Each week, you may find information here about the
organ music and hymns in the traditional worship services at First United
Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas. Some of this information is
original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources 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:
Improvisation
on “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound” – Charles Callahan
“O that we may all receive of Christ’s fullness, grace upon grace; grace to pardon our sins, and subdue our iniquities; to justify our persons and to sanctify our souls; and to complete that holy change, that renewal of our hearts, whereby we may be transformed into that blessed image wherein thou didst create us.” These lines from a prayer by John Wesley provide insight into the mystery of grace.
John Newton describes this power in his hymn, “Amazing
Grace.“ Grace is amazing because it is a free gift from God. God does not love
us for what we do; God loves us because we are God’s children. Nothing we do
will ever make God love us more and nothing we do will ever make God stop loving.
In other words, “God loves you, and there’s nothing you can do about it” (John
3:16; Ephesians 2:8). Grace is amazing indeed!
John Newton (1725-1807) wrote the words from personal
experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction, but his
life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often
put into motion by his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed (forced into service
involuntarily) into the Royal Navy, and after leaving the
service became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel so
severely that he called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion.
However, he continued his slave trading career until 1754 or 1755, when he
ended his seafaring altogether and began studying Christian theology.
Ordained
in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. "Amazing
Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It is
unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may have simply been
chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's
Olney Hymns, but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the
United States however, "Amazing Grace" was used extensively during
the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century. It has been associated with
more than 20 melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New
Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today.
Charles
Callahan (b. 1951) is one of America’s leading organist-composers. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a
graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Catholic University of
America. In recognition of his service
to the church and his commissioned compositions for Papal visits to the U.S.,
he was awared the Papal Honor of Knighthood in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
of Jerusalem in 1999. In addition to
compositions and performances, Charles Callahan is a noted educator and author
whose two books on American organ-building have become standard reference
works.
Voluntary
in D – Domenico Scarlatti
In music a voluntary is a piece of music, usually for organ, that is played as part of a church service. In English-speaking countries, the music played before and after the service is often called a 'voluntary', whether or not it is titled so. The title 'voluntary' was often used by composers during the late Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods. Originally, the term was used for a piece of organ music that was free in style, and was meant to sound improvised (the word voluntary in general means free, i.e., "not forced to do something”). This probably grew out of the practice of church organists improvising after a service.
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style.
In 1709, he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire. Scarlatti was already an eminent harpsichordist: there is a story of a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome where he was judged possibly superior to Handel on that harpsichord, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill.
Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti he composed in a
variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555
keyboard sonatas. Aside from his many
sonatas, he composed a quantity of operas and cantatas, symphonias, and
liturgical pieces. Well known works include the Stabat Mater of 1715 and
the Salve Regina of 1757, which is thought to be his last composition.
Lobe den Herren, den
machtigen Konig der Ehren – Max Drischner
The
author of “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation”, Joachim
Neander, was born in Bremen, Germany in 1650. In his early years, he
lived a lusty, immoral life. Then he and a group of friends decided to
attend a service conducted by a visiting preacher, Pastor Under-Eyke, and
Neander was quickly converted. He was then influenced by Philipp Jakob
Spener, a Pietist who sought to return vitality to the Lutheran church, which
in his opinion had become staid and barren. The Pietists emphasized
individual piety, and instituted small groups for prayer, scripture study,
personal accountability, and good works. They believed that trust in
Christ rather than correct theology constituted the core of the faith.
This de-emphasis on theology brought the Pietists into conflict with the more
traditional Lutherans.
In his
mid-20s, Neander became director of the Latin School of Dusseldorf, where he
served for several years. He experienced considerable opposition there
because of his pietism, and was eventually dismissed from that position.
He then suffered declining health, and died at age 30.
He
wrote 60 hymns –– most during his tenure at the Latin School. Most are
hymns of joyful praise, even though they were written at a time when Neander
was living under considerable stress.
"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is based on Psalms 103 and
150. It was inspired not only by those psalms but also by the beauty of
the hills and rivers that Neander experienced on his walks through the German
countryside.
John Julian's A Dictionary of Hymnology lists more than ten English translations of "Lobe den Herren" printed in various nineteenth century hymnals. The first verse of the Winkworth translation is:
Praise
to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.
O
my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All
ye who hear, Now to his temple draw near,
Join
me in glad adoration!
Lionel Adey uses Winkworth's translation as an example of translators' reshaping a text to their own era's tastes, noting that she discards the German Renaissance flavor of psaltery and harp to introduce a mention of "health" more typical of nineteenth-century Christianity.
Max Drischner (1891-1971) was a German composer, Kantor, organist, and
harpsichordist. Drischner was born in Silesia. After completing his secondary education, he pursued
studies in theology in Leipzig and Breslau, beginning in 1910. By 1914, however, he had decided to
quit his theological studies in favor of studying music. At this time,
Drischner relocated to Berlin, and was enrolled in the Berlin University of the
Arts, where he studied harpsichord. In 1924, Drischner was named Kantor and
organist of St. Nicholas Church in Brieg.
While in Brieg, Drischer built a reputation for himself as a
choirmaster, as well, organizing and directing many successful events, and
founding a youth choir. This earned him a renown that stretched beyond Brieg.
His efforts earned him the title of Kirchenmusikdirektor ("Church
music director"), a very high honor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
About the Hymns:
Great
is Thy Faithfulness
A native of the small Kentucky town of
Franklin, Thomas Obediah Chisholm (1866-1960) was born in a log cabin. He
lacked formal education. Nevertheless, he became a teacher at age sixteen and
the associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the “Franklin Advocate”, at age
twenty-one. Though he was ordained a Methodist
minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville,
Kentucky, due to ill health. He wrote
more than 1200 poems, 800 of which were published. They often appeared in
religious periodicals such as the “Sunday
School Times”, “Moody Monthly”,
and “Alliance Weekly”. Many of
these were set to music.
Chisholm had sent a number of his poems
to the Rev. William H. Runyan (1870-1957), a musician with the Moody Bible
Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago. Runyan wrote of the hymn: "This
particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune
might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its
use indicates that God answered prayer.
It was written in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and was first published in
my private song pamphlets." A
phrase in Lamentations 3:22-23 provides a basis for the refrain: "The
steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they
are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
George Beverly Shea (1909-2013), the
famous Canadian-born singer of the Billy Graham Crusades, introduced this hymn
to those attending the evangelistic meetings in Great Britain in 1954. It immediately became a favorite. This hymn appeared in many evangelical
hymnals and song collections, but was not chosen for an official Methodist
hymnal until The United Methodist
Hymnal (1989), even
though the author was a Methodist. It
was a very popular hymn of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church and
had been included in their hymnals.
According to Carlton Young, "Great
is thy faithfulness" was second only to "In the garden" as the
most requested hymn for inclusion in The
United Methodist Hymnal. A survey conducted in 2000 by Dean
McIntyre, Director of Music Resources, General Board of Discipleship, revealed
that "Great is thy faithfulness" remains one of the favorite hymns
among United Methodists.
Grace
Greater than our Sin
Fred
Kaan (1929-2009), though ordained in the United Reformed Church and serving in
England, was a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands. Carlton R. Young, editor of The UM Hymnal,
says of Kaan, “His linguistic ability, ecumenical service, and fervent concern
for the powerless are apparent in his hymns, numbering more than
200.” Collections of his hymns
appear in this country as The Hymn Texts of Fred Kaan (1985), Planting
Trees and Sowing Seeds (1989) and The Only Earth We Know (1999). He
was elected Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 2001.
His hymns have been translated into more that 15 languages. Kaan died at
the age of 80 after a long struggle with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Though
one of the most prophetic and vigorous voices in 20th-century hymnody has been
silenced, we shall continue to sing his hymns.
Kaan
explains the origins of the hymn, “Help us accept each other”: “This text was
set in motion upon reading a Bible study article Mrs. Jackie Mattonen had
written for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the USA. . . . It was almost
accidentally and at the last moment included in the fourth edition of Cantate
Domino [an ecumenical and cross-cultural hymnal published by the World
Council of Churches in 1974], … and it so happened that my “Hymn of acceptance”
was just the right length to fill the two blank pages that needed
filling.” The text appeared in
Kaan’s collection Break Not the Circle (1975) for the first time in the
U.S. The words became more widely sung when they were set to music by American
composer John Ness Beck (1930-1987) as an anthem. Beck’s anthem setting was
then adapted as a hymn tune Acceptance.
This
is one of the most powerful hymns on reconciliation and forgiveness composed in
the last half of the 20th century. Romans 15:7 provides a scriptural basis for
stanza 1: “Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to
God’s glory.” The hymn also reflects Ephesians 4:15: “But practicing the truth
in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.”
