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:
Strengthen for Service Lord - Edwin T. Childs
(c.2012, Augsburg Fortress)
“Strengthen for service, Lord”, in The English Hymnal, 1906, is a metrical rendering of a prayer in the Malabar Liturgy. It is also in the Liturgy of the Nestorians. It was versified by C. W. Humphreys from the prose translation in Dr. J. M. Neale's Liturgies of S. Mark, S. James, S. Clement, S. Chrysostom and the Church of Malabar, 1859. The Syriac text is in the Rome ed., 1844, of the Uniat Missal of Malabar, which is the old Nestorian rite of the Christians of St. Thomas, as modified in South India in 1599.
About A.D. 307 there was born at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, Ephraem or Ephraim Syrus, the most celebrated father of the Syrian church, and famous not only as a theologian, but also as a poet and hymn-writer. Historians differ as to the details of his life; but it is known that having first been a pupil of James, Bishop of Nisibis, he finished his education at Edessa. He visited Basil at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and was ordained to the office of deacon. He died at Edessa in June, 373. Ephraim was a most voluminous writer of commentaries, expository sermons, hymns, and metrical homilies. Metrical Homilies, first mentioned in connection with him, are a unique kind of composition. The tracts are in verse, explaining the Christian religion, and were circulated by missionaries in some parts of India. The people liked to read them aloud in a kind of chant. The Homilies are in metre, i.e. in lines containing a fixed number of syllables, e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 12, as the case may be, and are divided into strophes, but differ from hymns proper in their greater length and more decidedly didactic character. We might have supposed them to be poems intended to be simply read, but from notes found on manuscripts giving directions as to the singing, it appears as though, at least in some cases, they were actually sung or chanted in connection with religious services.
Robert A. Hobby (b.1962) currently serves as Director of Music for Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his responsibilities include playing for many of the worship services, overseeing the graded choral program, and managing the concerts the church offers. Numerous activities during his tenure include Trinity Church establishing a choral series with seventeen composers commissioned thus far, hosting a regional convention of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, producing four recordings, and expanding the opportunities for music ministry. Hobby received his Bachelor's Degree in Church Music from Wittenberg University in 1985 and a Master's Degree in Organ Performance from the University of Notre Dame in 1987. Hobby wrote the tune BUCKHURST RUN for this text for the Lutheran Hymnal published in 2006.
Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken;
let ears that now have heard thy songs to clamour never waken.
Lord, may the tongues which 'Holy' sang keep free from all deceiving;
the eyes which saw thy love be bright, thy blessèd hope perceiving.
The feet that tread thy holy courts from light do thou not banish;
the bodies by thy Body fed with thy new life replenish.
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).
About the Piano Music:
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee - William Ringham
(c.2018, Lorenz Publishing)
In the years following the Civil War and the birth of the Industrial Revolution, the social gospel emerged. Washington Gladden (1838-1918) was one of the most distinguished clergymen of his era and a leader in the social gospel movement. Gladden was a native of Pennsylvania, and served churches in New York and Massachusetts before accepting a call to First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, a parish he served for 32 years. Educated at Owego Academy and Williams College, he was the moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches from 1904-1907. He served as one of the editors of the Pilgrim Hymnal (1904). As editor of the Independent, he made important contributions to the cause of social justice. While a pastor in Massachusetts, Gladden began preaching about labor-management problems, encouraging cooperation between employers and employees. This theme aroused opposition from those who felt the role of a minister was “to save souls, not to regulate business.” Furthermore, he challenged the idea that the Bible was inerrant in matters of science and history. Albert Bailey notes that “he found his fellow-clergymen without courage to follow him, for heresy trials were beginning in the Congregational Church.” From the Ohio pulpit, Gladden found willing listeners to his message at the State University of Columbus. He received invitations to deliver lectures at a number of universities including the Yale Divinity School. His tracts, Social Facts and Forces (1897) and Organized Labor and Capital (1904), were very influential.
Perhaps this hymn is a paradox. Few realize that behind the relatively peaceful words of Gladden’s poem, sung to a placid Victorian melody, one can find the witness of a champion for social justice. This hymn was published in 1879 in three eight-line stanzas in Sunday Afternoon, a magazine prepared by the author, under the title “Walking with God.” C.H. Richards discovered the poem and included it in his 1880 hymnal, Christian Praise.
After various tunes had been set to this text, Gladden insisted on the use of MARYTON. Composed by H. Percy Smith (b. Malta, 1825; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, 1898), the tune was originally published as a setting for John Keble's "Sun of My Soul" in Arthur S. Sullivan's Church Hymns with Tunes (1874). Henry Percy Smith (1825-1898) was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, England, and ordained a priest in the Church of England. He served five churches, including St. Michael's York Town in Farnborough, Great Barton in Suffolk, Christ Church in Cannes, France, and the Cathedral in Gibraltar. MARYTON is his only tune found in contemporary hymnals and is thought to be the only tune he published.
O Master, let me walk with Thee in lowly paths of service free;
tell me Thy secret; help me bear the strain of toil, the fret of care.
Help me the slow of heart to move by some clear, winning word of love;
teach me the wayward feet to stay, and guide them in the homeward way.
Teach me Thy patience, still with Thee in closer, dearer company,
in work that keeps faith sweet and strong, in trust that triumphs over wrong.
In hope that sends a shining ray far down the future's broad'ning way;
in peace that only Thou canst give, with Thee, O Master, let me 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:
Speak, Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth – Steven Stucky
(c.1972, Word Music)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. She is famous for writing Goblin Market and Remember, and the words of the Christmas carols In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas. The title of J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling is based on a line in Rossetti's poem A Dirge. Rossetti began writing down and dating her poems in 1842. In 1847 she began experimenting with verse forms such as sonnets, hymns and ballads; drawing narratives from the Bible, folk tales and the lives of the saints. Speak, Lord is based on 1 Samuel 3:10.
Steven Edward Stucky (1949-2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Stucky was raised in Abilene, Texas, and attended Baylor and Cornell. He was long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was resident composer 1988–2009 (the longest such affiliation in American orchestral history); he was host of the New York Philharmonic's Hear & Now series 2005–09; and he was Pittsburgh Symphony Composer of the Year for the 2011–12 season. For Pittsburgh, he composed Silent Spring, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's epochal book of the same title. Other noteworthy compositions by Stucky include the symphonic poem Radical Light (2007), Rhapsodies for Orchestra (2008), the oratorio August 4, 1964 (2008), a Symphony (2012), and his Second Concerto for Orchestra (2003), which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has also taught at Eastman and Berkeley, the latter as Ernest Bloch Professor in 2003. After several earlier teaching and conducting visits, in 2013 he became artist-faculty composer-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 2014 he became Professor Emeritus at Cornell and joined the composition faculty at the Juilliard School. He wrote Speak, Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth in 1972.
Speak Lord, Speak Lord, Speak Lord,
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.
Speak Lord, Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth.
Grant us ears to hear, grant us eyes to see,
Grant us wills to obey, grant us hearts to love;
Then declare what Thou wilt, Reveal what Thou wilt,
Command what Thou wilt, Demand what thou wilt.
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Amen.
About the Hymns:
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
(c.1961, Oxford Univ. Press; harm. c. 1978, Lutheran Book of Worship)
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.
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.
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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