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:
Toccatina on O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing - Alfred Fedak
(c.2006, Birnamwood, div. of Morningstar)
"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written by Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6,000 hymns. Wesley was suffering a bout of pleurisy in May, 1738, while he and his brother were studying under the Moravian scholar Peter Böhler in London. At the time, Wesley was plagued by extreme doubts about his faith. Taken to bed with the sickness on May 21, Wesley was attended by a group of Christians who offered him testimony and basic care, and he was deeply affected by this. He read from his Bible and found himself deeply affected by the words and at peace with God. Shortly, his strength began to return. He wrote of this experience in his journal and counted it as a renewal of his faith; when his brother John had a similar experience on the 24th, the two men met and sang a hymn Wesley had written in praise of his renewal.
One year from the experience, Wesley was taken with the urge to write another hymn, this one in commemoration of his renewal of faith. This hymn took the form of an 18-stanza poem, beginning with the opening lines “Glory to God, and praise, and love Be ever, ever given” and was published in 1740 and entitled “For the anniversary day of one's conversion”. The seventh verse, which begins, 'O for a thousand tongues to sing', and which now is invariably the first verse of a shorter hymn, recalls the words of Peter Böhler who said, “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.” The hymn was published first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists in 1780. It has traditionally held a place of honor as the opening hymn in Methodist hymnals ever since.
Apparently the only publication of all original eighteen stanzas was in the 1740 hymnal. Seventeen stanzas were included as number 58 in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989). The number, ordering, and wording of the text stanzas have varied in the different hymnals. The original stanza seventeen was omitted from the 1989 hymnal as being perceived as possibly racist, and stanza six includes an editorial note that it may be omitted because it may be perceived discriminatory or offensive to people who cannot hear, speak, or see. Stanza seven of the 1989 hymnal's number 5, (which is the original stanza eighteen) has also been altered, changing "With me, your chief" to "In Christ, your head." In the original language, Charles Wesley was identifying himself with Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15 as "the chief of sinners.”
Lowell Mason adapted AZMON from a melody composed by Carl G. Gläser in 1828. Mason published a duple-meter version in his Modern Psalmist (1839) but changed it to triple meter in his later publications. Mason used (often obscure) biblical names for his tune titles; Azmon, a city south of Canaan, appears in Numbers 34:4-5.
Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given,
by saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.
On this glad day the glorious Sun of Righteousness arose;
on my benighted soul he shone and filled it with repose.
Sudden expired the legal strife, 'twas then I ceased to grieve;
my second, real, living life I then began to live.
Then with my heart I first believed, believed with faith divine,
power with the Holy Ghost received to call the Savior mine.
I felt my Lord's atoning blood close to my soul applied;
me, me he loved, the Son of God, for me, for me he died!
I found and owned his promise true, ascertained of my part,
my pardon passed in heaven I knew when written on my heart.
O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise!
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.
My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner??s ears, 'tis life, and health, and peace!
He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me.
He speaks, and listening to his voice new life the dead receive;
the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf, his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your Savior come, and leap, ye lame, for joy.
Look unto him, ye nations, own your God, ye fallen race!
Look, and be saved through faith alone, be justified by grace!
See all your sins on Jesus laid; the Lamb of God was slain,
his soul was once an offering made for every soul of man.
Harlots and publicans and thieves, in holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes From crimes as great as mine.
Murderers and all ye hellish crew, ye sons of lust and pride,
believe the Savior died for you; for me the Savior died.
Awake from guilty nature's sleep, and Christ shall give you light;
cast all your sins into the deep, and wash the Ethiop white.
With me, your chief, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below and own that love is heaven.
Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953) holds degrees from Hope Colege and Montclair State College. A Fellow of the American Guild of Organists, he is Minister of Music at United Reformed Church, Somerville, New Jersey.
About the Piano Music:
When the Roll is Called Up Yonder - Craig Curry
(c.1999, Glory Sound, div. of Shawnee Press)
James Milton Black (1856-1938) was born in South Hill, New York. He acquired an early musical education in singing and organ playing and knew such famous songsters of his day as Daniel Towner and John Howard. Around 1881, he moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania where he carried on Christian work through the Methodist Episcopal church. Teaching music during the week, he was a song leader, Sunday school teacher and youth leader in his spare hours. In addition to all this work, he edited hymnals.
He loved young people and tried to win them for Christ. One day, as he passed through an alley, he met a ragged fourteen-year-old girl. She was the daughter of an alcoholic. He invited her to his Sunday school and youth group and she began to attend. However, one day when he took roll, the girl did not respond. Each child had to say a Scripture verse when his or her name was called. James saw a lesson in her silence. "I spoke of what a sad thing it would be when our names are called from the Lamb's Book of Life, if one of us should be absent.” He was not the kind of man to let the matter die with a moral lesson. After Sunday school, he went to his pupil's home to find out why she had not showed up for class. He found her dangerously ill and sent for his own doctor. The doctor said that she had pneumonia, and death was highly likely.
James returned home. He tried to find a song to fit the thought of a heavenly roll call but could not locate one. An inner voice seemed to say, "Why don't you write one." And that is what he did. "I played the music just as it is found today in the hymn-books, note for note, and I have never dared to change a single word or a note of the song," he said. The lyrics were first published in Songs of the Soul in 1894. They have been translated into over fourteen languages and sung around the world.
When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
and the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
when the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
and the glory of his resurrection share;
when his chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
let us talk of all his wondrous love and care;
then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
Craig Curry is a composer/arranger and pianist based in Wichita, Kansas. He holds degrees from Wheaton College (B.M., Piano Performance) and the University of Miami (M.M., Media Writing and Production). For twelve years, Craig served as the worship pastor at First Baptist Church of Wichita, and he remains actively involved in church music. Craig serves as adjunct faculty at Friends University and directs the jazz vocal ensemble.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens, Adore Him - Patti Drennan
(c.2013, Alfred Music)
“Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him” is adapted from Psalm 148, and was originally printed 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 also at the end of the edition of words only, published in 1801. When this sheet was printed, and when it was added to the musical edition of 1796, and then to the copy of words only, 1801, is unknown. As the 1801 ed. is only a reprint of the words of the 1796 edition, it suggests that the sheet was added to copies of both editions at the same time, and that after the printing of the 1801 ed. In 1853, the text appeared in the Cooke and Denton Church Hymnal, with a fifth stanza by E. Osler, from Hall's Mitre Hymn Book, 1836.
The authorship of this hymn remains unknown. It has been attributed to John Kempthorne and Bishop Mant; however, there is evidence that neither of them wrote it.
Patti Drennan has set the first and fifth stanzas and set them to HYFRYDOL. One of the most loved Welsh tunes, HYFRYDOL was composed by Rowland Hugh Prichard (1811-1887) in 1830 when he was only nineteen. It was published with about forty of his other tunes in his children's hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion (The Singers' Friend) in 1844. Prichard (sometimes spelled Pritchard) was a textile worker and an amateur musician. He had a good singing voice and was appointed precentor in Graienyn. Many of his tunes were published in Welsh periodicals. In 1880 Prichard became a loom tender's assistant at the Welsh Flannel Manufacturing Company in Holywell.
HYFRYDOL (Welsh for "tuneful" or "pleasant") is often set to Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (568) and William C. Dix's "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus" (406).
Patti Drennan taught Choral Music for twenty-eight years in Norman, OK public pchools and was awarded the coveted “Director of Distinction Award” given yearly by the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association.An active composer and arranger, Drennan has published over 425 anthems. She has served as a clinician for school and church workshops, guest director at numerous churches, and adjudicator for choral contests in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. Drennan retired from teaching in 2004 in order to compose and stay active as a clinician and workshop presenter. For almost ten years she served as Music and Worship Arts Director at First Baptist Church, Norman.
Praise the Lord! ye heav'ns, adore Him;
praise Him, angels in the height;
sun and moon, rejoice before Him,
praise Him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord! for He hath spoken;
worlds His mighty voice obeyed;
laws which never shall be broken
for their guidance He hath made.
Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto Thee;
young and old, Thy praise expressing,
in glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heav'n adore Thee;
we would bow before Thy throne;
as Thine angels serve before Thee,
so on earth Thy will be done.
Heav’n and earth and all creation,
laud and magnify his name.
About the Hymns:
Lord of All Hopefulness
(words c.1931, Oxford University Press, Music c.1964, Abingdon Press)
Joyce Torrens (1901-1953), who wrote under the name of Jan Struther, became famous for a newpaper column in which she presented herself in the character of Mrs. Miniver, a briskly sensible and humerous middle-class woman whose spirit seemed to embody a certain sort of plucky Englishness. Mrs. Miniver was turned into an Oscar-winning film in 1942, which was crucial in the effort to gain public support of American entry into World War II, with its portrayal of the hardships suffered by an English family during the Bitz. This hymn was written in 1929 at the request of Torren’s London neighbor, Canon Percy Deamer of Westminster Abbey, for his new edition of Songs of Praise. Deamer was delighted by its success, stating that he “lately returned from a service of university students, who have speedily made it their favorite”.
SLANE is an old Irish folk tune associated with the ballad "With My Love on the Road" in Patrick W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909). It became a hymn tune when it was arranged by David Evans and set to the Irish hymn "Be Thou My Vision" published in the Church Hymnary (1927). SLANE is named for a hill in County Meath, Ireland, where St. Patrick's lighting of an Easter fire–an act of defiance against the pagan king Loegaire (fifth century)–led to his unlimited freedom to preach the gospel in Ireland.
Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
Whose trust, ever childlike, no cares can destroy,
Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.
Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
Be there at our labors, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord at the noon of the day.
Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.
Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.
Living for Jesus
A native of a small Kentucky town, Thomas Obadiah Chisholm (1866-1960) lacked formal education. Nevertheless he became a teacher at age 16 and associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the Franklin Advocate, at age 21. In 1893 Chisholm became a Christian through the ministry of Henry Clay Morrison, the founder of Asbury College and Seminary, Wilmore, Ky. Morrison persuaded Chisholm to move to Louisville where he became editor of the Pentecostal Herald. Though he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville, Ky., due to ill health. Chisholm relocated his family to Winona Lake, Ind., to recover, and then in 1916 to Vineland, N.J., where he sold insurance. By the time of his retirement he had written over 1,200 poems, 800 of which were published in a number of periodicals such as The Sunday School Times, Moody Monthly and Alliance Weekly. Many of these were set to music.
C. Harold Lowden [1883-1963] composed the tune about 1915, and it was first published under the title ‘Sunshine Song’ in a Children’s Day Service that he wrote. Early in 1917, while preparing a collection of hymns for publication, he came across this song and was impressed that the tune needed a stronger text. He substituted ‘Living for Jesus’ for the original title and sent the tune to Thomas O. Chisholm, then living at Winona Lake, Indiana for a new text. Even though Chisholm protested that he had never written a text for a pre-existing tune, Lowden insisted, telling the author that he “believed God had led me to select him” to provide a text for this music. Within a short time, Chisholm returned the tune with four stanzas and a refrain.
The hymn appeared as a separate song sheet in the spring of 1917, and was used at a number of youth conferences that summer. More than a million copies of the hymn were sold in this form. By the fall the hymn appeared in a collection compiled by Lowden and Rufus W. Miller entitled Uplifting Songs.
As in most gospel songs, the theme may be found in the refrain. The refrain stresses personal commitment to Jesus Christ because of what he did for us through his atonement. The stanzas provide further insight as to the nature of this commitment. Like most gospel songs, the message is exclusively Christological. Our mission is to bring the lost ones to Christ and, in doing so, submit totally to him. Chisholm once stated his purpose for writing songs: “I have sought to be true to the Word, and to avoid flippant and catchy titles and treatment. I have greatly desired that each hymn or people might have some definite message to the hearts for whom it was written.”
Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
Living for Jesus Who died in my place,
Bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
Living for Jesus, wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy Name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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