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:
More Love to Thee, O Christ - Timothy Albrecht
(c.2004, Augsburg Fortress)
Loss and sorrow often give birth to hymns. Such is the case of "More Love to Thee" by Elizabeth Payton Prentiss (1818-1878). A native of Maine, Prentiss was described as a "bright-eyed, little woman, with a keen sense of humor, who cared more to shine in her own happy household than in a wide circle of society." During the 19th century, middle-class women lived very separate lives from men, even their husbands. Prentiss' husband, Dr. George L. Prentiss, was a Presbyterian minister who later served as professor of homiletics and polity at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His wife, having demonstrated a gift for both prose and poetry from a young age, wrote books, one of which, Stepping Heavenward, sold over 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Prentiss also had an important, yet difficult, domestic role. For much of her life she lived the life of a near invalid, her body often wracked with pain. It was during these times that she had to refocus her understanding of her own value and worth from doing to being: "I see now that to live for God, whether one is allowed ability to be actively useful or not, is a great thing, and that it is a wonderful mercy to be allowed even to suffer, if thereby one can glorify Him."
"More Love to Thee" emerged out of a time of personal tragedy. During the 1850s, the Prentisses lost a child and shortly thereafter a second. Through her grief she confided in her diary, "Empty hands, a worn-out, exhausted body, and unutterable longings to flee from a world that has so many sharp experiences." Inspired by Sarah Adams' hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," Prentiss began to write her own hymn in an almost identical metrical pattern. She had been reflecting on Jacob's struggles in Genesis 28:10-22 and found Adams' hymn on this same theme to be of comfort. In the Genesis narrative of Jacob's experience at Bethel, Jacob was a traveler who, finding a stone for a pillow one night, had a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder. Following his dream he builds an altar at Beth-El (God's house) out of the stone on which he had slept and anointed it with oil.
Prentiss completed the four stanzas of her hymn in a single evening, but never showed it to anyone for 13 years. Finally, in 1869 the poem appeared in leaflet form and in 1870 was published for the first time in a hymnal, Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations.
William Doane (1832-1915), composer of over 2,000 gospel songs including many for Fanny Crosby, provided the music associated with this text. The simple step-wise movement of the melody, slower tempo, and straightforward harmonies provide a prayerful vehicle for the central petition, "More love to thee."
Just as Sarah Adams repeated "Nearer to thee" 16 times in her hymn, Elizabeth Prentiss repeats "More love to thee" 13 times. This repetition provides the singer with that sense of intimacy with Christ for which this era of hymnody is so known. On one occasion, Prentiss wrote, "To love Christ more is the deepest need, the constant cry of the soul . . . out in the woods, and on my bed, and out driving, when I am happy and busy, and when I am sad and idle, the whisper keeps going up for more love, more love, more love!”
More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make On bended knee;
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Once earthly joy I craved, Sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, Give what is best;
This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Then shall my latest breath Whisper Thy praise;
This be the parting cry My heart shall raise;
This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee, More love to Thee!
Dr. Timothy Albrecht spent his childhood in Los Angeles and Wisconsin. He received his Bachelors in organ from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory, and his masters and doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, where he won the Performer’s Certificate. Shortly after graduation, he represented the United States at the Sixth International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. He has spent two sabbaticals at Cambridge University in England, which has conferred on him Life Membership. At Emory University, Albrecht holds a joint faculty appointment as Professor of Music at Candler Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1982, and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music He also serves as University Organist. Albrecht has authored twelve published volumes of organ music and has recorded nine solo compact discs, including several Bach CDs and recordings of his own compositions.
Olivet ("My Faith Looks Up to Thee") - Seth Bingham
(c.1942, H. W. Gray)
Ray Palmer (1808-1887) wrote “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” upon receiving a vision of Christ shortly after his graduation from Yale University, while working as a tutor at a New York school. The author says concerning its composition, "I gave form to what I felt, by writing, with little effort, the stanzas. I recollect I wrote them with very tender emotion, and ended the last line with tears." However, he kept them to himself until meeting Lowell Mason on a street in Boston, Massachusetts. When Mason asked him to write something for a new hymnal, Palmer dug out his old notes and produced these lyrics, written two years earlier. After taking the lyrics home and reading them, Mason composed this tune. Several days later he saw Palmer again and said: “You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of My Faith Looks Up to Thee”. In 1831, it was published in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship: adapted to the use of Families, &c. Words and Music arranged by Thomas Hastings, of New York, and Lowell Mason of Boston.
The tune OLIVET was written by Dr. Lowell Mason (1792-1872), justly called the father of American church music; for by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man.
As a child, Mason he had an intense love for music and devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself. He acquired a proficiency in composition, and his first work of this kind was a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was published by the Boston Handel and Haydn Society in 1822, but Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, because "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England and church choirs. It ran through some seventeen editions. Mason accepted an invitation to move to Boston and was also appointed director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. In 1827, Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that earned him the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Charles C. Perkins stated, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Mason founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Before 1810, he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. He is also rightly called the “Father of Music in the Public Schools.”
As a composer church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful in this country. He was a deeply pious man. His sons, Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ and piano manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin.
My faith looks up to thee, thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away;
O let me from this day be wholly thine.
May Thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me, Oh, may my love to Thee
Pure, warm, and changeless be, A living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my guide;
Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray From Thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream, When death’s cold, sullen stream Shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, Fear and distrust remove;
Oh, bear me safe above, A ransomed soul!
Seth Daniels Bingham (1882-1972) was born in New Jersey, the youngest of four siblings in a farming family. After extensive childhood activities in church music, he studied organ and composition at Yale University, and in Paris with Alexandre Guilmant, Vincent d'Indy and Charles-Marie Widor. Bingham taught theory, composition and organ at Yale from 1908 to 1919. Beginning in 1913, he was organist and choirmaster at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, a position he held until his 1951 retirement. He was an associate professor at Columbia University, received an honorary doctorate from Ohio Wesleyan University, and lectured at the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary. Bingham's compositions include orchestral, choral, and chamber music, but most of his compositions are for organ solo.
About the Choral Music:
Create in Me - Scott Hyslop
(c.2008, Concorda Publishing House)
The text is taken directly from Psalm 51: 10-13, Psalm of David which originated when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone to Bathsheba. Once confronted with his sin, David recognized his inability to be purified through his own actions. A call for God to create a new heart and renewal for the spirit that is dark and low. A plea to not be cast away as is deserved, but rather that God would restore and uphold. He desires this that he may once again be a teacher and instructor to sinners. This may sound like David is making a deal with God. “Lord, forgive me and I’ll be a missionary!” No, David is not making a deal. The natural progression for one forgiven should be from confession to purification to proclamation. David desires to be able to live beyond his error, learn from it, and help others to find their way back to God when they err as well. This text has appeared in hymnals since before 1850. It is currently found in 29 hymnals and has been set to at least 12 different tunes.
Scott Hyslop has comblined “Create in Me” with “Amazing Grace” using the traditional tune NEW BRITAIN. He sets “Create in Me” to a tune from Columbian Harmony, Cincinnate, 1829.
Scott M. Hyslop received his D.M.A. in Organ/Church Music at The University of Michigan, where he was a student of Marilyn Mason. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Church Music from Concordia University, River Forest (Chicago), Illinois, and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. In addition to his formal education, he has studied with Paul Manz through the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and the Paul Manz Institute of Church Music in Chicago. Further musical studies include work in organ performance with Maurice Clerc at the Cathedral of St. Bénigne in Dijon, France, and in composition with Conrad DeJong, Richard Hillert, and James Aikman. Dr. Hyslop is also a Melodious Accord Fellow, having studied choral composition with the noted American composer and arranger, Alice Parker. He has had numerous compositions for voices, organ, and instruments issued by several publishing houses, as well as a biography of Paul Manz, The Journey Was Chosen: The Life and Work of Paul Manz (MorningStar, 2007). Dr. Hyslop has served congregations in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Stuart, Florida. He presently serves as the Director of Parish Music at St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, Michigan. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Lutheran Music Program, the organizational sponsor of Lutheran Summer Music, and the Board of Directors for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.
Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, Renew my spirit in the right;
Take not Your Spirit from my life, Nor cast me out, Lord, from Your sight.
With Your free Spirit strengthen me, Help me again my joy renew;
The wicked shall I teach Your ways, And sinners shall return to You.
Save me from death and I shall sing Your righteousness through all my days;
Open my lips, my Savior God, My mouth shall sing Your Praise.
If sacrifice were Your desire, Lord, I would bring it for my part,
But what I bring You will not scorn: A troubled spirit, contrite heart.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see!
About the Hymns:
Lord, Who Love Through Humble Service
(words c. 1961, Oxford University 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.
Lord, Who throughout These Forty Days
(c. 1989, J. Fischer & Bro.)
Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman’s hymn, “Lord, who throughout these forty days,” signals the beginning of Lent and is often sung during Ash Wednesday services or throughout the season of Lent. Forty is a number with special biblical significance. It rained for forty days and nights when the earth was overtaken by floodwaters, and Noah waited another forty days before opening the window of the Ark. Israel wandered in the desert for forty years. Jesus was seen on earth following the resurrection for forty days. In this case, Christ’s forty days in the wilderness provides the primary paradigm for the forty days of Lent.
Claudia Hernaman (1838-1898) was born in Surrey, England, and died in Brussels, Belgium. She was the daughter of an Anglican minister, and she married a minister who also served as a school inspector. Like so many other women hymn writers of the nineteenth century, she was devoted to the religious education of children. Toward this end, she wrote 150 hymns in several collections, some original and some translated from Latin.
"Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days" appeared first in her Child’s Book of Praise; A Manual for Devotion in Simple Verse (1873). It was not included in hymnals, however, until the mid-twentieth century, when it appeared in the Irish Church Hymnal (1960) and Hymns for Church and School (1964). By the 1970s, “Lord, who throughout these forty days” was a standard hymn in most hymnals in the United States. It is based on the account of the temptation of Jesus found in three Gospels -- Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13.
LAND OF REST is an American folk tune with roots in the ballads of northern England and Scotland. It was known throughout the Appalachians; a shape-note version of the tune was published in The Sacred Harp (1844) and titled NEW PROSPECT as the setting for "O land of rest! for thee I sigh." The tune was published again with that same text in J. R. Graves's Little Seraph (Memphis, 1873). The name LAND OF REST derives from the tune's association with that text.
The tune was known to Annabel M. Buchanan (b. Groesbeck, TX, 1888; d. Paducah KY, 1983), whose grandmother sang it to her as a child. She harmonized the tune and published it in her Folk Hymns of America (1938). Known as a musicologist of American folk music, Buchanan was educated at the Landon Conservatory, Dallas, Texas, and the Guilmant Organ School, New York City. She taught at several colleges, including Stonewall Jackson College, Abingdoll, Virginia. Buchanan published numerous articles on folk traditions of the Appalachian area of the United States. She also lectured widely on this topic and gave recitals of folk music. Her own compositions also show the influence of folk music.
Lord, who throughout these forty days For us did fast and pray,
Teach us to overcome our sins, And close by You to stay.
As You with Satan did contend And did the vict'ry win,
O give us strength in You to fight, In You to conquer sin.
As You did hunger and did thirst, So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and only live By Your most holy word.
And through these days of penitence, And through Your Passion-tide,
For evermore, in life and death, O Lord, with us abide.
Abide with us that, when this life Of suffering is past,
An Easter of unending joy We may attain at last!
Come and Fill Our Hearts
(c.1991, Les Presses de Taize, admin. GIA Publications)
The hymn “Come and Fill Our Hearts” was written in 1982 by the Taizé community in France. The tune CONFITEMINI DOMINO was composed by Jacques Berthier. The hymn is a prayer of healing and centering.
Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) studied music at the Ecole Cesar Franck in Paris. From 1961 until his death he served as organist at St. Ignace Church, Paris. Although his published works include numerous compositions for organ, voice, and instruments, Berthier is best known as the composer of service music for the Taizé community near Cluny, Burgundy. Influenced by the French liturgist and church musician Joseph Gelineau, Berthier began writing songs for equal voices in 1955 for the services of the then nascent community of twenty brothers at Taizé. As the Taizé community grew, Berthier continued to compose most of the mini-hymns, canons, and various associated instrumental arrangements, which are now universally known as the Taizé repertoire. In the past two decades this repertoire has become widely used in North American church music in both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
You alone, O Lord are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
Have mercy on us.
Give Me a Clean Heart
(c.1970, Margaret P. Douroux)
A song that captures the essence of the confessional spirit of Ash Wednesday both in its text and music is Margaret Pleasant Douroux's "Give Me a Clean Heart," inspired by Psalm 51:10. The Faith We Sing contains only the refrain. Dr. Douroux also has written stanzas to this refrain.
A Californian, Dr. Douroux (b. 1941) is a pioneer in the gospel music tradition. "Give Me a Clean Heart" (1970) was her first composition. More than 200 have followed. Dr. Douroux comes from a family that appreciated gospel music. In an interview granted in 2005, she notes that "both my father and mother, Rev. and Mrs. Earl A. Pleasant, are mentioned in the Smithsonian Archives as being pioneers of West Coast Gospel Music. They were my strongest mentors." Her father was a singer who toured with Mahalia Jackson. Following this Mr. Pleasant founded the Mount Moriah Baptist Church near the Coliseum in Los Angeles. Her mother, Olga, took on musical leadership at the church, organized choirs and taught all six children -- five daughters and one son -- to play the piano. Margaret was a shy organist, but took on more choral leadership in the 1960s, eventually succeeding her mentor at the church, Thurston G. Frazier.
When she wrote her first song, "Give Me a Clean Heart," Frazier introduced it at a national gospel song convention. It was composed soon after Margaret's father had died. Even though he had founded Mount Moriah Church, many people had been unkind to the family after his death, wanting them to move out of the manse with no place to go. In her prayers to God, she asked how she might respond to the ungratefulness of the congregation. Dr. Douroux heard God's response: “God said that he would give me a clean heart.”
Dr. Douroux holds a bachelor's degree in music from California State University, Los Angeles, and masters and doctoral degrees in education, working as an educational psychologist in the Los Angeles schools. She has been honored by the McDonald's Corporation with the Golden Circle Award for Lifetime Achievements made to Gospel Music. As the founder and CEO of the non-profit The Heritage Musical Foundation (www.hmrgospel.com), she has taken up the cause of promoting and preserving the African-American gospel music tradition.
I’m not asking for the riches of the land,
I’m not asking for high men to know my name.
Please Lord give me a clean heart, so that I may follow thee.
Give me a clean heart, a clean heart, and I’ll follow thee.
Sometimes I am up and sometimes I am down.
Sometimes I am almost level to the ground.
Please Lord give me a clean heart, so that I may follow thee.
Give me a clean heart, a clean heart, and I’ll follow thee.
Refrain:
Give me a clean heart, so I may serve thee.
Lord fix my heart, so that I may be used by thee.
For I’m not worthy, of all these blessings.
Give me a clean heart, and I’ll follow thee.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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