Each week, you may find information here about the music in the worship services at Trinity United Methodist Church in Duncanville, 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.
My Jesus, I Love Thee - Virginia Halberg
(c.2005, The FJH Music Company)
Sixteen year old William Featherston (1846-1873) of Montreal, Canada wrote this simple but profound hymn in 1862, not long after he was converted to Christ. William wrote no other hymns that we know of and his brief life ended just before his twenty-seventh birthday. Featherstone, a Weslyan Methodist, sent the poem to his aunt in Los Angeles, and somehow, it made its way to England where it was published anonymously in The London Hymn Book two years later. Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836-1895), who was compiling a Baptist hymn book, liked Featherstone's text, but decided it needed a better tune than the one that was used in The London Hymn Book, so he wrote a new tune for it which he published in The Service of Song for Baptist Churches. This is the tune that is still used today.
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine; for thee all the follies of sin I resign;
my gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I'll love thee in life, I’ll love thee in death, and praise thee as long as thou lendest me
breath,
and say when the deathdew lies cold on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
Virginia (Ginny) Halberg (1928-2018) was a longtime church musician and college-level piano instructor.
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service
(c.1961, Oxford University Press)
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.
Gloria Patri
Many congregations may take these words, sung weekly, for granted. Like many parts of liturgy, their roots extend to the deepest levels of our praise and prayer.
The text of the Gloria Patri falls into the broader category of doxology – in the Greek doxologia or “words of glory.” Doxology finds its roots in the Hebrew liturgy and the psalms as the kaddish. The kaddish is a doxology recited after the verses of a song. Its recitation signals the conclusion of one of the sections of the liturgy and has many different forms and purposes. In the Jewish context, a doxology blesses the One God and God’s everlasting nature. For example, Psalm 41:13 states: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen and Amen” (KJV). This is a form of berakhah (blessing or benediction) that pervades Jewish liturgy and life. The Sh’ma is the most famous and prevalent statement in Reform Jewish liturgy that addresses these criteria:
Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד):
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Baruch shem k’vod malchuto l’olam vaed (בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד):
“Blessed is/be the name of the glory/honor of His kingdom forever and ever.”
The “Baruch” is a berakhah added in the rabbinic tradition. It is very similar to Psalm 72:19: “Blessed be His glorious name forever.”
Given this heritage, early Christians adapted the Jewish form to include the Triune God and the Trinity’s eternal nature – “world without end.” Scholars suggest that the opening trinitarian formula is taken from the Great Commission in Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). Any trinitarian affirmation at the conclusion of a prayer became known as a “doxology.”
The Lesser Doxology has for centuries been chanted in Latin at the conclusion of psalms and canticles, especially in the daily monastic prayers:
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
The Greater Doxology is the fourth-century hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, the incipit (opening line) of which was drawn from the angel’s canticle, Luke 2:14. This non-biblical canticle was introduced during the fourth-century Christological controversies as a corrective to Arianism – a doctrine attributed to Arius (c. 256–336) claiming that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father. The Gloria became a stable part of the ordinary (fixed) sections of the Roman Catholic mass except during Advent and Lent when it is omitted.
Protestants often limit the doxology to a single stanza from morning and evening hymns composed by Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711) for a resident boys’ school. While the four lines of this well-known stanza are Trinitarian, Ken does not specifically mention the eternal nature of the Trinity. However, he references the cosmic perspective of our praise to God – taking place both on earth and in heaven:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The Gloria Patri, also known in English as the Glory Be to the Father or, colloquially, the Glory Be, is also referred to as the Minor Doxology (Doxologia Minor) or Lesser Doxology, to distinguish it from the Greater Doxology, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. The lesser doxology is of Syrian origin:
shubho labo w-labro wal-ruho qadisho
men 'olam w'adamo l'olam olmin, Amin.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
from everlasting and for ever and ever (literal translation).
The Greek wording is as follows:
Δόξα Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ καὶ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι,
καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Latin version differs from the Greek version because of the insertion of "sicut erat in principio", which is now taken to mean "as it (glory) was in the beginning", but which seems originally to have meant "as he (the Son) was in the beginning", and echo of the opening words of the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word". In 529, the Second Synod of Vasio (Vaison-la-Romaine) in Gaul said in its fifth canon that the second part of the doxology, with the words "sicut erat in principio", was used in Rome, the East, and Africa, and ordered that it be said likewise in Gaul. Writing in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, Adrian Fortescue, while remarking that what the synod said of the East was false, took the synod's decree to mean that the form originally used in the West was the same as the Greek form. From about the 7th century, the present Roman Rite version became almost universal throughout the West.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, and now, and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The following traditional form is the most common in Anglican usage and in older Lutheran liturgical books:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The translations of "semper" as "ever shall be", and "in saecula saeculorum" as "world without end" date at least from Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer (1552).
Congregations use several traditional musical settings. One is by Charles (Christoph) Meineke (1782–1850), a German-born organist who moved to England around 1810 and then to Baltimore in 1820. He served as organist of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for several decades. Meineke authored Music for the Church . . . Composed for St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore (1844). His musical setting, included in this collection, is usually given the name MEINEKE.
Like a River Glorious - Lloyd Larsen
(c.2017, Lorenz Publishing)
A hymn which talks about the peace of God that flows like a river is “Like a River Glorious”. The text was written by Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879). She is the author of a number of well-known hymns including “Take My Life, and Let It Be” and “True-Hearted, Whole-Hearted”. When Frances Havergal was vacationing in the south of Wales, 1876, she caught a severe cold, accompanied by inflammation of the lungs. Hearing how ill she was, and that she might die, she replied, "If I am really going, it is too good to be true." Her friends were amazed at how peacefully she received this information. She did survive that illness, and later that year she wrote the hymn "Like a River Glorious" in which she pointed to the source of her perfect peace: "Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.” Havergal, a devout Bible scholar, echoed Isaiah in "Like a River Glorious" in which God promises "peace like a river." She also incorporated Isaiah 26:3, which states "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." "Like a River Glorious" paints the picture of this peace.
The tune (WYE VALLEY) was composed by James Mountain (1844-1933), who was born in Yorkshire, England. After attending Gainford Academy near Darlington, Rotherham College, Nottingham Institute, and Chesthunt College, he became a minister at Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire. However, he had to leave local church work due to ill health and began conducting evangelism campaigns throughout Britain from 1874 to 1882. In 1876, Mountain published his Hymns of Consecration and Faith, and Sacred Songs for Missions, Prayer and Praise Meetings which included this hymn.
Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully, all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
Refrain
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Lloyd Larson (b. 1954) is an active composer and arranger for several major publishing companies of church and school music. His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. It is Lloyd's work in his local church that continues to be the catalyst for much of his writing. He currently directs the adult choir in his home church in addition to being involved in worship planning and leadership.
Jesu, Jesu
(c.1989, Hope Publishing Company)
Following African independence movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a number of Western missionaries encouraged the composition of Christian song in African idioms. Thomas S. Colvin (1925-2000) was one of these missionaries. Colvin was a pastoral missionary for the Church of Scotland in Ghana from 1958-1964 and Nyasaland (now Malawi) from 1954-'58 and 1964-'74. Trained as an engineer before studying theology at Trinity College in Glasgow, he was an active member of the ecumenical Iona Community for nearly 50 years.
In concert with his commitment to the rule of Iona Community members, Colvin's missionary ministry was characterized by justice issues such as Christian service committees, refugee resettlement and community development projects. Among his many activities, Colvin participated in community development training in parts of southern Africa and aided refugees from Mozambique seeking sanctuary in neighboring Malawi. These areas of service were the focus of Colvin's ministry, rather than the development of indigenous congregational song.
The songs collected by Colvin have been spread by members of the Iona Community around the world. Several of his texts set to African melodies have found a home in Western hymnals. Colvin nurtured new African congregational songs by adapting local melodies and writing new texts appropriate for African Christians and, as it turns out, Christians around the world. He introduced his hymns first to the Iona Community and then beyond in two collections, Free to Serve (1969) and Leap My Soul (1976). These collections were brought together in a single volume, Fill Us With Your Love (1983). A last volume, Come, Let Us Walk This Road Together, was added in 1997.
"Jesu, Jesu" is Colvin's most popular hymn. The melody is adapted from a Ghanaian folk song he heard during his years of service in that country. The tune name CHEREPONI comes from a town in northern Ghana, where the hymn was written. The composition of the hymn is symbolic of collaboration between two cultures. The text comes from a European Christian inspired by his service in Ghana. The melody comes from a West African country. In this composition, even the act of hymn singing may become a metaphor for neighborly relationships that are possible in Christ.
Kneels at the feet of his friends, silently washes their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them.
Neighbors are rich folk and poor, neighbors are black, brown, and white,
neighbors are nearby and far away
These are the ones we should serve, these are the ones we should love;
all these are neighbors to us and you.
Loving puts us on our knees, serving as though we are slaves:
this is the way we should live with you.
Refrain:
Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.
Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place
(c.1977, Lanny Wolfe Music)
Lanny Wolfe (born 1942) is a Christian songwriter who has won numerous awards. Wolfe served for a number of years as the Dean of the School of Music at Jackson Bible School, Jackson College of Ministries, but his most significant influence has been introducing black Gospel music to Pentecostal churches.
"Surely the Presence of the Lord Is in This Place" is based on Jesus promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst" (Matthew 18:20). It emphasizes the senses––feeling, hearing, touching, and seeing. We can feel the presence of the Lord––and hear the brush of the angel's wings––and see glory on each face. Wolfe was inspired to write this song in 1977 when a friend invited The Lanny Wolfe Trio to sing at a dedication service for a new building. "Surely the Presence" is the song that the Trio sang for that occasion.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place;
I can feel his mighty power and his grace.
I can hear the brush of angels’ wings, I see glory on each face;
Sure the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Are Ye Able
Earl Bowman Marlatt (1892–1976) was an American theologian and poet. He graduated from DePauw University and Boston University School of Theology. In 1923, he began teaching in the Boston University. From 1945 to 1957, he taught at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. He wrote many hymns, one of the best known being “Are Ye Able”. He also collected church hymns, with the intent to establish a museum. Many of his papers are held at DePauw University. A signed manuscript of his hymn“Are Ye Able” actually written Feb. 23, 1926, is included in the Bridwell Library Manuscript and Documents Collection. The text is based on Matthew 20:22, “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.”
The tune BEACON HILL was written by Harry Silvernale Mason in 1924. Mason graduated from Syracuse University, New York. He served at Auburn Theological Seminary, New York City, as organist, instructor of music, and assistant professor of fine arts and religion. While at Auburn, he did graduate work at Boston University, and played the organ at the First Presbyterian Church. He later served as organist at the Second Presbyterian Church of Auburn for 27 years.
"Are ye able," said the Master, "To be crucified with me?"
"Yea," the sturdy dreamers answered, "To the death we follow Thee."
Are ye able to remember, When a thief lifts up his eyes,
That his pardoned soul is worthy Of a place in paradise?
Are ye able when the shadows Close around you with the sod,
To believe that spirit triumphs, To commend your soul to God?
"Are ye able?" Still the Master Whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer Now, as then, in Galilee.
Refrain
Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine. Remold them, make us, Like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance Above us shall be A beacon to God, To love, and loyalty.
Sent Forth by God’s Blessing
(c.1953, World Library Publications)
This Catholic hymn from 1964 was written to direct the congregation out into the world as they depart the sanctuary. A song about transitions, it was also written at a time of great transition. Less than a year earlier, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) released a document called Sacrosanctum Concilium. Best known for allowing the use of the vernacular language in Mass, it also encouraged the use of congregational music—psalms, responses, and even hymns—to increase the participation and unity of the whole church. It flung open the doors of Catholic worship and practice, elevating and blessing local expressions of tradition, encouraging the involvement of all believers, and focusing that involvement both in the church and outside its walls
No event, however, especially one this large, is the result of a single moment. Even before the council was convened, ideas about different ways to live their faith and traditions were welling up in Catholic laity and clergy. Omer Westendorf (1916-1997), organist and choirmaster at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Cincinnati and author of this hymn alongside other familiar hymns of this era such as “You Satisfy the Hungry Heart” and “Where Charity and Love Prevail”, a translation of the classic Latin hymn Ubi Caritas, was one such lay Catholic who was hard at work spreading new music. Inspired by a trip to Holland, Westendorf started the World Library of Sacred Music (now World Library Publications) in his garage in Cincinnati in 1950 to bring European music to America. He published The People’s Hymnal (1955), the first hardbound English hymnal to be used in the Mass.
What began with a trickle of Catholic authors writing music in their vernacular language for their local situations became a massive flood of hymns and liturgies with the release of the Sacrosanctum Concilium. It gave permission for dramatic change in the liturgy because of pastoral concerns, as seen in its opening lines from which it also takes its name: “This sacred Council (literally Sacrosanctum Concilium) has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church.” To these ends, it focuses on the liturgy, “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed,” and the “full and active participation by all the people” in that liturgy and liturgical life. It calls for education of clergy and laity, reforms of the rites, calendar, and daily worship schedules of Catholic life, and allows for the use of local cultural music and instruments, and the use of the common tongue alongside the traditional use of Latin, Gregorian chant and organs.
Most important, for “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing,” it also calls for “composers, filled with the Christian spirit, should feel that their vocation is to cultivate sacred music and increase its store of treasures”. With the experience, publisher, and connections needed, Westendorf moved quickly to answer that call. In 1964, less than a year after the Sacrosanctum Concilium, the People’s Hymnal was transformed to the People’s Mass Book, and expanded with settings for the mass and newly-written, specifically Catholic hymns.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing,” written in 1964 for that publication of the People’s Mass Book, was composed under the name pen name J. Clifford Evers. Despite this initial unenthusiastic reception among congregations, the People’s Mass Book sold over two million copies in three years and was instrumental in introducing ecumenical hymnody to its Roman Catholic audience.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” is in many ways the direct child of the Sacrosanctum Concilium, not only by its very existence, but in its contents and usage. This is a bit clearer in its original text, much of which has been adapted for a more ecumenical and modern audience. The original text refers to the Eucharist, part of every mass, by noting “God’s sacrifice ended.” Some have adapted this to “the supper is ended.” Others, including The United Methodist Hymnal, avoid the reference to the Eucharist altogether and have changed the phrase to “the service is ended.” Most non-Catholics wouldn’t find much familiar in singing about “the fruits of this Mass” which is adapted to “the fruits of our worship.” The original text, however, consists of almost direct quotations from the papal document itself. The second stanza’s focus on the unity of a people who were fed together, and now live “as one in this life that we share” for the purpose of “God’s children of each tribe and race” also reflects the unifying and evangelical purpose of the reforms. The metaphor of seeds blossoming in “receptive souls” echoes the parable of the sower, conforming to the instruction to “[draw] chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources”.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” also faithfully follows the directions of the Council to direct attention and “proper dispositions” to the liturgy. Singing a closing hymn following the Eucharist was initiated with Vatican II. This new practice served to extend the rather terse traditional closing, “It missa est” (the Mass is ended), and provide a direction for the assembly as they concluded the liturgy. It has a distinct place within the liturgy as a sending hymn, and it sums up what has happened in that liturgy and its purpose as the congregation moves out into the world. It balances neatly between the world within the church walls where God’s word is planted and the world without where that word grows by actions out of the good soil of our hearts.
Westendorf’s choice of music helps with this movement. ASH GROVE, an upbeat and flowing Welsh harp tune already familiar to many when it was paired with the popular text “Let All Things Now Living” by Katherine K. Davis (1892-1980) as an anthem, sends people out energized and encouraged for action.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” is a song that moves the church forward in daily life and in history. As the effects of the Second Vatican Council have spread over the world, bringing new life and vigor (and challenges) to the whole Christian world, it calls for us be sent forth as well, empowered to change the world we meet outside our doors.
Sent forth by God's blessing, our true faith confessing,
the people of God from this dwelling take leave.
The service is ended, O now be extended
the fruits of our worship in all who believe.
The seed of the teaching, receptive souls reaching,
shall blossom in action for god and for all.
God's grace did invite us, and love shall unite us
to work for God's kingdom and answer the call.
With praise and thanksgiving to God ever living,
the tasks of our everyday life we will face.
Our faith ever sharing, in love ever caring,
embracing God's children of each tribe and race.
With your grace you feed us, with your light now lead us;
unite us as one in this life that we share.
Then may all the living with praise and thanksgiving
give honor to Christ and that name which we bear.
Let All Things Now Living - Nicholas Palmer
(c.2018, Birnamwood Publications)
Let All Things Now Living, first published in 1939 was written by composer and pianist: Katherine Davis. It is set to the traditional Welsh melody, Llwyn Onn which is best known as the setting for John Oxenford's The Ash Grove. In the Liturgy of the Hours, Let All Things Now Living is used during Ordinary Time for Evening Prayer.
Katherine Kennicott Davis (1892-1980) studied at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she was also a teaching assistant in music. From 1921 to 1929 she taught singing and piano in private schools in Concord, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After 1929 she devoted herself largely to music composition. Like many American composers during the twentieth century, she studied in Paris for an interval with the famous composition teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). She wrote some eight hundred pieces, most of which were choral (often writing under several pseudonyms). One of her most popular songs is "The Little Drummer Boy," originally called "Carol of the Drum" (1941). Her other publications include the folk operetta Cinderella (1933) and Songs of Freedom (1948).
Davis (1892-1980) published this text as an anthem in 1939 under the pseudonym of John Cowley. The text can be read in different ways. The final line of the first stanza – “as forward we travel from light into light” – might reflect confidence in the ultimate progression of human endeavors for the better under God’s providence, an extension of eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought, and nineteenth-century philosophers John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). This certainly would have been consonant with early twentieth century New England liberal philosophical thought. Mission hymns of the era employ a similar idea reflected as a Christian extension of Manifest Destiny. Drawing upon the Exodus narrative, the first stanza alludes to the “pillar of fire shining forth in the night” (Exodus 13:21-22). Appearing between world wars, such optimism might have seemed premature. Another way to view this text would be from an eschatological perspective as seen in the phrase, “who guides us and leads to the end of our days.” The direction of the Christian life is ultimately consummated in heaven. The beauty of hymn texts is that they may be read in several ways.
Much of the popularity of this hymn comes with its paring with the buoyant Welsh folk tune, THE ASH GROVE. The roots of this melody may be found in the eighteenth century. Arrangements published in England in the early and mid-nineteenth century increased its popularity. The tune had been in limited use in evangelical hymnals in the United States with the text “The Master hath come” by Sarah Doudney (1841-1926). Davis’s use of the tune in her 1939 anthem brought the tune to broader denominational prominence in the United States.
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
to God our Creator triumphantly raise;
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
by guiding us unto the end of our days,
His banners are o'er us, his light goes before us,
a pillar of fire shining forth in the night:
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished,
as forward we travel from light into light.
His law he enforces, the stars in their courses,
the sun in its orbit obediently shine,
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,
the depths of the ocean proclaim God divine.
We too, should be voicing our love and rejoicing
with glad adoration, a song let us raise:
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving,
to God in the highest, hosanna and praise.
Nicholas Palmer resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, working as a composer and arranger, choral conductor, organist and pianist. His primary work has been done in the context of liturgy, playing various keyboard instruments, running choral programs, and writing music for liturgical use. He currently directs music for St. John's Episcopal in Grand Haven, Michigan, and teaches at Muskegon Community College. His freelance work involves performing on stage, writing commissioned pieces for concert and liturgy, creating digital instrument tracks for general media use, and underscoring larger media projects.
Trinity United Methodist Church, Duncanville, Texas
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