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:
Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds - Mark Sedio
(c.1996, Augsburg Fortress)
Paul Zeller Strodach (b.1876) attended Muhlenberg College for his undergraduate, the first class of that college, entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, and became a pastor in 1874. Strodach served at four different churches in his 48 years of ministry. He also worked as an editor at the publication house for the United Lutheran Church for 20 years. Hee also wrote a handful of books, translated some Lutheran works into English, and aided in compiling a hymnal. Finally, he wrote a small collection of hymns, most notably “Now Let the Vault of Heaven Resound.”
LASST UNS ERFREUEN is a rather old German tune, though its first record is found in the Geistliche Kirchengesäng hymnal of 1623. This German Catholic hymnal was put together as a part of the counter-reformation. Though this hymnal’s original publication has since been lost, most consider it to have been a Jesuit composition of hymns for each church season. The original text for this tune was called “Laßt uns erfreuen herzlich sehr” or “Let Us Rejoice Heartily” and composed for Easter. This tune was made popular by The English Hymnal of 1906. Composer Ralph Vaughn Williams was heavily involved with the hymnal and its tune compositions, and he took this older tune and composed his own arrangement with harmonies.
The hymn opens with a most majestic picture. Though we cannot really picture heaven, we can imagine what it looks and sounds like when a glorious vaulted cathedral is like when a chorus of voices are singing together below it. But this vault we sing of here is so much greater, so much grander, reverberating with such a sound of rejoicing that we can only fail to imagine and long to hear with our own ears. This is the sound of angels singing the praises of God.
Now all the vault of Heav’n resounds In praise of love that still abounds:
“Christ has triumphed! He is living!” Sing, choirs of angels, loud and clear,
Repeat their song of glory here: “Christ has triumphed, Christ has triumphed!”
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Eternal is the gift He brings, Therefore our heart with rapture sings:
“Christ has triumphed! He is living!” Now still He comes to give us life
And by His presence stills all strife. “Christ has triumphed! He is living!”
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
O fill us, Lord, with dauntless love; Set heart and will on things above
That we conquer through Your triumph; Grant grace sufficient for life’s day
That by our lives we truly say: “Christ has triumphed! He is living!”
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Adoring praises now we bring And with the heavenly blessed sing:
“Christ has triumphed! Alleluia!” Be to the Father and our Lord,
To Spirit blest, most holy God, All the glory, never ending!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Mark Sedio serves Cantor at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. In addition, he has held teaching positions both at Augsburg College and Luther Seminary. Sedio is an active recitalist, clinician, conductor and composer, having presented hymn festivals and workshops throughout North America and Europe. Over 125 of his compositions for organ, piano, choral and instrumental ensembles are available from a number of publishers. A number of his hymn tunes, texts and harmonization appear in various denominational hymnals and supplements. A love of foreign language acquisition and linguistics combined with interest in folk music and styles has led to a keen interest in global church music. He holds a B.A. in music from Augsburg College and an M.A. in choral music from the University of Iowa. He has studied in the M.Div. program at Luther Seminary and the liturgical studies program at St. John’s University. A charter member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Sedio served on the organization’s founding board and as its first Director of Ecclesiastical Concerns. He chaired the worship committee for the 2008 national convention of the American Guild of Organists.
About the Choral Music:
Empty Now – Joseph Martin
(c.1997, Malcolm Music, div of Shawnee Press)
Joseph Martin (b. 1959 ), a native of North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Subsequently he earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. Joseph taught for five years in the Piano Pedagogy Department of the University of Texas.. He is a member of the staff of Shawnee Press as Director of Sacred Publications, with responsibilities for overseeing the editorial and creative direction of the company’s sacred publications and also coordinating the recording and production aspects of future sacred publishing efforts. Joseph has performed solo piano recitals and has been the featured artist with symphony orchestras in the United States and Mexico. As winner of the Nina Plant Wideman Competition, he performed with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. His solo recital in Ex-convento del Carmen was broadcast nationally throughout the country. Though he continues to perform in concert, he now devotes his efforts to playing in churches and for conferences of church musicians Recognized throughout the United States for his many choral compositions, over 1200 compositions are currently in print and the list continues to grow.
“Empty Now” traces the life of Christ from the cradle to the grave, and beyond.
There is a manger far away where once a tiny child was laid,
Where angels sang and shepherds bowed, long ago, far away;
The manger is empty now.
There is a temple far away where once a teacher went to pray.
He spoke of truth to an angry crown, long ago, far away;
The temple is empty now.
There is a cross far away where once a Lamb for sin was slain.
A crown of thorns adorned His brow; the cross is empty,
The cross is empty, the cross is empty now.
There is a tomb far away where once the Lord of Life was laid.
Come and see His linen shroud. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
The tomb is empty now! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Joy in the Morning – Natalee Sleeth
(c.1977, Hope Publishing)
Natalie Allyn Sleeth (née Wakeley) (1930-1992) was born in Evanston, Illinois. In 1934, she began to study the piano at the early age of four. In 1952, she received an Academic major in music theory and a BA in music theory at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She married a Professor of Homiletics, Reverend Ronald E. Sleeth. In her later life she received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1959, and from Nebraska Wesleyan College in 1990. An organist, she wrote over 180 selections for church and school. She was a member of the Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, TX.
One of Sleeth's best-known anthems for choir is entitled "Joy in the Morning" and was written for the West Virginia Wesleyan College concert chorale on the occasion of her husband's inauguration as the president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1977. Far and away the best-selling anthem in the Hope catalog with over one million copies sold, "Joy in the Morning" is a true classic.
Joy, there’ll be joy, there’ll be joy, joy, joy, joy, joy,
there’ll be joy, there’ll be joy, there’ll be joy in the morning,
there’ll be joy in the morning on that day, on that day.
There’ll be joy in the morning on that day.
For the daylight will dawn when the darkness is gone,
there’ll be joy in the morning on that day.
There’ll be peace and contentment evermore,
there’ll be peace evermore, there’ll be peace on the earth once more,
Every heart and voice will again rejoice, there’ll be peace, peace evermore.
And the glory, glory, glory of the Lord will shine, will shine,
And the glory of the Lord will bring the truth divine.
There’ll be love and forgiveness everywhere,
there’ll be love everywhere,
And the way of the Lord will that day be restored,
There’ll be love, sweet love everywhere.
There’ll be joy, there’ll be joy, there’ll be joy, joy, joy, joy, joy,
There’ll be joy in the morning, there’ll be joy on that day,
for the daylight will dawn when the darkness is gone,
There’ll be joy, joy, joy!
There’ll be peace and contentment for evermore,
there’ll be peace and contentment evermore, evermore,
Every heart, every voice will together rejoice,
there’ll be peace, peace, peace.
And the glory, glory, glory of the Lord will shine, will shine,
and the glory, glory, glory of the Lord will bring the truth divine,
There’ll be love and forgiveness everywhere, there’ll be love everywhere,
and the way of the Lord will be restored,
There’ll be love and forgiveness,
There’ll be peace and contentment,
There’ll be joy, joy, joy, joy, joy!
Hallelujah, from Messiah – G. F. Handel
Georg Friederich Handel (1685-1759) became a musician and composer despite objections from his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Handel studied music with Zachau, organist at the Halle Cathedral, and became an accomplished violinist and keyboard performer. He traveled and studied in Italy for some time and then settled permanently in England in 1713. Although he wrote a large number of instrumental works, he is known mainly for his Italian operas, oratorios (including “Messiah”, 1741), various anthems for church and royal festivities, and organ concertos, which he interpolated into his oratorio performances. He composed only three hymn tunes, one of which still appears in some modern hymnals. A number of hymnal editors, including Lowell Mason, took themes from some of Handel's oratorios and turned them into hymn tunes.
Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on Jesus Christ as Messiah. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only "scene" taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends with the "Hallelujah" chorus. In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by (among others) Mozart. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel's original intentions, although "big Messiah" productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.
Part II closes with the chorus "Hallelujah", in the key of D major with trumpets and timpani. This chorus is often performed out of context, especially around Christmas and Easter. The choir introduces in homophony a characteristic simple motif on the word, playing with the interval of a second, which re-appears throughout the piece. Several lines from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 19:6,16, Revelation 11:15) are treated differently, as in a motet, but unified by "Hallelujah" as a conclusion or as a countersubject in a fugal section. The line "for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" is sung by all voices, first in unison, then in imitation with Hallelujah-exclamations interspersed. The second line "The kingdom of this world is become" is sung in a four part setting like a chorale. The third idea "and he shall reign for ever and ever" starts as a fugue on a theme with bold leaps, reminiscent in sequence of Philipp Nicolai's Lutheran chorale Wachet auf. As a countersubject, the words "forever – and ever" assume the rhythm of the Hallelujah-motif. The final acclamation "King of Kings...and Lord of Lords" is sung on one note, energized by repeated calls "Hallelujah" and "forever – and ever", raised higher and higher (the sopranos and the trumpets part), up to a rest full of tension and a final solemn "Hallelujah".
In many parts of the world, it is the accepted practice for the audience to stand for this section of the performance. The tradition is said to have originated with the first London performance of Messiah, which was attended by King George II. As the first notes of the triumphant Hallelujah Chorus rang out, the king was so moved that he rose to his feet and remained standing until the end of the chorus. Royal protocol has always dictated that when the monarch stands, everyone in the monarch's presence is also required to stand. Thus, the entire audience and orchestra stood when the king stood during the performance, initiating a tradition that has lasted more than two centuries.
There is another story told about this chorus that Handel's assistant walked in to Handel's room after shouting to him for several minutes with no response. The assistant reportedly found Handel in tears, and when asked what was wrong, Handel held up the score to this movement and said, "I thought I saw the face of God."
Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah!
The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.
And He shall reign forever and ever, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!
About the Hymns:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today - Douglas Benton
(c.2009, Hope Publishing Company)
"Hymn for Easter Day" was written by Charles Wesley in 1739 for the inaugural service at the Foundry Meeting House, London's first Wesleyan chapel. As with many of the most popular hymns, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" has survived the centuries thanks to a successful marriage of lyrics and music. The tune first circulated in 1708 with the Lyra Davidica hymnal, but no composer has ever been acknowledged. It was first published in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, John Wesley's hymnbook first published in 1780. Charles Wesley's original text does not include the song's most distinctive characteristic—the "Alleluia!" that ends each line. An unknown editor added the alleluias later.
“Alleluia”, meaning "Praise the Lord," prominently leads off Psalms 106, 111, 112, 113, 117, and 135 in the Hebrew hymnal. In the years immediately following Christ's resurrection, “alleluia” particularly connoted praise for Jesus' victory over death. Early Christians began greeting each other on Easter with the now-familiar call and response: "Alleluia! He is risen!" "Alleluia! He is risen indeed!" Alleluia is meant to convey emphatic joy, thanksgiving, and triumph.
John captures the triumph in Revelation 19 with his vision of the great multitude in heaven roaring, "Alleluia!" Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate, conveyed the joy when he wrote that Christian houses of worship in the fourth and fifth centuries shook from the intense alleluias shouted by believers. Roman Catholics and Anglicans refrain from speaking or singing alleluia during Lent, but they reintroduce the word into their liturgies to express their thanksgiving on Easter morning. Even in nonliturgical churches, alleluia retains a kind of liturgical significance. Bernard Lord Manning, a hymnologist, historian, and observer of Methodism during the early 20th century, explained how hymns like "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" functioned as a liturgy for John and Charles Wesley's spiritual descendants.
But in the evening at the chapel [the Dissenting church], though I was uncertain about the prayers, there was no gamble about the hymns. I knew we should have Charles Wesley's Easter hymn, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," with its 24 "Alleluias": and we did have it. Among any Dissenters worth the name that hymn is as certain to come on Easter Day as the Easter Collect in the Established Church. And mark this further—those 24 "Alleluias" are not there for nothing: the special use of "Alleluia" at Easter comes down to us from the most venerable liturgies. Our hymns are our liturgy, an excellent liturgy. Let us study it, respect it, use it, develop it, and boast of it.
This melodic liturgy conveys the triumphant joy that is ours on Easter morning. Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Douglas J. Benton (b. 1948) studied at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. Benton has performed with the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra and the ASU Choral Union, the Phoenix Symphony, the Master Chorale of Flagstaff, the Arizona Masterworks Chorale and has concertized throughout the southwestern United States and Helsinki, Finland. In addition to organ, Mr. Benton is an internationally recognized expert in the field of handbells. He has composed and arranged music for brass, choir, handbells, orchestra and organ.
Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
All creation, join to say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sing? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
Christ is Alive - Richard Wayne Dirksen
(c.2002, Oxford University Press)
Brian Wren (b. 1936) is Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Wren wrote this text in England, during April of 1968. Wren writes:
It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God's love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing.
First published in the British supplement New Church Praise (1975), the text was revised by Wren in 1978. "Christ Is Alive" is a joyful celebration of Christ's resurrection and of his personal rule in a human world in which pain, war, and injustice abound. Christ’s transcendent and immanent reign is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will ultimately bring about a new creation.
TRURO is an anonymous tune, first published in Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, (second vol., 1789) as a setting for Isaac Watts' "Now to the Lord a noble song." Virtually nothing is known about this eighteenth-century British editor of the two-volume Psalmodia Evangelica, a collection of three-part psalm and hymn tunes for "Churches, Chapels, and Dissenting Meetings in England, Scotland, and Ireland." The tune is named for an ancient city in Cornwall, England, famous for its cathedral and for its pottery.
Richard Wayne Dirksen (1921-2003) was an American musician and composer. He studied organ at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory under Virgil Fox, graduating magna cum laude. While still studying at Peabody, Dirksen became assistant organist to Paul Callaway at the Washington National Cathedral in February, 1942. Later that year, he began three-and-a-half years of military service during World War II, resuming his post at the cathedral in December, 1945. In 1949, Dirksen was also appointed director of the glee club at the cathedral's affiliated St. Albans School. In 1969, he was the first lay person in the Anglican Communion to be named a Precentor, meaning he had administrative oversight of all worship services. Dirksen composed extensively, mostly choral and organ works, and his music continues to be regularly featured on broadcasts from the Cathedral. His 1974 opus, Vineyard Haven, has been called "widely acclaimed as one of the finest hymn tunes of our day", by editors of hymnology.
Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die.
Christ is alive! No longer bound to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time.
Not throned afar, remotely high, untouched, unmoved by human pains,
but daily, in the midst of life, our Savior in the Godhead reigns.
In every insult, rift, and war, where color, scorn or wealth divide,
Christ suffers still, yet loves the more, and lives where even hope has died.
Christ is alive, and comes to bring good news to this and every age,
till earth and sky and ocean ring with joy, with justice, love and praise.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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