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:
Partita on "Come Holy Ghost” - Kevin Hildebrand
(c.2009, Birnamwood Publications)
For centuries, "Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott" ("Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord") has been the prominent hymn (Hauptlied) for Pentecost in German-speaking Lutheranism. The hymn inspired composers from the Renaissance to contemporary to write chorale preludes and vocal compositions. The first stanza is a translation of the Latin antiphon for Pentecost "Veni Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium" (Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful) from the 11th century.
Martin Luther added two more stanzas, keeping not only the meter and the tune, but also the structure, with acclamations at the beginning of lines 1 and 5, and the final Halleluja. In his stanzas, the group of "deiner Gläubigen" (your believers) is speaking directly, stating "wir" and "uns" ("we" and "us"). Luther alludes to several of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to Isaiah 11:2: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. He also drew on Galatians 4:6 ("because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts"), Matthew 23:8-10 ("for one is your Master"), and Romans 8:26 ("the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities"). In the second stanza, Luther uses the attributes "heiliges Licht, edler Hort" (holy light, precious refuge) and words the request "protect us from strange doctrines / so that we may never look for any teacher / except Jesus in true belief". In the last stanza, the Spirit's "ardent love" and "sweet consolation" are named, asking for help "always to remain joyful and comforted / in your service" and "so that we may bravely struggle / through life and death to reach you!"
The hymn appeared first in 1524 in Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn (de), (booklet of spiritual song), collected by Johann Walter. The same year it appeared also in Eyn Enchiridion in Erfurt, titled "Der gesank Veni sancte spiritus". It has been translated, for example by Catherine Winkworth as Come, Holy Spirit, God and Lord! in 1855, and has appeared in hymnals of various denominations.
Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord! Be all Thy graces now outpoured
On each believer’s mind and heart; Thy fervent love to them impart.
Lord, by the brightness of Thy light Thou in the faith dost men unite
Of every land and every tongue; This to Thy praise, O Lord, our God, be sung.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Thou holy light, guide divine, Oh, cause the Word of life to shine!
Teach us to know our God aright And call Him Father with delight.
From every error keep us free; Let none but Christ our Master be
That we in living faith abide, In Him, our Lord, with all our might confide.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Thou holy fire, comfort true, Grant us the will Thy work to do
And in Thy service to abide; Let trials turn us not aside.
Lord, by Thy power prepare each heart And to our weakness strength impart
That bravely here we may contend, Through life and death to Thee, our Lord, ascend.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Kevin Hildebrand (b. 1973) has served in the Music Department at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, since 2002, and currently serves as Kantor. He directs the Seminary Kantorei and Schola Cantorum, plays the organ for daily chapel, and instructs students in liturgics and church music courses. He teaches the annual organ workshops at the seminary and serves as the co-director of The Good Shepherd Institute. Hildebrand is Kantor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, where he directs the Youth Choir. Hildebrand is a graduate of Concordia University Chicago and holds master’s degrees in Music and Theology from the University of Michigan and Concordia, respectively. He has been a workshop leader and instructor for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Commission on Worship, as well as frequent organ recitalist and hymn festival presenter across the United States and Canada.
About the Choral Music:
Pentecost - Tom Shelton
(c.2023, Birnamwood Publications, div of MorningStar)
Tom Shelton has set a poem by William Blake that speaks of the fire of Pentecost. The opening section imitates speaking in tongues. The center section uses the hymn tune MUNICH.
Tom T. Shelton, Jr. is a native of Greensboro, N.C. and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he earned both a Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Choral Conducting. He is Associate Professor of Sacred Music at Westminster Choir College. Focusing on children’s and youth music at Westminster, he teaches classes in conducting, sacred music, music education and coordinates and conducts the Neighborhood Children’s Choir Program. In addition, he is the Director of Music for Children’s and Youth Choirs at Princeton United Methodist Church.
Shelton has a passion for music education in all areas: church, school and community. He taught middle school choral music in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County for 18 years. During that time he was selected Teacher of the Year for both Atkins Middle School and Kernersville Middle School. In 1999 the North Carolina Music Educators Association presented him with the North Carolina Middle School Music Teacher of the Year award. Mr. Shelton is active with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), currently serving as the National President. Shelton has conducted festivals and honor choirs in 20 states as well as Hong Kong. He has published over 50 choral compositions.
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language”. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God”, or "human existence itself”. Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he came to be highly regarded by later critics and readers for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of the Romantic movement and as “Pre-Romantic". A theist who preferred his own Marcionite style of theology, he was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organized religion), and was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions. Although later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amicable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors”.
MUNICH has a colorful history. Traces of it run as far back as 1593 in the Dresden, Germany, Gesangbuch in conjunction with the text 'Wir Christenleut." A version from a Meiningen Gesangbuch (1693) is still used in Lutheranism for "O Gott, du frommer Gott." Felix Mendelssohn's adaptation of that tune for the quartet "Cast Thy Burden upon the Lord" in the oratorio Elijah (1846) is the most recent step in shaping MUNICH as we find it in the Psalter Hymnal and other modern English hymnals. Given its geographical roots, we may be fairly confident that the tune is named after the German city Munich, although the city's name in German is München.
Spark, Ember, Flame, Holy Spirit
Unless the eye catch fire, the God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, the God will not be heard.
Gift, Amazed, Forgiven
Unless the tongue catch fire, the God will not be named.
Unless the heart catch fire, the God will not be loved.
Wind, Chaos, Fire, Holy Spirit
Unless the mind catch fire, the God will not be known.
Unless the tongue catch fire, the God will not be named.
Unless the eye catch fire, the God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, the God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire, the God will not be named.
Unless the heart catch fire, the God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire, the God will not be known.
If eyes never use glasses, they will never see the stars.
If the ears do not gain wisdom, they will never hear the wind.
If the tongue doesn’t get burned from the experience of spice,
then it will never, never taste divinity.
Unless the heart knows heartbreak, it will never know true love.
If the mind is not opened, the magic of the world could easily be lost.
If eyes never use glasses, they will never see the stars.
Unless the eye catch fire, the God will not be seen.
If the ears do not gain wisdom, they will never hear the wind.
If the tongue doesn’t get burned from the experience of spice,
then it will never taste divinity.
God is in every single ting, and struggle only makes it possible to see.
Spark, Ember, Flame, Holy Spirit.
Gift, Amazed, Forgiven.
Wind, Chaos, Fire, Holy Spirit.
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:
O Spirit of the Living God
Henry Hallam Tweedy (1868-1953) hailed from the northeast, born in Binghamton, N.Y. He was granted degrees from Phillips Andover Academy, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary and the University of Berlin. A Congregational pastor, he served churches in New York and Connecticut, and later taught practical theology from 1909-1937 at Yale Divinity School. He co-authored several books, including Training the Devotional Life (1919) and Religious Training in School and Home (1917). His most important contribution, however, was as editor of the hymnal Christian Worship and Praise (1939). In addition to editing a hymnal, Tweedy published a practical volume, The Minister and His Hymnal, and won several hymn contests sponsored by the Homiletic Review and the Hymn Society of America.
Tweedy said he composed “O Spirit of the Living God” because “some of the old Pentecostal hymns were to me unsatisfactory, and I was eager to interpret the symbolism of the story in Acts in a way that modern men could understand and sincerely mean.” The text is an exposition of Acts 2, a passage focused on Pentecost. The hymn was first published in the Methodist Hymnal (1935).
FOREST GREEN is an English folk tune associated with the ballad "The Ploughboy's Dream." Ralph Vaughan Williams turned FOREST GREEN into a hymn tune for The English Hymnal (1906), using it as a setting for "O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
O Spirit of the living God, thou light and fire divine,
descend upon thy church once more, and make it truly thine.
Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace;
till Christ shall dwell in human hearts, and sin and sorrow cease.
Blow, wind of God! With wisdom blow until our minds are free
from mists of error, clouds of doubt, which blind our eyes to thee.
Burn, winged fire! Inspire our lips with flaming love and zeal,
to preach to all thy great good news, God's glorious commonweal.
Teach us to utter living words of truth which all may hear,
the language all may understand when love speaks loud and clear;
till every age and race and clime shall blend their creeds in one,
and earth shall form one family by whom thy will is done.
So shall we know the power of Christ who came this world to save;
so shall we rise with him to life which soars beyond the grave;
and earth shall win true holiness, which makes thy children whole;
till, perfected by thee, we reach creation's glorious goal!
Spirit of Faith, Come Down
Exploring the hymns of Charles Wesley (1707-1788) is like examining a trove of treasures excavated from the pages of his writings. While the church has preserved many of these treasures intact within its hymnals, sometimes a single gem is lost or forgotten. When such a jewel is recovered, it provides fresh color to the hymn as newly shed light streams through it and dances across the page. One such gem is the excised third stanza of “Spirit of Faith Come Down.”
“Spirit of Faith Come Down” by Charles Wesley was first published in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (1746) and is also found in the collection Whitsunday [Pentecost] Hymns (1746). The original hymn is composed of five stanzas, though in most hymnals today, there are only four, sometimes three, stanzas. This is due to the long lasting editorial change made by John Wesley when he included the hymn in his famous Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780). As observed by Carlton Young in the Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal, John Wesley removed the original third stanza and slightly altered the second line of the original fourth stanza.
The hymn is filled with references to Scripture. Charles Wesley directly quotes both 1 Corinthians 12:3 and John 20:28 in the second stanza. His construction of this stanza makes it clear, using Scripture as the basis, that one desperately needs the Spirit to have the faith required to fully accept Jesus and redemption through him. Wesley’s theology of atonement also plays a key role in the text of this hymn, infusing the entirety of the hymn. The first stanza quickly delivers a statement of the ongoing process of redemption, pleading (possibly demanding) that the “Spirit of faith come down” to “reveal the things of God” so to “give us eyes to see who did for every sinner die, hath surely died for me.” In their Companion to Hymns and Psalms, Richard Watson and Kenneth Trickett note that Wesley often uses the expression, “Tis thine the blood to apply,” as he does in the first stanza, fifth line. This phrase is a poetic manifestation of Charles Wesley’s belief that the Spirit’s mission is to the individual person. Salvation is encountered through the Spirit and is delivered as an intimate gift, given through faith. This first stanza is a condensed teaching of Wesleyan redemption. Indeed, the entire hymn is written as a proclamation on the extraordinarily active and vital role the Spirit plays in giving, sustaining, and nurturing faith so one might believe and accept Jesus as the Redeemer.
While the hymn as we know it contains the Wesleyan standard of attention to Scripture and theological depth, the words of the original third stanza enrich the hymn as a whole and fulfill a role that stanzas currently available cannot hope to do. The text of the individual stanza as it appears in the original 1746 hymnal is as follows:
I know my Savior lives, He lives who died for me,
My inmost Soul his Voice receives Who hangs on yonder Tree:
Set forth before my Eyes Ev’n Now I see Him bleed,
And hear his Mortal Groans and Cries While suffering in my stead.
Here, in the original third stanza, is a vivid depiction of Jesus’ act of redemption and victory over death. The stanza opens with a paradox of life and death and then moves on to a brutally vivid and deeply personal vision of the crucifixion. In light of the vivid scene (known by the poetic device, hypotyposis) just painted in the original third stanza, to claim Jesus’ redemption as deeply personal gives a rather stirring and evocative opening statement. The words do not inspire a general claim or reality, but one that is intimately personal, which a person cannot help but share with the world. By omitting the third stanza, the hymn loses a key turning point in the journey through the hymn as well as a climactic follow up to the second stanza. The second stanza ends, “Thou art my Lord, my God,” and then the third stanza depicts in a shockingly graphic manner the one whom the individual is claiming as Lord and God. Stanza four then affirms that indeed, the one who is “my Lord and God…who hangs on yonder tree” truly and surely is “My dear atoning Lamb.”
The tune BEALOTH was first published in Sacred Harp, a songbook created and published by Lowell Mason and his sons in 1840. Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South of the United States. The name is derived from The Sacred Harp, a ubiquitous and historically important tunebook printed in shape notes. The work was first published in 1844 and has reappeared in multiple editions ever since. Sacred Harp music represents one branch of an older tradition of American music that developed over the period 1770 to 1820 from roots in New England, with a significant, related development under the influence of "revival" services around the 1840s. This music was included in, and became profoundly associated with, books using the shape note style of notation popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Brothers Lowell and Timothy Mason published their own Sacred Harp in 1840 in Cincinnati. Originally from Boston, the Mason family is hardly associated with the promotion of shape-note (or “patent note”) notation—indeed, Lowell Mason would become a famously successful antagonist of shape-notes, which he derided as an obstacle to “scientific” music education. Shape-notes were flourishing in the Ohio Valley in the 1830s, and the music publishers recognized that a shape-note version of the hymnal would boost its commercial prospects. The Masons were clear that their use of shape-notes was in no way intended as an endorsement, however: the preface acknowledges that “the Sacred Harp is printed in patent notes (contrary to the wishes of the Authors) under the belief that it will prove much more acceptable to a majority of singers in the West and South.
If the notation style of both Sacred Harps is the same, the contents are dramatically different. While B. F. White’s Sacred Harp largely followed its shape-note predecessors in reprinting a broad range of early American singing-school repertoire, southern vernacular hymnody, and new compositions based on those styles, the Masons’ Sacred Harp features music by European composers and new compositions based on a European aesthetic, many by Lowell Mason himself. In fact, the Masons intended their volume to supplant the American hymnody then popular in the region—the “patent notes” would be but a minor concession if the tunebook could succeed in pushing local musical taste toward the style that the Masons favored. In the few examples of eighteenth-century American music they included, Lowell and Timothy Mason altered the harmonies to better conform to the European style they favored, eliminating parallel fifths and open chords.
Spirit of faith, come down, reveal the things of God,
and make to us the Godhead known, and witness with the blood.
'Tis thine the blood to apply and give us eyes to see,
who did for every sinner die hath surely died for me.
No one can truly say that Jesus is the Lord,
unless thou take the veil away and breathe the living Word.
Then, only then, we feel our interest in his blood,
and cry with joy unspeakable, "Thou art my Lord, my God!"
O that the world might know the all atoning Lamb!
Spirit of faith, descend and show the virtue of his name;
the grace which all may find, the saving power, impart,
and testify to humankind, and speak in every heart.
Inspire the living faith (which whosoe'er receive,
the witness in themselves they have and consciously believe),
the faith that conquers all, and doth the mountain move,
and saves whoe'er on Jesus call, and perfects them in love.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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