others. Scheer’s symphonic rock group, The St. Sinner Orchestra, has released three albums; he also performs his original jazz with Outside Pocket.
This Gospel chorus attempts to distill some key elements of the story of Jesus appearing to his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Abide with us. Something about the stranger makes them want to spend more time with him. The disciples, recalling their conversation with Jesus say, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us?”
Abide with us. Abide with us.
Our eyes are opened, our hearts awoken, abide with us.
Our eyes are opened, our hearts awoken, abide with us.
About the Hymns:
Jesus Calls Us
Cecil Frances Alexander (1823-1850) married William Alexander, an Anglican clergyman who later became the Anglican Archbishop for all of Ireland. Alexander was an outstanding young woman by virtue of ability, education, and service. While still quite young, she and her sister operated a school for the deaf, and she also published a highly successful book of hymns for children––designating the profits for the benefit of the school. Her hymns are mostly for children, and were published in her Verses for Holy Seasons, with Preface by Dr. Hook, 1846; Poems on Subjects in the Old Testament, pt. i. 1854, pt. ii. 1857; Narrative Hymns for Village Schools, 1853; Hymns for Little Children, 1848; Hymns Descriptive and Devotional, 1858; The Legend of the Golden Prayers 1859; Moral Songs, N.B.; The Lord of the Forest and his Vassals, an Allegory, &c.; or contributed to the Lyra Anglicana, the S.P.C.K. Psalms and Hymns, Hymns Ancient & Modern, and other collections. She wrote 400 hymns during her lifetime –– mostly children's hymns––but "Jesus Calls Us" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful" are the best known.
Impressed by her hymns, her husband, Bishop Alexander, asked her to write a hymn for use during the coming Sunday worship on St. Andrew's Day based on the call of Simon, Andrew, James, and John (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-18). She wrote this hymn, "Jesus Calls Us," for that occasion. The first verse of this hymn begins, "Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea"––acknowledging the call of those first disciples by the Sea of Galilee. A recurring theme is "Christian, love me more"––"Christian, love me more than these" ––"serve and love thee best of all." Those words were inspired by John 21:15, where Jesus, after the resurrection, asked Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Her text was published in the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge's (SPCK) Hymns for Public Worship (1852). Though written for a relatively minor saint's day, this hymn quickly gained popularity.
The tune GALILEE was written for this text by W. H. Jude in 1887. William Herbert Jude (1851-1922) was an English composer and organist. He was a precocious child, and attended Wisbech Grammar School where records note that by age eight he was composing incidental music for school plays. He later attended Liverpool Organ School and Liverpool College of Music. By 1881, he was organist for the Blue Coat Hospital and Stretford Town Hall near Manchester, as well as being a lecturer and teacher. As a recitalist, he was asked to "open" over 1000 new organs across the UK, Ireland and Australia. He was frequently referred to as "the most brilliant organist of the day". Christian texts and topics appear frequently in Jude's compositions. He was an admirer of the British evangelist Rodney "Gipsy" Smith, and published a collection of Gipsy Smith's Favourite Solos in 1903. Jude appears to have supported the temperance movement; "Fight the Drink", a song by Jude with lyrics by A Sargant, appears in a collection of his music with the note that it was "sung at the Crystal Palace Festival by 5000 people". Between 1890 and 1894, the composer embarked on a tour of Australia and New Zealand. Beginning in 1904, he served as editor for several musical periodicals, including Monthly Hymnal, Minister of Music, and Music and the Higher Life. He also compiled several hymnbooks: Mission Hymns in 1911 and Festival Hymns in 1916.
Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea;
day by day his sweet voice soundeth, saying "Christian, follow me."
As, of old, apostles heard it by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred, leaving all for his dear sake.
Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world's golden store,
from each idol that would keep us, saying "Christian, love me more."
In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures, "Christian, love me more than these."
Jesus calls us; by thy mercies, Savior, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to thine obedience, serve and love thee best of all.
Here I Am, Lord
Dan Schutte is a native of Wisconsin, who received his education at St. Louis University with a bachelor’s degree in 1973, a master of divinity degree in 1979 at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Calif., and a master’s degree in 1980 at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Following graduation, Mr. Schutte joined the Jesuits and served as the director of liturgy at Marquette University (1982-1986). He entered parish ministry in Milwaukee serving as director of music at Immaculate Heart of Mary and then Our Lady of Lourdes parishes. He is currently director of music at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution, and tours extensively as a Christian concert artist. Of his many hymns, “Here I Am, Lord” is the most commonly sung.
A salient feature of Catholic renewal hymnody since the Second Vatican Council is a stirring and memorable refrain. “Here I Am, Lord” recalls immediately Isaiah 6:8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”
An unusual attribute of this hymn is the change in point of view that the singer makes between the stanzas and the refrain. The stanzas speak from the perspective of God in the first person singular, while the refrain, though remaining in first person, is from the perspective of the singers of the hymn offering their lives to God. Each stanza reflects a paradox. The powerful God, creator of “sea and sky,” “snow and rain” and “wind and flame” is also the God who hears the “people cry,” bears the “people’s pain” and “tend[s] the poor and lame.” This is a hymn of transformation. God transforms the darkness into light in stanza one, melts “hearts of stone” with love in stanza two and nourishes the “poor and lame” with the “finest bread”—a clear Eucharistic reference. Each stanza ends with the question, “Whom shall I send?” Rhetorical questions are very common poetical devices in Christian hymnody, but this is not one of them. The refrain immediately offers the response, “Here I am, Lord.”
I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin, My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear My light to them? Whom shall I send?
I, the Lord of snow and rain, I have born my peoples pain.
I have wept for love of them, They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone, Give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak My word to them, Whom shall I send?
I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them, My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide, Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give My life to them, Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord, Is it I Lord? I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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