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:
Organ Postlude on a "Thornbury" Theme - Lorraine Forsdick
(c.2024, Lorraine Forsdick)
Edward Hayes Plumptre, D.D., (1821-1891) was educated at King's College, London, and University College, Oxford, graduating as a double first in 1844. He was for some time Fellow of Brasenose. On taking Holy Orders in 1846 he rapidly attained a foremost position as a Theologian and Preacher. His appointments were important and influential, and included that of Assistant Preacher at Lincoln's Inn; Select Preacher at Oxford; Professor of Pastoral Theology at King's College, London; Dean of Queen's, Oxford; Prebendary in St. Paul's Cathedral, London; Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament in King's College, London; Boyle Lecturer; Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint, Oxford; Examiner in the Theological schools at Oxford; Member of the Old Testament Company for the Revision of the A.V. of the Holy Scriptures; Rector of Pluckley, 1869; Vicar of Bickley, Kent, 1873; and Dean of Wells, 1881.
Dean Plumptre's literary productions were very numerous and important, and embrace the classics, history, divinity, biblical criticism, biography, and poetry. The list as set forth in Crockford's Clerical Directory is very extensive. His poetical works include Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1864; Master and Scholar, 1866; Things New and Old, 1884; and translations of Sophocles, Æschylus, and Dante. As a writer of sacred poetry he ranks very high. His hymns are elegant in style, fervent in spirit, and broad in treatment. The subjects chosen are mainly those associated with the revived Church life of the present day, from the Processional at a Choral Festival to hospital work and the spiritual life in schools and colleges. The two which have attained to the most extensive use in Great Britain and America are: Rejoice, ye pure in heart," and "Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old.”
Edward H. Plumptre wrote “Thy hand, O God, has guided”, entitled "Church Defence”, and published it in Plumptre's Lazarus and Other Poems (1865). Republished in the 1889 Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern, the text gained much popularity in England. Of the original six stanzas, the Psalter Hymnal provides stanzas 1, 2, and 6 in modern language. The text affirms God's faithful hand of guidance and blessing on the church, a church that has continually proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, and that, by God's power, will ultimately be victorious in its mission. Each stanza leads directly into the powerful refrain line taken from Ephesians 4:4-5: “There is one body [the church of Christ] . . . one Lord, one faith. . . .”
The tune, THORNBURY, was written by Basil Harwood (1859-1949), an English organist and composer. Harwood was raised Quaker, but converted to the Anglican Church when he was 21. The Church of England is where he was first drawn to organ music and choral singing. He studied music at Charterhouse; he then won admission to won Trinity College, Oxford where he studied Classics (1879) and Modern History (1880). He then studied for two years at the Leipzig Conservatory under Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn. It was here in 1882, Basil composed his first anthem for chorus and organ "O Saving Grace." He returned from Leipzig to realise that he had now passed the age limit to study music formally.
Harwood became organist of St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico completing his Sonata in C# Minor here in 1885, selling the copyright to the publisher Schott for one shilling a year or two later. After this success, he then moved to Ely Cathedral, and later Christ Church, Oxford and as precentor of Keble College, Oxford. While there he co-founded and conducted the Oxford Bach Choir which helped to earn him his degree as Doctor of Music. He conducted the Oxford Orchestral Association. He was musical editor of the 1908 Oxford Hymn Book and Examiner for Musical Degrees.
He was a keen walker, and named many of his hymn tunes after local places that he loved to visit, the most notable being the hymn tunes such as Tockington, Olveston, Almondsbury and Thornbury. He composed cantatas, church music and works for the organ; his Service in A flat, the anthem “O how Glorious”, and the hymn tunes LUCKINGTON ("Let all the world in every corner sing") and THORNBURY ("Thy hand O God has guided"), first used during a festival of the London Church Choir Association, remain in the Anglican repertory.
Your hand, O God, has guided your flock from age to age;
your faithfulness is written on history's open page.
Our fathers owned your goodness, and we their deeds record;
and both to this bear witness: one church, one faith, one Lord!
Your heralds brought the gospel to greatest and the least;
they summoned men and women to share the great King's feast.
And this was all their teaching in ev'ry deed and word,
to all alike proclaiming: one church, one faith, one Lord!
Your mercy will not fail us nor leave your work undone;
with your right hand to help us the vict'ry shall be won.
And then by earth and heaven your name shall be adored;
and this shall be our anthem: one church, one faith, one Lord!
Lorraine Forsdick is organist and choir director at St. Michael’s Church in Polperro, United Kingdom. She studied at Trinity College of Music, London. She provides her organ compositions available for free to other organists.
About the Piano Music:
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service - William Ringham
(c.2018, Lorenz Publishing)
Albert F. Bayly (1901-1984) was educated at London University and Mansfield College, Oxford. Beginning in the late 1920’s, he served at four Congregational churches in Northumberland, Lancashire and East Yorkshire; in 1962, he became pastor in Thaxted, Essex. After retiring in 1971, he moved to Springfield, Chelmsford, and was active in the local United Reformed Church. He wrote several pageants on mission themes, and librettos for cantatas by W. L. Lloyd Webber (father of Andrew).
Bayly wrote this text in response to a Hymn Society of America search for new hymns on social welfare. It was chosen as the theme hymn for the Second National Conference on the Churches and Social Welfare held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 23-27, 1961. The Hymn Society published the text in Seven New Social Welfare Hymns (1961).
The tune “Beach Spring” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin White, who with the help of Elisha J. King, published The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia, 1844), where it was sung with the text of “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched.” Named after the Beech Spring Baptist Church in Harris County, Georgia, the church was given its name because of its close proximity to two beech trees at a spring. Although the original spelling of the name should be “Beech,” White’s misspelling “Beach,” has stuck with the hymn throughout the ages. White was mostly a self-taught singing school teacher from South Carolina. Eventually he moved to Hamilton in Harris County, Georgia, where he worked at many different vocations, including a stint in the Georgia Militia. Eventually White married Thurza Golightly, and together the two had 14 children (the same number of children that White’s parents had). At some point along the timeline of Benjamin Franklin White’s history, a rumor was started that he worked closely with William Walker (who was his brother-in-law) to publish Southern Harmonies, but this rumor was probably not true. The two books were wildly popular in the south, but both contained the same southern white spirituals which were popular in the more rural areas. In the 20th century, the tunes from The Sacred Harp, and Southern Harmonies entered into more denominational hymnals and inspired many different composers to arrange the melodies in various ways. The Sacred Harp is one of the most used books in the four-shape notation, and has gone through numerous editions that have been published throughout the years, and even to the present days.
Lord, whose love through humble service Bore the weight of human need,
Who upon the cross, forsaken, Offered mercy’s perfect deed,
We, Your servants, bring the worship Not of voice alone, but heart,
Consecrating to Your purpose Ev’ry gift that you impart.
Still Your children wander homeless; Still the hungry cry for bread;
Still the captives long for freedom; Still in grief we mourn our dead.
As, O Lord, Your deep compassion Healed the sick and freed the soul,
Use the love Your Spirit kindles Still to save and make us whole.
As we worship, grant us vision, Till Your love’s revealing light
In its height and depth and greatness, Dawns upon our quickened sight,
Making known the needs and burdens Your compassion bids us bear,
Stirring us to tireless striving, Your abundant life to share.
Called by worship to Your service, Forth in Your dear name we go,
To the child, the youth, the aged, Love in living deeds to show;
Hope and health, goodwill and comfort, Counsel, aid, and peace we give,
That Your servants, Lord, in freedom May Your mercy know and live.
William Ringham holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Indiana University, where he also studied composition. He has performed as a piano soloist in concerts across the U.S. and Mexico. During many years of teaching music and serving various congregations as organist and conductor, Ringham continued to compose and arrange for the groups he was leading. After retiring from teaching, he turned his full attention to his writing, first publishing in 2000. A member of ASCAP, AGEHR, and ACDA, he has received consecutive annual ASCAP awards since 2003. In 2013, Ringham retired from his position of Director of Music at Mission Del Sol Presbyterian Church in Tempe, Arizona.
About the Choral Music:
Beautiful Savior - Sally DeFord
(c. 2004, Sally DeFord)
“Beautiful Savior”, a centuries-old favorite, is a fitting hymn for the Christmas season. The poetic language describes the Savior’s birth as the son of God and the son of man (mankind), which evokes the account of Mary’s conception and Jesus’ birth in the Bethlehem stable. The language describing him as being fair and pure can be applied literally to an image of him as a sweet baby and to his adult character and ministry. The original German text is said to have first been published about 1677 in the Roman Catholic “Münster Gesangbuch” (Münster Hymnbook) and had five verses. Some sources place the anonymous origin of the text in the twelfth century, however, researchers have not substantiated this and it may be an oral folk tradition. Other sources attribute the text to a seventeenth century German Jesuit scholar-poet, Friedrich Spee, due to its similarity to his writings. The Jesuits, or members of the Society of Jesus, are a Roman Catholic order of religious men which began in 1534.
The “Beautiful Savior” title is said to have originated with its translation into English by Joseph A. Seiss, a Lutheran pastor of Moravian descent born in 1823 at Graceham, Maryland. The historical area called Moravia adjoined Silesia and is part of the current Czech Republic. It was under the rule of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty for several centuries, which could explain Joseph Seiss’ familiarity with German, and it could be assumed that his family was familiar with the neighboring Silesian folk songs. Joseph Seiss (or Seuss) was ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1848 after studying for the ministry at Gettysburg College and Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He is said to have served in Virginia and Maryland before becoming pastor of the Church of the Holy Communion in Philadelphia in 1874. He was active in general church leadership and authored a number of books including “The Evangelical Psalmist” in 1859.
The CRUSADERS’ HYMN or ST. ELIZABETH hymn tune associated with the ‘Beautiful Savior’ text is unknown. The tune is said to be a Silesian folk song. Silesia, a historical region consisting mainly of the basin of the upper and middle Oder River in what is now southwestern Poland, is an area that has seen many wars, conquests and rulers. One of the principal cities, Wroclaw, is about 170 miles east of Dresden, Germany and the area has had German immigrants through its history. The tradition is that the tune was sung by German Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem. “The Crusades” in this instance refer to Christian holy wars called by popes between 1095 and 1291 AD against external and internal enemies for the recovery of property or defense of the people. It is said that Crusaders took vows and were granted compensation for sin, or indulgences, by participating, and were also considered pilgrimages. Some limit these wars to those involving Jerusalem, but there were other wars in which crusaders took vows. One of the Jerusalem wars that could influence the story of the hymn tradition was the third crusade against the Egyptian Saladin in the twelfth century in which the German Emperor Frederick participated. CRUSADER’s HYMN was first known to have been published by August H. Hoffman von Fallersleben in his 1842 volume of Silesian Folksongs. The first arrangement published in the United States is believed to have been done by Richard S. Willis in his 1850 volume of church choral works.
Sally Giles DeFord is a prolific composer and arranger whose choral, duet, solo, and instrumental music is given away through her website. “The Lord has placed me in circumstances that currently don't demand extra income, he has inspired the creators of technology to produce programs that I can use to publish the music without the assistance of typesetters, and he has given me a gift that I did nothing to earn. Sharing seems logical.” DeFord was born in 1959 in Eugene, Oregon. She fondly recalls that her love of music came listening to her grandmother practice the accordion and her grandfather singing her to sleep accompanied by his banjo. She wrote her first song—a ballad for a then-boyfriend—when she was sixteen, but scrapped it, as well as the next few songs she wrote. She attended Brigham Young University. Her music has been featured in Church magazines numerous times and she has received over thirty Church music awards for her compositions and arrangements. Her song, “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” was used in the 2008 Primary program and was performed in the Church’s General Young Women’s meeting in 2007.
Fair is the sunlight, Fair is the moonlight, And all the stars in heaven above,
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, And brings to all the world His love.
Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands, Robed in the flowers of blooming spring.
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, He makes the sorrowing spirit sing.
Beautiful Savior, Beautiful, Beautiful,
Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations! Son of God and Son of man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration now and forever more be thine!
Now and forever more be thine! Amen, Amen, Amen.
About the Hymns:
Here I Am, Lord
(c.1989, Daniel L. Schutte and NALR)
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.
The Summons
(c.1987, WGRG: The Iona Community, admin by GIA Publications)
One of the most important intentional communities of the 20th and 21st centuries is Scotland’s Iona Community. Founded on the remote Island of Iona in far western Scotland, the community traces its inspiration back to the 6th century, when St. Columba found his way from Ireland and established an outpost from which he evangelized all of Scotland. Eventually, he spread a Celtic form of Christianity that still resonates strongly today. George MacLeod (1895-1991), an iconoclastic spirit, left a popular parish in Glasgow and established the Community in the 1930s to train ministers in engaging the poor working-class people of Glasgow and also in working alongside artisans to rebuild the abandoned Benedictine Abbey on the Island of Iona.
John Bell (b. 1949) grew up in Kilmarnock, a rural town south of Glasgow. He received degrees in arts and theology from the University in Glasgow. He was ordained by the Church of Scotland in 1978 and appointed youth coordinator for the Presbytery of Glasgow. In 1980, he was admitted to membership of the Iona Community, having applied not primarily because it was a place of liturgical innovation, but because it was “a place where the potentials of the socially marginalized as well as the socially successful would be attested.” Since then he has become the international troubadour of the Community, guiding its publications in worship and music, preaching at conferences around the world and composing many songs that enumerate the themes of the Community.
“Will you come and follow me” (called “The Summons” in The Faith We Sing) is perhaps the most famous of Mr. Bell’s hymns. The hymn appeared initially in the first collection of music produced by the Wild Goose Worship Group, Heaven Shall Not Wait: Songs of Creation, the Incarnation, and the Life of Jesus (1987). Characteristic of Mr. Bell’s style, the text is prophetic, using many words not usually found in traditional hymns. “The Summons” of Christ is to a radical Christianity. We are challenged to “leave yourself behind” and to “risk the hostile stare”, “set the prisoner free” and “kiss the leper clean”, and “use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around”.
The tune is a traditional Scottish ballad entitled KELVINGROVE, named after a section of Glasgow. Mr. Bell often uses traditional melodies from Ireland, Scotland and England for his hymns. These tried and true tunes provide a Celtic flavor. For Mr. Bell, the purpose of congregational singing is to engage people in a fuller participation, to stretch their faith, and to encourage them to live in a manner that reflects justice.
Will you come and follow me If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown In you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer In you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean In you and you in me?
Will you love the 'you' you hide If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found To reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound In you and you in me?
Lord, your summons echoes true When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you And never be the same.
In your company I'll go Where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow In you and you in me.
The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve
(c.1993, Delores Dufner, adm. OCP Pub)
“Let us bring to life and liturgy the gifts that differ . . . for the building up of our sisters and brothers into the one Body of Christ,” proclaims Delores Dufner in her introduction to her hymn collection, Sing a New Church. She actively motivates us in this collection to “Sing a new church into being, one in faith and love and praise.” Sister Dufner (b. 1939), a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn., has published over 155 hymns in her lifetime, much to the acclaim of Alan Hommerding who named her the foremost female Roman Catholic hymn text writer in the United States in the October 2000 issue of the journal, The Hymn.
Sr. Dufner holds master’s degrees in liturgical music and liturgical studies and is a very active member of her monastery as well as the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minn. She has received several awards throughout her lifetime for her contributions to liturgy and music following Vatican II (1962-1965), from institutions such as St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., and the University of Notre Dame. Her work has taken her to various conventions, hymn festivals and meetings throughout the United States and the world. Music consultant work has even taken her on a 15-month journey to the Diocese of Ballarat, Victoria in Australia. Several of her texts have appeared in anthems, cantatas and even an opera/oratorio by prolific contemporary composers. One of her most famous texts is “Sing a New Church,” commissioned for the 1991 convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
Her hymnody is derived from her experiences of the Roman Catholic Church during Vatican II along with her involvement with liturgy and music. Sr. Dufner writes texts that function within Catholic liturgy, as well as texts which speak centrally from the Word of God. It was her realization that the Catholic Church was in need of English texts after the Vatican II reforms which challenged her to follow in the ways of Martin Luther. She began her hymn writing by creating texts for specific public domain tunes, free of copyright restrictions.
Her texts challenge congregations to keep the church progressing into the future and have earned her a respected presence in hymnals of several denominations throughout the world. Sr. Dufner is also known for her award-winning hymn texts centered on the Virgin Mary and her passion to speak out about women’s rights and injustices.
“The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve,” based on Isaiah 61:1-4 and Luke 4:16-22, highlights our Christian mission here on Earth by challenging readers to live out the gospel. Sr. Dufner’s modern English writing style is simple and dynamic, calling the assembly into vibrant prayer and action. This hymn flourishes with action verbs: bring, comfort, help, serve. Sr. Dufner cleverly reiterates the first stanza through the last stanza, as she sends the congregation forth in Jesus’ name through the working of the Holy Spirit. Her texts are often paired with familiar hymn tunes, for practical purposes and to remind us as citizens of the world of our rich ecumenical heritage shared between all. We sing tunes from the past to connect us with our past, and by pairing a fresh text with a durable and loved tune, we bridge the gaps between the past and present and become active witnesses to our evolving faith and church.
LAND OF REST is an American folk tune with ballad roots from Northern England and Scotland. It is traced back to The Christian’s Harp, published in 1832, and has associations with the Appalachians as a shape note tune. Previously assigned the title NEW PROSPECT in the 1844 edition of The Sacred Harp, it was named LAND OF REST for its pairing with the hymn, “O Land of Rest! For Thee I Sigh.” Annabel Morris Buchanan is responsible for the common harmonization of this tune, as she published it in her 1938 Folk Hymns of America.
The spirit sends us forth to serve; we go in Jesus' name
to bring glad tidings to the poor, God's favor to proclaim.
We go to comfort those who mourn and set the burdened free:
where hope is dim, to share a dream and help the blind to see.
We go to be the hands of Christ, to scatter joy like seed
and all our days, to cherish life, to do the loving deed.
Then let us go to serve in peace, the Gospel to proclaim.
God's Spirit has empowered us; we go in Jesus' name.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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