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:
Taste and See - Edwin T. Childs
(c.2012, GIA Publications)
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Roman Catholic Church has been exploring ways to diversify its music culturally, especially music for congregational participation. The major document of the Council was Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963) that, among many other things, recognized the gifts of cultures around the world and the need to express aspects of different cultures appropriately in the Mass. Thus today one can attend Mass celebrations in several languages and musical styles in the same weekend
Roman Catholic James E. Moore Jr. (b. 1951) brings the African-American gospel tradition to the Mass. He is a composer, conductor, pianist and master teacher who currently resides in Vienna, Austria, where he serves as a professional coach and teaches voice and conducting. A native of LaCrosse, Va., he holds undergraduate degrees in both piano and vocal music education and graduate degrees in piano and choral conducting. Dr. Moore is known for his choral conducting and leadership of congregations. His most popular songs are “Taste and See,” “I Will Be with You” and “An Irish Blessing,” all of which have been sung, recorded and appear in hymnals throughout the world. Prior to his move to Vienna, he served as director of music at St. Agnes Parish in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as assistant professor of music and liturgy at the Athenaeum of Ohio Theological Seminary.
“Taste and See” is a song to be sung during the Eucharist as people come forward to receive the communion elements. The refrain quotes Psalm 38:8a: “Taste and see that the LORD is good.” The stanzas quote Psalm 34: 1-5, 10. The infusion of the African-American gospel style with this text adds a celebratory tone to communion. The refrain of the psalm invites not only a spiritual feeding of the soul, but also suggests that we can experience empirically the presence of God through the senses of tasting and seeing. Indeed, communion is a full-body encounter. Singing together suggests that hearing is also a part of receiving the elements as we come forward not just as individuals, but as members of the body of Christ to the table. Communion is not just a ritual of personal penitence, but a celebration with our local body of Christ, with the faithful around the world, and with the saints—a cosmic moment in the Christian experience.
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall always be on my lips;
my soul shall glory in the Lord for he has been so good to me.
Glorify the Lord with me. Together let us all praise his name.
I called the Lord and he answered me; from all my troubles he set me free.
Worship the Lord, all you people. You’ll want for nothing if you ask.
Taste and see that God is good; in him we need put all our trust.
Taste and see, taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
O taste and see, taste and see the goodness of the Lord, of the Lord.
Edwin Childs is a professor and a composer of church music in the Chicago area. He is a graduate of Wheaton College, IL (B.M., 1967), and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D., 1973). He has taught at Philadelphia Biblical University, Biola University (California), and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Childs is an organist and in 2009 released a CD of his organ music performed by Brenda Heck Portman. He has also written and recorded two CDs of vocal solos performed by baritone, Gerard Sundberg. In 1998, he won the American Choral Directors Illinois Chapter Composition Contest for his middle-school choir piece entitled, "Three Songs From the Chinese,". In 2008, he again won the same contest with an SSAA work entitled, “Peace." Childs is a member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), American Choral Director's Association (ACDA), and the Hymn Society of America and Canada (HSA).
Allegro Marziale - Everett Titcomb
The familiar doxological hymn, “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow,” was written by Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711). From Hertfordshire, Ken was orphaned as a child and raised by his sister Anna and her husband Izaak Walton. They enrolled him in the all-boys school at Winchester College (1651-1656), and after his education there, he attended Hart Hall, Oxford, and New College, Oxford (BA 1661, MA 1664). He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1662, served as Rector to several parishes, and as a Chaplain to Princess Mary of Orange (1679-80), King Charles II (1683), and the Tangier Expedition (1683-84). In 1685, he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells. During the reign of King James II, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign the Declaration of Indulgence. Ken was acquitted of the charge, but when King William III ascended to the throne Ken refused to swear loyalty to him, he resigned his office and lived the rest of his life at the home of his friend, Lord Weymouth, at Longleat, Wilshire.
The original date of composition by Ken for the text of “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” is unknown, but the first mention of the hymn is in 1674 as the presumed final stanza of two longer hymns: “Awake, My Soul and with the Sun” and “Glory to Thee, My God, This Night.” These two hymns were referenced along with a third as Morning, Evening and Midnight hymns in a pamphlet written for his students titled A Manual of Prayers For the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, which was accompanied by the directive: “Be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly, remembering that the Psalmist, upon happy experience, assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season.” This directive is most often interpreted to mean that the hymns were meant for private devotion, not the gathered assembly, and yet these four lines, often referred to as The Lesser Doxology, have “been sung more often than any other lines ever written.” The hymn texts were published later as an appendix in his 1695 pamphlet as ‘revised’ versions.
Much of beauty of these four lines lies in its reflection of the joyous outbursts of the Psalms. Here we see both the ‘host’ of heaven and the ‘creatures here below’ of earth praising God as in Psalm 96:11-12a and the final jubilant line of Psalm 150:6:
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. (Psalm 96: 11-12a, NRSV)
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6, NRSV)
The Trinitarian structure of Ken’s hymn has also led to its common liturgical use. The first line describes the person of God the Father as the source of all blessings (Ephesians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3). The second line, though, speaks to God the Spirit through whom all creatures praise God (Psalm 104:24-30, 1 Corinthians 2:10-13). The third line points to God the Son who is begotten of the Father, firstborn of heaven and superior to angels and the heavenly host (Hebrews 1:4). The fourth line summarizes the stanza and all of praise in general, since all praise is directed toward God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
OLD HUNDREDTH is a hymn tune in Long Metre from Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (1551) (the second edition of the Genevan Psalter) and is one of the best known melodies in all Christian musical traditions. The tune is usually attributed to the French composer Louis Bourgeois. Loys "Louis" Bourgeois (c.1510-1559) was a composer and music theorist of the Renaissance. He is most famous as one of the main compilers of Calvinist hymn tunes in the middle of the 16th century. In 1549 and 1550 he worked on a collections of psalm-tunes, most of which were translated by Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze. Unfortunately, he fell foul of local musical authorities and was sent to prison in December, 1551 for changing the tunes for some well-known psalms "without a license." He was released on the personal intervention of John Calvin, but the controversy continued: those who had already learned the tunes had no desire to learn new versions, and the town council ordered the burning of Bourgeois's instructions to the singers, claiming they were confusing. Shortly after this incident, Bourgeois left Geneva never to return: he settled in Lyon, and his Geneva employment was terminated.
The Genevan Psalter was compiled over a number of years in the Swiss city of Geneva, a center of Protestant activity during the Reformation, in response to the teaching of John Calvin that communal singing of psalms in the vernacular language is a foundational aspect of church life. This contrasted with the prevailing Catholic practice at the time in which sacred texts were chanted in Latin by the clergy only. Calvinist musicians including Bourgeois supplied many new melodies and adapted others from sources both sacred and secular. The final version of the psalter was completed in 1562. Calvin intended the melodies to be sung in plainsong during church services, but harmonized versions were provided for singing at home.
The Genevan Psalter, the source for the hymns of both the Reformed Church in England and the Pilgrims in America. In the original versions by Bourgeois, the music is monophonic, in accordance with the dictates of John Calvin, who disapproved not only of counterpoint but of any multiple parts; Bourgeois though did also provide four-part harmonizations, but they were reserved for singing and playing at home. Many of the four-part settings are syllabic and chordal, a style which has survived in many Protestant church services to the present day.
Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run;
shake off dull sloth, and early rise to pay thy morning sacrifice.
Lord, I my vows to Thee renew. Disperse my sins as morning dew;
guard my first springs of thought and will, and with Thyself my spirit fill.
Direct, control, suggest, this day, all I design or do or say,
that all my pow'rs, with all their might, in Thy sole glory may unite.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise Him all creatures here below;
praise Him above, ye heav'enly host; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
———————
Glory to thee, my God, this night, for all the blessings of the light:
keep me, O keep me, King of kings, beneath thine own almighty wings.
Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son, the ill that I this day have done;
that with the world, myself, and thee, I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.
Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed;
teach me to die, that so I may rise glorious at the awful day.
O may my soul on thee repose, and with sweet sleep mine eyelids close;
sleep that shall me more vigorous make to serve my God when I awake.
When in the night I sleepless lie, my soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
let no ill dreams disturb my rest, no powers of darkness me molest.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Everett Titcomb (1884-1968) served as organist/choir director at St. John the Evangelist in Boston for over 50 years. In that capacity, he wrote many choral works and a few organ pieces. Much of his output is based on Gregorian chant themes. Titcomb's compositions and writings are the products of a life lived in New England, mainly in Amesbury and Boston. Because the innovations that came about from the Oxford movement reached that part of this country first, Titcomb was one of the first church musicians to become involved with its innovations.
About the Piano Music:
Manna - Chris de Silva
(c.2018, GIA Publications)
The author of “Breathren, We Have Me to Worship” has not been positively identified. It has been traditionally attributed to George Atkins, but no further information has been found about him or the text. The five stanzas of this text first appeared in print in 1825. The fourth stanza (“Is there here a trembling jailer”) is often omitted. The final two lines of each stanza are based on these lines: “pray, and holy manna will be showered all around,” which may be a reference to the story of God providing manna to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. The opening stanza of this call to worship calls on Christians to pray for the Holy Spirit's presence as the service begins, while the final stanza calls for believers to live in the love of God in anticipation of the full redemption of creation when Christ returns.
In many of yesterday’s churches, certain leaders would gather while the pastor was preaching to pray for power and clarity in his words, and for responsive listeners and souls changed for eternity. Even a spiritually mature preacher can accomplish nothing of lasting worth without empowerment of the Holy Spirit: “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). As God’s Word is preached in purity and with spiritual power, we can expect His blessings. The hymn writer used manna, the miraculous provision of food for the Israelites in the wilderness, to symbolize God’s answer to the church’s prayers.
Holy Manna is the hymn tune originally written for "Brethren, We Have Met Together", which is one of the oldest published American folk hymns. Holy Manna is a pentatonic melody in Ionian mode. It was originally published by William Moore in Columbian Harmony, a four-note shape-note tunebook, in 1829, and is attributed to him. Like most shape-note songs from that century, it is usually written in three parts. In addition to being used in a significant number of early American hymnals, including Southern Harmony and Baptist Harmony, Holy Manna appears in a large number of modern hymnals.
Brethren, we have met to worship And adore the Lord our God;
Will you pray with all your power, While we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit Of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and holy manna Will be showered all around.
Brethren, see poor sinners round you Slumb'ring on the brink of woe;
Death is coming, hell is moving, Can you bear to let them go?
See our fathers and our mothers, And our children sinking down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna Will be showered all around.
Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses' sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners Who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior, Tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna Will be showered all around.
Let us love our God supremely, Let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners, Till our God makes all things new.
Then He'll call us home to heaven, At His table we'll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself, and serve us With sweet manna all around.
Chris de Silva is a composer, arranger and recording artist with GIA Publications, Inc. He is is originally from Singapore and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Chris shares his love for music ministry at national conferences, diocesan and parish retreats around the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. De Silva has ministered as Director of Liturgy and Music at several faith communities in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and currently serves on the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring. He also holds an M.A. in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
About the Choral Music:
Praise and Adore – Tom Fettke
(c.2014, Lorenz Publishing Company)
“Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him” first appeared in a four-paged tract which is found pasted at the end of some copies of the 1796 musical edition of the Psalms, Hymns, and Anthems of the Foundling Hospital, London and again at the end of the edition of words only, published in 1801. A post-exilic hymn based on Psalm 148, it maintains that God's glory displayed in creation and redemption is so great that the praise on Israel's lips needs to be supplemented by a chorus from all creation. Let everything created in the heavens praise God for the majesty and ordered goodness of the celestial realm. Let all created things on earth and in the seas praise their Maker. Let all people join in praising God for salvation "from sin and shame". The question of the authorship of this hymn has been a matter of serious inquiry for some years, with the result that on the one hand it is attributed to John Kempthorne, and on the other to Bishop Mant, and both in error. The leaflet found in the 1796 hymnal is neither signed nor dated. The authorship and date of the writing and first printing of the hymn are therefore still open to investigation and research.
Tom Fettke has taught music in both public and Christian schools and has served as a church choir director and minister of music in churches large and small for over 30 years. He is a composer, arranger, clinician, and producer of Christian music recordings. Fettke was the creator and senior editor of the Hymnal for Worship and Celebration (1986).
Praise the Lord! O heavens adore Him; praise Him, angels in the height;
Sun and moon rejoice before Him; praise Him, shining stars of light.
Praise the Lord, for He has spoken; worlds His mighty voice obeyed;
Laws, which never shall be broken, for their guidance He has made.
Praise the Lord, for He is gracious; never shall His promise fail;
God has made His saints victorious, sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation; hosts on high, His power proclaim.
Heaven and earth, and all creation, praise and magnify His name!
Worship, honor, glory, blessing, Lord, we offer as our gift;
Young and old, Your praise expressing, our glad songs to you we lift.
All the saints in heaven adore You; we would join their glad acclaim;
As Your angels bow before You, so on earth we praise Your name.
Amen and amen!
About the Hymns:
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
"The Hymn of Joy" (often called "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" after the first line) is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of musically setting it to the famous "Ode to Joy" melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's final symphony, Symphony No. 9. Van Dyke wrote this poem in 1907 while staying at the home of Williams College president Harry Augustus Garfield. He was serving as a guest preacher at Williams at the time. He told his host that the local Berkshire Mountains had been his inspiration. The lyrics were first published in 1911 in Van Dyke's Book of Poems.
Van Dyke wrote of this hymn: “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.” This hymn is generally considered by hymnologists to be one of the most joyous expressions of hymn lyrics in the English language.
Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. In 1908–09 Dr. van Dyke was an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors. Among his popular writings are the two Christmas stories, The Other Wise Man (1896) and The First Christmas Tree (1897). Various religious themes of his work are also expressed in his poetry, hymns and the essays collected in Little Rivers (1895) and Fisherman’s Luck (1899).
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee, Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!
All Thy works with joy surround Thee, Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain Call us to rejoice in Thee.
Thou art giving and forgiving, Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living, Ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, join the happy chorus, Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward In the triumph song of life.
Take My Life, and Let It Be
Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879) originally composed her text in eleven couplets as a hymn of "self-consecration to Christ" on February 4, 1874. She told the following story about writing this hymn:
I went for a little visit of five days [to Areley House, Worcestershire, in December 1873]. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. [God] gave me the prayer, "Lord, give me all this house." And He just did! Before I left the house, everyone had got a blessing. The last night of my visit. . . I was too happy to sleep and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart, one after another, till they finished with "Ever, only, all, for Thee.”
The text is a "catalog" hymn that lists aspects of our lives and offers them in Christ's service. "Take My Life and Let It Be" was first published in the 1874 appendix to Charles B. Snepp's Songs of Grace and Glory (1872). A twelfth couplet was added at some later point, producing the six stanzas published in the Psalter Hymnal.
Although her formal education was sporadic because of poor health, Havergal learned six foreign languages, including Greek and Hebrew, and was well read in many subjects. She began writing poetry at an early age and was also an accomplished singer and pianist. The daughter of a clergyman, she had a conversion experience at the age of fourteen and was confirmed in the Church of England in 1853. Taking seriously her own words "take my silver and my gold," she sent all her jewelry to the Church Mission Society to be sold. She also supported other charitable organizations. Her more than one hundred hymns were originally published in leaflets and later gathered into seven collections: Ministry of Song (1869), Twelve Sacred Songs for Little Singers (1870), Under the Surface (1874), Loyal Responses (1878), Life Mosaic (1879), Life Chords (1880), and Life Echoes (1883), as well as in one large volume, Poetical Works (1884).
The tune MESSIAH, also sometimes called HEROLD, was written by Ferdinand Herold (1791-1833).
Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee.
Christ Be Beside Me
(c.1987, Faith Alive Christian Resources)
Scottish Jesuit Father James Quinn (1919-2010) was born in Glasgow, Scotland and educated at St. Aloysius' College in Glasgow and Glasgow University. His first hymn collection, New Hymns for All Seasons, was published in 1969, and Praise for All Seasons, which contained texts drawn from some of his earlier works, was published in 1994. In 2017, after becoming sole publisher and licensing agent, OCP published Hymns for All Seasons, the first-ever complete edition of Fr. Quinn's hymn texts. Fr. Quinn worked for decades to make the theology of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) accessible and easily sung by worshipers. He wrote paraphrases of psalms and Scriptures or English translations of Marian prayers to the number of beats in the lines of existing melodies. Many of his texts, set to traditional hymn tunes appear in the English-language hymnals of nearly every Christian denomination around the world. In 1998, the “Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians” praised Father Quinn's ability to articulate the orthodox aspects of Christianity in new and fresh ways. He published more than 200 texts during his lifetime.
This hymn is a reworking of the prayer known as ‘St Patrick’s Breastplate’. The tune ‘Bunessan’ is said to have been noted down by Alexander Fraser from the singing of a wandering Highland singer and appeared in print first in Songs and Hymns of the Gael, which Lachlan McBean published in 1888. McBean was a major influence in widening the appreciation of Gaelic culture in his time.
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart.
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me, shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my life.
Christ be in all hearts thinking about me,
Christ be on all tongues telling of me.
Christ be the vision in eyes that see me,
In ears that hear me Christ ever be.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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