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:
Holy Manna - Wilber Held
(c.1972, Augsburg Publishing)
Hymnody has often had difficulty keeping in step with scientific thinking. Many of our hymns on themes of the natural world imply an extension of the cosmology of the ancient world in which a three-story universe provides the basis for our assumptions. In this view, the dome of the heavens with the firmament of the stars rests upon the earth, which, in turn, is supported by the underworld resting on the pillars of the earth. This view assumes that the earth is the center of the universe. Nicolas Copernicus reoriented our understanding of the universe in the 16th century with his proof that the earth revolved around the sun. This should have changed the course of hymns, but parts of the church universal did not accept his teachings for centuries. It took the space race of the 1960s to firmly establish that we no longer could restrict our understanding of the natural creation to the three-storied universe. “God, who Stretched the Spangled Heavens,” written in 1967, was among the first hymns to employ the imagery of the space age.
Catherine Arnott Cameron (b. 1927) in New Brunswick, studied at McMaster University and the University of Southern California. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Dr. Cameron was a professor of social psychology at the University of La Verne, Calif., from 1971-1992. Hymnologist Harry Eskew interviewed Dr. Cameron, whose interest in poetry goes back to hymn singing in church at a young age. “As a child and teenager with a gift for writing poetry, I was troubled by the mismatch between words and music in some of the hymns sung in our church,” she said. “I thought that one day I might write a hymn that was a harmony of poetry and music. The hymn was written over a period of several months at a time when I was experiencing a new sense of direction, growth and creativity in my life.” It appeared first inContemporary Worship 1 (1969) and has been a staple of hymnals ever since.
The most poignant aspect of Dr. Cameron’s hymn is the paradox between stanza one and stanzas two and three. In stanza one, the author celebrates humanities’ “inventive powers” that come as a result of being made “in [God’s] likeness.” Stanza two contrasts the purposeful move into space with the void of life in “modern cities” where lonely people are often “lost to purpose and meaning, scarcely caring where they go.” Stanza three, written at the height of the Cold War, contrasts “the ecstasy of winging through untraveled realms of space” with the earth-bound reality of the power of the atom, which provides us with the choice of “life’s destruction or our most triumphant hour.” The final stanza appropriately concludes with the prayer: “Great Creator, give us guidance till our goals and yours are one.”
God, who stretched the spangled heavens, infinite in time and place,
Flung the suns in burning radiance through the silent fields of space,
We your children, in your likeness, share inventive powers with you.
Great Creator, still creating, show us what we yet may do.
Proudly rise our modern cities, stately buildings, row on row;
Yet their windows, blank, unfeeling, stare on canyoned streets below,
Where the lonely drift unnoticed in the city’s ebb and flow,
Lost to purpose and to meaning, scarcely caring where they go.
We have ventured worlds undreamed of since the childhood of our race;
Known the ecstasy of winging through untraveled realms of space;
Probed the secrets of the atom, yielding unimagined power,
Facing us with life’s destruction of our most triumphant hour.
As each far horizon beckons, may it challenge us anew,
Children of creative purpose, serving others, honoring you.
May our dreams prove rich with promise, each endeavor well begun.
Great Creator, give us guidance till our goals and yours are one.
Wilbur C. Held (1914-2015) was born in Des Plaines, Illinois, and received his B.M. and M.M. degrees at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he earned his S.M.D. A member of the Episcopal Church, for many years Dr. Held was Professor of Organ and Church Music at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. He remained in this position for over 30 years, and for most of that time was also organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Held started composing little pieces for the organ because he felt there was a lack of teaching material aimed at developing style and registration, especially for the romantic use of the instrument. Having written several suites primarily for pedagogical use, he turned his attention to broadening the repertoire for church use, continuing to stress modest technical requirements and flexibility of registration. To date he has published 325 organ works. He has served on the national councils of both the AGO and the Hymn Society of America, and has appeared as recitalist at their national conventions.
About the Piano Music:
Let Streams of Living Justice - Marianne Kim
(c.2015, Augsburg Fortress)
Set to Gustav Holst’s THAXTED, “Let streams of living justice” was written by William Whitla (b. 1934) in 1989 as a response to the events in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, China; and dedicated to the mothers of the disappeared (in Argentina), the author’s home community of Holy Trinity in Toronto, and the people of Tiananmen Square. It was first published in Sing Justice, Do Justice (1998).
THAXTED is based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where he resided much of his life. He adapted the theme in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country" by Cecil Spring Rice but that was as a unison song with orchestra. It did not appear as a hymn-tune called THAXTED until his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926.
Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth.
Give freedom’s light to captives; let all the poor have worth.
The hungry’s hands are pleading; the workers claim their rights,
The mourners long for laughter, the blinded seek for sight.
Make liberty a beacon, strike down the iron power.
Abolish ancient vengeance. Proclaim your people’s hour.
The dreaded disappearance of family and friend,
The torture and the silence – the fear that knows no end.
The mother with her candle, the child who holds a gun,
The old one nursing hatred – all seek release to come.
Each candle burns for freedom, each light’s a tyrant’s fall.
Each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.
For healing of the nations, for peace that will not end.
For love that makes us lovers, God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together: knit our lives as they are spun.
On your loom of life enrol us till the thread of life is run.
O great Weaver of our fabric, bind church and world in one.
Dye our texture with your radiance, light our colours with your sun.
Your city’s built for music: we are the stones you seek.
Your harmony is language. We are the words you speak.
Our faith we find in service, our hope in other’s dreams.
Our love in hand of neighbour. Our homeland brightly gleams.
Inscribe our hearts with justice, your way – the path untried:
Your truth – the heart of stranger, your life – the Crucified.
A Chicago-based composer, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, Marianne Kim (b. 1972) has been noted for her vibrant performances and compositions in a wide diversity of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, R&B, and gospel, alongside traditional and contemporary church music. Born and raised in Korea, Marianne studied piano and composition at Pusan High School of Arts and earned a BM in composition at Pusan National University. After working professionally for more than a decade in the United States, she returned to school and earned dual Masters of Music in jazz studies and organ performance with scholarships and prizes from Northern Illinois University.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Draw the Circle Wide – Mark Miller
(c.2008, Abingdon Press)
Mark Miller believes passionately that music can change the world. He also believes in Cornell West’s quote that ‘Justice is what love looks like in public.’ His dream is that the music he composes, performs, teaches and leads will inspire and empower people to create the beloved community. Mark is Assistant Professor of Church Music at Drew Theological School and is a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale University. He also is the Minister of Music of Christ Church in Summit, New Jersey. Since 1999 Mark has led music for United Methodists and others around the country, including directing music for the 2008 General Conference. Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University and his Master of Music in Organ Performance from Juilliard. Mark is a lifelong United Methodist. He is the grandson, son, brother, uncle, and cousin to United Methodist clergy.
“Draw the Circle Wide” was written for a United Methodist weekend choral workshop in Lake Junaluska, NC, in 2008.
Draw the circle, draw the circle wide.
No one stands alone; we’ll stand side by side.
Draw the circle wide, draw it wider still.
Let this be our song: no one stands alone.
Standing side by side, draw the circle wide.
As We Go - Jeremy Johnson
(c.2007, Van Ness Press, admin by LifeWay Worship)
Jeremy Johnson is a full-time songwriter and producer for LifeWay Worship Music Group. Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Jeremy moved to Nashville in 1994 to attend Belmont University. He signed an exclusive publishing deal with LifeWay in 2004 when his songs gained the attention of producer/songwriter Greg Nelson. Jeremy is the pianist/band leader at The Church at Station Hill in Spring Hill, TN.
This hymn is a simple, sincere call to carry the message and Spirit with us wherever we go. The words and music were written by Jeremy Johnson in 2011. The text is based on Psalm 48:14 and Matthew 28:16-20.
As we go, may your Spirit go before us.
As we go, may we follow where you lead.
May we live what we have learned,
share the message we have heard,
and be a light unto the world as we go.
About the Hymns:
The Church’s One Foundation
Songs are a powerful means of teaching. The melodies, rhythms, and rhymes that characterize songs make the words easier to remember. The best and most effective songs combine lyrics and music to cultivate feelings that complement the meaning. The Rev. Samuel John Stone (1839-1900) was well aware of the effectiveness of singing when he wrote and published Lyra Fidelium in 1866. As a curate in the small town of Windsor, England, he was aware of his parishoners’ habit of using the Apostles’ Creed in their private prayers. But he was concerned that many of them did not grasp the meaning of what they said. The prose felt too academic, disconnected from the average worshipper, and lacking a devotional spirit.
It was in this context that he wrote Lyra Fidelium, which consisted of twelve hymns, one for each article of the Apostles’ Creed. With each hymn he included a short “summary of truths confessed” in that article, along with a list of the Scripture passages supporting it. “The Church’s One Foundation” was the hymn he wrote for article 9 of the Creed, which affirms belief in “the holy catholic church” and “the communion of saints.”
“The Church’s One Foundation” is the best known of the twelve hymns in this collection. Louis Benson quotes one English archbishop as saying that “wherever he was called upon to open or dedicate a church, he could always count on two things—cold chicken and ‘The Church’s one Foundation’.” The hymn’s long legacy undoubtedly owes to the many doctrines it includes, its use of the words and concepts of Scripture to express them, and its uniqueness in teaching the doctrine of the church. Benson describes it as embodying “practically every doctrine concerning the church [Stone] held most dear (its divine origin, its unbroken continuity, its catholicity and essential unity, its orthodoxy, its sacramental grace, its communion with God and with the departed saints, its militancy and final triumph).”
AURELIA was written by Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876), the son of Samuel Wesley and grandson of Charles Wesley. Famous in his lifetime as one of his country's leading organists and choirmasters, he composed almost exclusively for the Church of England, which continues to cherish his memory. There are memorial tablets to him in Exeter Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral, and his memorial at Gloucester Cathedral is in stained glass. Of his hymn tunes the best-known are AURELIA and HEREFORD, but CORNWALL and HAREWOOD are also particularly fine. AURELIA has been widely adopted in the United States, and is regularly heard there. Usually sung to the words "The Church's One Foundation", Wesley composed the tune for the hymn "Jerusalem the Golden”.
While at Winchester Cathedral Wesley was largely responsible for the Cathedral's acquisition in 1854 of the Father Willis organ which had been exhibited at The Great Exhibition, 1851. The success of the Exhibition organ led directly to the award of the contract to Willis for a 100-stop organ for St George's Hall, Liverpool built in 1855. Wesley, with Father Willis, can be credited with the invention of the concave and radiating organ pedalboard, but demurred when Willis proposed that it should be known as the "Wesley-Willis" pedalboard. However, their joint conception has been largely adopted as an international standard for organs throughout the English-speaking world and those exported elsewhere.
The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord;
we are a new creation by water and the Word.
From heav’n he came and taught us what perfect love can be;
through life and death he sought us, and rose to set us free.
The church in ev’ry nation is one through all the earth;
our charter of salvation, one God, one faith, one birth;
one name together blessing, one holy food we share,
to one hope ever pressing, at one in work and prayer.
Still, schisms, tribulation, and hatred fuel our war;
we wait the consummation of peace forevermore.
The saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
Yet we on earth have union with God, the Three in One,
and mystic, sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
Oh, happy ones and holy! God, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly, may live eternally.
This is My Father’s World
This is My Father's World was written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858-1901), a minister from New York. When Babcock lived in Lockport, he took frequent walks along the Niagara Escarpment to enjoy the overlook's panoramic vista of upstate New York scenery and Lake Ontario, telling his wife he was "going out to see the Father's world". Shortly after his death in 1901, she published a compilation of Babcock's writings entitled Thoughts for Every-Day Living that contained the poem "My Father's World." The original poem contained sixteen stanzas of four lines each. In 1916, Franklin Sheppard chose only three verses of the sixteen when he set the poem to music to a tune entitled "Terra Beata" (Latin for "Blessed Earth"). Most sources state that Sheppard adapted the music from a traditional English melody that he learned from his mother as a child.
Scripture references in the original poem include Psalm 33:5 "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love." and Psalm 50:12 "For the world is mine, and all that is it." In ancient times, people believed that as the planets revolved in the universe, they made music or harmony. This is the belief Maltbie Babcock referred to in the line, “and round me rings the music of the spheres.” Though this belief has since been disproven, we know that objects in space do in fact emit sounds. Even more amazing, the ocean is also making noises at its very lowest and darkest depths - sounds which scientists are still unable to identify. The whole universe is singing a song of its creation, revealing something to us about He who created it. The author shifts his focus in the final stanza from describing the visual and aural beauty of nature to the reality that all is not right with the world. Babcock observes “that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” The closing couplet, posing and answering a question, offers hope: “Why should my heart be sad?... God reigns, let the earth be glad.”
This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world. The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white Declare their maker's praise.
This is my Father's world. I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas. His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world. Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world. Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring, God reigns, let the earth be glad.
This is my Father's world. He shines in all that's fair.
In the rustling grass, I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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