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:
Chorale Prelude on Rockingham - Alec Rowley
(c.1952, Edwin Ashdown, Ltd.)
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” was written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), the son of an English schoolmaster. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin at age four, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor.
The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His Horae Lyricae was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is best known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. His published hymns number more than eight hundred.
The Lutheran Hymnal Handbook includes this little narrative about the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross:” “With regard to the practical application of the final stanza, Father Ignatius of St. Edmund’s Church in London is reported to have blurted to his congregation: ‘Well, I’m surprised to hear you sing that. Do you know that altogether you put only fifteen shillings in the collection bag this morning?’” While Watts might not have been talking explicitly about money in the last line of his text, there is the expectation that we dedicate ourselves entirely to God, for God demands not just a piece of who we are, but “our soul, our life, our all.” This can be an incredibly difficult line to sing with any sense of honesty. Devotional author Jerry Jenkins writes in his book Hymns for Personal Devotions, “Perhaps it’s the distance between where Watts encourages me to be and where I truly am that makes this hymn so hard to sing. It’s a lofty and worthy spiritual goal to say that ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,’ but how short I fall!” And so as we sing this hymn of love and awe, we must sing it with a prayer in our hearts, asking God to enable us each day to live our life wholly for him.
Edward Miller (1735-1807) adapted ROCKINGHAM from an earlier tune, TUNEBRIDGE, which had been published in Aaron Williams's A Second Supplement to Psalmody in Miniature (c. 1780). ROCKINGHAM has long associations in Great Britain and North America with Isaac Watts' "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". The tune title refers to a friend and patron of Edward Miller, the Marquis of Rockingham, who served twice as Great Britain's prime minister.
Miller's father had made his living laying brick roads, and the young Edward became an apprentice in the same trade. Unhappy with that profession, however, he ran away to the town of Lynn and studied music with Charles Burney, the most prominent music historian of his day. A competent flute and organ player, he was organist at the parish church in Doncaster from 1756 to 1807. Miller was active in the musical life of the Doncaster region and composed keyboard sonatas and church music. His most influential publications were The Psalms of David for the Use of Parish Churches (1790), in which he sought to reform metrical psalmody (and which included ROCKINGHAM), and David's Harp(1805), an important Methodist tunebook issued by Miller with his son.
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Alec Rowley (1892-1958) studied at London's Royal Academy of Music, and later taught at Trinity College in the same city. He frequently performed and broadcast piano duets with Edgar Moy, and was widely known for his songs and compositions for solo piano and solo organ. He was for many years the organist of St Alban's Church, Teddington and was a contributor to “The Rotunda”, the house magazine of Henry Willis & Sons Ltd., organ builders.
In the Cross of Christ I Glory - G. Winston Cassler
(c.1961, Augsburg Publishing House)
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) was a distinguished scholar, ranked by some as one of the great minds of his day in the English-speaking world. Among his gifts was his ability as a linguist, publishing translations of poetry from such varied languages as Russian, Batavian, Spanish, Polish, Serbian, Bohemian, Magyar, Czech and Hungarian. Bowring was also a social progressive, advocating free trade, parliamentary reform, education for all and prison reforms, according to hymnologist Albert Bailey. Few hymn writers have been as involved in politics. Knighted in 1854, Bowring helped develop commercial relationships on behalf of Great Britain, traveling to France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Syria and Siam (now Thailand). Bowring also was twice a member of Parliament, a consul at Canton (in charge of trade in China) and a governor of Hong Kong. He was evidently relieved of his duties in Hong Kong because he “was full of conceit and without any very clear idea of political principles on a large scale.” After retirement in 1860, his public service continued as a commissioner to Italy and other diplomatic posts in Europe and Hawaii.
Despite a demanding political and diplomatic career, Bowring maintained an active avocation as a translator of poetry, composer of original poems and writer of essays on political and religious themes. Mr. Bailey notes that the “hymns that have lived were all written when he was about 30 years old, when his poetic interests were uppermost, and the idealism of youth made him the champion of the downtrodden and the underprivileged.” “In the cross of Christ I glory” (1825) was composed while the author was in his early thirties. Appearing in Hymns by John Bowring (1825), the theme and language suggests a much more mature poet. Galatians 6:14 provides the basis for this hymn: “Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”
Ithamar Conkey (1815-1867) was born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, and was of Scottish ancestry. He was organist at Central Baptist Church in Norwich, Connecticut. After his work in Norwich, he went to New York City and served as bass soloist at Calvary Episcopal Church and later bass soloist and choir director of Madison Avenue Baptist Church. One Sunday in 1849 Conkey walked out of the morning service at Central Baptist Church, where he was choir director and organist, frustrated because only one soprano from his choir had come that morning. The next Sunday, the minister preached a Lenten message on the words of Christ on the cross. One of the hymns to be sung was Bowring's "In the Cross of Christ I Glory." Later that day Conkey's discouragement changed to inspiration, and he composed a new tune for that text. He named the tune after that one faithful soprano, Mrs. Beriah S. Rathbun. The tune RATHBUN was published in Henry W. Greatorex's Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1851).
In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.
When the woes of life o'ertake me, hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
never shall the cross forsake me. Lo! it glows with peace and joy.
When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way,
from the cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day.
Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide.
In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.
G. Winston Cassler (1906-1990) was a member of the faculty of St. Olaf College from 1949 until his retirement in 1972. Cassler studied at Oberlin College in Ohio and had a successful career as a composer of hymns.
About the Choral Music:
Grace - Carolyn Hamlin
(c.1995, Purifoy Publishing, div. of Lorenz Corp)
Carolyn Hamlin is an active composer, arranger, and organist. She is a graduate of North Greenville University and also studied organ and piano at Furman University as well as at Bob Jones University. She studied composition at Westminster Choir College's summer study workshops. Carolyn is a composer of many organ, choral, and piano works. The Hamlin Recital Hall in the Performing Arts Building at North Greenville University is named in Carolyn's honor. North Greenville University awarded Carolyn an honorary Doctorate of Music degree, and she received the Order of the Silver Crescent, South Carolina's highest civilian honor. Carolyn Hamlin is a longtime member of First Baptist Church of Easley, South Carolina and was their organist from her teen years until her retirement.
Hamlin has written an original text and melody for this anthem.
Lord, as I seek your guidance for the day,
I find my thoughts unyielding, confusion crowds my way;
But then when I bow to you, the challenges you guide me through,
your promises are ever new, I claim them for today.
Your will cannot lead me where your grace will not keep me,
your hand will protect me. I rest in your care.
Your eyes will watch over me, your love will forgive me,
and when I am faltering, I still will find you there.
Each new day’s design is charted by your hand
and graciously revealed as I seek your Master plan.
Keep my footsteps faithful when from you I go.
Return me to the joy that your blessings can bestow.
Your will cannot lead me where your grace will not keep me,
your hand will protect me. I rest in your care.
Your eyes will watch over me, your love will forgive me,
and when I am faltering, I still will find you there.
Your eyes will watch over me, your love will forgive me,
And when I am faltering, I still will find your there.
About the Hymns:
Grace Greater than Our Sin
Julia Harriet Johnston (1849-1919) was a Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, and for 41 years was head of the infant class in the children’s department. For twenty years, Julia was president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society of Peoria which had been founded by her mother. Also a prolific author, she produced primary Sunday school lesson material for the David C. Cook Publishing Co. of Chicago, IL, and had several of her own works published, including School of the Master in 1880, Bright Threads in 1897, Indian and Spanish Neighbors in 1905, and Fifty Missionary Heroes in 1913. Furthermore, Miss Johnston is credited with about 500 hymns, set to music provided by a number of different composers.
"Grace Greater Than Our Sin" is dated 1910, and the tune (Moody) was composed that same year by Daniel Brink Towner (1850-1919), the director of the music department at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL The first appearance of "Grace Greater Than Our Sin" seems to have been in Towner’s Hymns Tried and True, published in 1911 by the Bible Institute Colportage Association of Chicago.
This “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,” finds a scriptural basis in Paul’s teaching of justification by faith in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Paul continues in verses 14-16, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift of grace. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.”
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Sin and despair like the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss,
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. [
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide, what can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide; whiter than snow you may be today.
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe;
all who are longing to see His face, will you this moment His grace receive?
Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our sin.
What Wondrous Love is This
(c.1983, Augsburg Publishing House)
What Wondrous Love Is This is sometimes described as a "white spiritual", from the American South. Its text was first published in 1811, during the Second Great Awakening, and its melody is derived from an English popular ballad. The hymn's lyrics were first published in Lynchburg, Virginia in the c. 1811 camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. The lyrics may also have been printed, in a slightly different form, in the 1811 book Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected published in Lexington, Kentucky. In most early printings, the hymn's text was attributed to an anonymous author, though the 1848 hymnal The Hesperian Harp attributes the text to a Methodist pastor from Oxford, Georgia named Alexander Means. In 1966, the United Methodist Book of Hymns became the first standard hymnal to incorporate What Wondrous Love Is This.
Most sources attribute the hymn's melody to the 1701 English song "The Ballad of Captain Kidd", which describes the exploits of pirate William Kidd (misnamed "Robert" in American versions of the ballad). The melody itself predates the Kidd usage, however, possibly by more than a century.(In addition, at least a dozen popular songs were set to the same melody after 1701.) In the early 1800s, when the lyrics to "What Wondrous Love Is This" were first published, hymnals typically lacked any musical notation. Camp meeting attendees during the Second Great Awakening would sing the hymns printed in these hymnals to a variety of popular melodies, including "The Ballad of Captain Kidd", which was well known at the time; this is likely how the text and melody came to be paired. The text and melody were first published together in the appendix of the 1840 edition of The Southern Harmony, a book of shape note hymns compiled by William Walker. The three-part harmony printed in The Southern Harmony was arranged by James Christopher of Spartanburg, South Carolina. In a later printing of the hymn, William Walker noted that it was a "very popular old Southern tune”.
The hymn is sung in Dorian mode, giving it a haunting quality. Though The Southern Harmony and many later hymnals incorrectly notated the song in Aeolian mode (natural minor) even congregations singing from these hymnals generally sang in Dorian mode by spontaneously raising the sixth note a half step wherever it appeared. Twentieth-century hymnals generally present the hymn in Dorian mode, or sometimes in Aeolian mode but with a raised sixth.
The song's lyrics express awe at the love of God and are reminiscent of the text of John 3:16. The following lyrics are those printed in the 1811 hymnal A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use; a number of variations exist, but most are descended from this version.
What wondrous love is this, O my soul! O my soul!
What wondrous love is this! O my soul!
What wondrous love is this! That caused the Lord of bliss!
To send this precious peace, To my soul, to my soul!
To send this precious peace To my soul!
When I was sinking down, Sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down Sinking down
When I was sinking down, Beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown For my soul, for my soul!
Christ laid aside his crown For my soul!
Ye winged seraphs fly, Bear the news, bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly Bear the news!--
Ye winged seraphs fly, like comets through the sky,
fill vast eternity! With the news, with the news!
Fill vast eternity With the news!
Ye friends of Zion's king, join his praise, join his praise;
Ye friends of Zion's king, join his praise;
Ye friends of Zion's king, with hearts and voices sing,
and strike each tuneful string in his praise, in his praise!
and strike each tuneful string in his praise!
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing--
To God and to the Lamb, who is the great I AM,
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing!
while millions join the theme, I will sing!
And while from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
And while from death I'm free, I'll sing on.
and while from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be,
and through eternity I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
and through eternity I'll sing on.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment