August 23, 2015

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; 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:

Auf meinen lieben Gott – Dietrich Buxtehude

This chorale text was written by Sigismund Weingärtner and published in Geistliche Psalmen (Nuremberg, Germany: 1607).  Little is known of Weingärtner, whose name is in the author index. Supposedly he was from the Heilbronn area, though no record has been found of him there.  “Auf meinen lieben Gott” was set to music by Bartholomäus Gesius (c. 1560-1613) in his “Christliche Haus- und Tisch-Musica…” for 4 voices [Wittenberg, 1605]

The chorale melody source is a secular composition by Jacob Regnart (c. 1540-1599) with the song title “Venus, du und dein Kind seid alle beide blind” contained in the collection of “Kurtzweilige teutsche Liedlein / nach Art der Neapolitanen oder welschen Villanellen” [Nürnberg, 1574.]  Regnart stated in the foreword that these “little, entertaining German songs” were ‘in the style of ‘napolitane’ or Italian villanellas.’ The public response to these compositions, including important musicians like Michael Praetorius who praised them, was overwhelming and led to numerous editions and even rivalry between printing firms.

            In my beloved God I trust in anxiety and trouble;

            He can always deliver me from sorrow, anxiety, and troubles;

            He can change my misfortune; everything is in His hands.

            Although my sins oppose me, I shall not despair;

            On Christ I shall build and trust Him alone;

            To Him I surrender myself in death and also in life.

            Amen at all hours I say from the depths of my heart;

            May it be Your will to guide us Lord Christ, at all times,

            So that we may praise your name forever.  Amen.

Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637/39^-1707) was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1705, J.S. Bach, then a young man of twenty, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance of more than 250 miles, and stayed nearly three months to hear the “Abendmusik”, meet the pre-eminent Lübeck organist, hear him play, and, as Bach explained, "to comprehend one thing and another about his art". Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.

There are over 40 surviving chorale settings by Buxtehude, and they constitute the most important contributions to the genre in the 17th century. His settings include chorale variations, chorale ricercares, chorale fantasias and chorale preludes. Buxtehude's principal contributions to the organ chorale are his 30 short chorale preludes. The chorale preludes are usually four-part cantus firmus settings of one stanza of the chorale; the melody is presented in an elaborately ornamented version in the upper voice, the three lower parts engage in some form of counterpoint (not necessarily imitative).  The ornamented cantus firmus in these pieces represents a significant difference between the north German and the south German schools; Johann Pachelbel and his pupils would almost always leave the chorale melody unornamented. 

In his chorale partita Auf meinen lieben Gott (BuxWV 179) Dieterich Buxtehude combines the (sacred) genre of the chorale with the (secular) genre of a dance suite by modelling the variations of the partita on popular dances. This was part of a larger trend to turn hymn settings into keyboard pieces that borrowed stylistic features from contemporary dances. The choice of the hymn has to be understood within the context of contemporary piety and the ars moriendi in particular. Both aspects converge in the musical and religious practices of the educated middle class in the second half of the seventeenth century in northern Germany.

The Solid Rock – Don Hustad

Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15. Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. The hymn "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" was published anonymously in several hymn collections before first being attributed to Edward Mote in a collection of approximately 100 of his hymns published in 1837 under the title Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns, Combining All the Excellencies of our Spiritual Poets, with Many Originals.  Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term “gospel hymn” appears. Mote's original title was "The Immutable Basis for a Sinner's Hope" in this collection.  The refrain of "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and builds around the metaphor of Christ as a rock with a firm basis (1 Corinthians 10:4).

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly trust in Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.

Don Hustad (1918-2013) was one of the giants of Christian music of the 20th century. Hustad had a distinguished ministry and a life-long profession as a recording artist, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor, hymnal editor, and author.  He began work as staff musician of Chicago's WMBI in the early 1940s, worked with soloist George Beverly Shea on a weekly broadcast called "Club Time," and served for some 20 years as organist for a popular radio broadcast "Songs in the Night." He taught at Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1946 to 1950, at which time Hustad was appointed director of the Sacred Music Department at Moody Bible Institute—a position he held until 1961.  During his 11-year tenure at Moody he developed the Moody Chorale into a superior choral ensemble that achieved fame nationally and internationally.   In 1961 he became Crusade organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and directed the Crusader Men Choir in the "Hour of Decision" broadcasts.  His publications include over 100 articles and five books.  Throughout his career, Hustad devoted considerable energy to music arranging and hymnal editing, serving as editorial consultant and musical advisor to Hope Publishing Company. Among his editorial contributions are fourteen hymnals and songbooks, as well as dozens of collections.  In 1989, Hustad was awarded Fellow of the Hymn Society for his outstanding contribution to American hymnody.  In 2008, he was honored by the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Conference for his contributions to church music. He earned diplomas as an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), London, UK.

About the Choral Music:

He Never Failed Me Yet – Robert Ray

Robert Ray is a composer and conductor, and is currently professor of music and coordinator of keyboard studies at the University of Missouri St. Louis. He is also director of the University Community Chorus and Director of the Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus.  Ray received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Northwestern University. He has appeared as piano soloist with the Kirkwood Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul (Korea) Philharmonic Orchestra. Ray has served as the Repertoire and Standards Chair for Ethnic Music and Multi-Cultural Prospectives for the American Choral Directors Association (Southwestern Division) and has appeared as a lecturer and clinician at numerous universities and colleges, as well as MENC, ACDA, and IAJA conventions.

“He Never Failed Me Yet” was written in 1982 for the Echos of Grace choir at Second Baptist Church in Evanston, Illinois, the oldest black church in Evanston, founded in 1882.

            I will sing of God’s mercy, every day.

Every hour, He gives me power.

            I will sing and give thanks to Thee

for all the dangers, toils, and snares that He has brought me out.

            He is my God, and I’ll serve Him, no matter what the test.

            Trust and never doubt, Jesus will surely bring you out.

            He never failed me yet.

            I know God is able to deliver in time of storm.

            I know that He’ll keep you safe from all earthly harm.

            One day when my weary soul is at rest,

            I’m going home to be forever bless’d.

            Didn’t my God deliver Moses from King Pharoah?

            And didn’t He cool the fiery furnace for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?

            When I think what my God can do,

            He delivered Daniel; I know He will deliver you.

About the Hymns:

O Worship the King

Of Scottish ancestry, Robert Grant (1779-1838) was born in India, where his father was a director of the East India Company. He attended Magdalen College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1807. He had a distinguished public career a Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament, where he sponsored a bill to remove civil restrictions on Jews. Grant was knighted in 1834. His hymn texts were published in the Christian Observer (1806-1815), in Elliot’s Psalms and Hymns (1835), and posthumously by his brother as Sacred Poems (1839).

Grant’s text was influenced by William Kethe’s paraphrase of Psalm 104 in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561). Grant’s text was first published in Edward Bickersteth’s Christian Psalmody (1833) with several unauthorized alterations. In 1835 his original six-stanza text was published in Henry Elliott’s Psalm and Hymns. Stanza 3 was omitted in the Psalter Hymnal.

Rather than being a paraphrase or versification, the text is a meditation on the creation theme of Psalm 104, focusing on God’s creation as a testimony to his “measureless might.” More personal in tone, stanzas 4 and 5 confess the compassion of God toward his creatures and affirm with apocalyptic vision that the “ransomed creation, with glory ablaze” will join with angels to hymn its praise to God.  In the last verse, Grant points to Christ as the ultimate reconciler of a broken, but still beautiful creation. An original last stanza that we no longer sing reads, “The humbler creation, though feeble their lays, with true adoration shall lisp to Thy praise.”

‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

From her childhood, the call to missionary service was the guiding motivation for Louisa M. R. Stead (c. 1850-1917). Born in Dover, England, and converted at the age of nine, Stead came to the United States in 1871, living in Cincinnati. She attended a camp meeting in Urbana, Ohio, where she dedicated her life to missionary service. Ill health prevented her from serving initially. She married in 1875, and the couple had a daughter, Lily. Hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck describes a major turning point in the family’s life:

“When the child was four years of age, the family decided one day to enjoy the sunny beach at Long Island Sound, New York. While eating their picnic lunch, they suddenly heard cries of help and spotted a drowning boy in the sea. Mr. Stead charged into the water. As often happens, however, the struggling boy pulled his rescuer under water with him, and both drowned before the terrified eyes of wife and daughter. Out of her ‘why?’ struggle with God during the ensuing days glowed these meaningful words from the soul of Louisa Stead.”

The hymn, “’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus” was inspired by this personal tragedy.  

Soon after, Louisa and Lily left for the Cape Colony, South Africa, where Louisa worked as a missionary for fifteen years. She married Robert Wodehouse, a native of South Africa. Because of her health, the family found it necessary to return to the United States in 1895. Wodehouse pastored a Methodist congregation during these years until, in 1900, they returned to the mission field, this time to the Methodist mission station at Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). Kenneth Osbeck records a message sent back to the United States shortly after her arrival in Southern Rhodesia:

“In connection with the whole mission there are glorious possibilities, but one cannot, in the face of the peculiar difficulties, help but say, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ But with simple confidence and trust we may and do say, ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’”

While the exact date of the composition is not known, Louisa Stead’s hymn was first published in Songs of Triumph (1882).  The hymn might be described as a mantra on the name of Jesus. Indeed, “Jesus” is sung twenty-five times if one sings all four stanzas and the refrain.

Trust and Obey

This hymn was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals. Towner provided the following account cited by Moody’s musical partner, Ira D. Sankey, in his biography, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns:   “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”

Sammis is said to have composed the lines of the refrain upon receiving the letter:

             “Trust and obey—for there’s no other way
              To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

As is the case with most gospel songs, these lines provide the central theme around which all of the stanzas were written. The text and tune first appeared in the 1887 collection, Hymns Old and New, and has been included in countless hymnals since. Methodist hymnals in the United States have carried it since 1897. 

August 16, 2015

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; 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:

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need – Sam Batt Owens

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was the son of a schoolmaster and was born in Southampton. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, 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 composed for religious worship, "Behold the glories of the Lamb," was written at the age of twenty.  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. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honor can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred.  There is a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey.  The inscription reads, "Happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God."

Psalm 23 has inspired numerous paraphrases and hymn texts, including this text by Isaac Watts. Watts included it in his large 1719 collection of psalm paraphrases, The Psalms of David Imitated.  Psalm 23 remains the most well-loved and often recited psalm, and Isaac Watts' powerful paraphrase, coupled with the peaceful yet strong American folk tune, make this hymn a moving rendition of that psalm. Watts’ interpretation of the last line of psalm, “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever,” gives a new understanding to the original psalm: “No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.” Watts gives us a concrete image of dwelling – a child, knowing he or she is safe and secure, and in a place of love and comfort – to help us understand what it is we hope for. The same peace we find in the pasture and by the stream, we find in the house of the LORD, to which our Shepherd is leading us day by day.

My Shepherd, you supply my need, most holy is your name;
in pastures fresh you make me feed, beside the living stream.
You bring my wand'ring spirit back. when I forsake your ways;
you lead me, for your mercy's sake, in paths of truth and grace.

When through the shades of death I walk, your presence is my stay;
one word of your supporting breath drives all my fears away.
Your hand in sight of all my foes, does still my table spread;
my cup with Blessings overflows, your oil anoints my head.

Your sure provisions gracious God attend me all my days;
oh, may your house be my abode, and all my work be praise.
Here would I find a settled rest, while others go and come;
no more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child at home.

Sam Batt Owens (1928-1998) enjoyed a long career as a well-known organist, composer, and church musician. He received a B. Mus. in organ performance, from the Birmingham Conservatory of Music, a M. Mus. in organ performance and composition from Birmingham- Southern College, and a D.M.A. in organ performance and musicology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.  Owens taught at Birmingham Conservatory of Music, Birmingham Southern College, Vanderbilt University, Fisk University, Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School, and Christ School for Boys in Arden, N.C. He held his fIrst position as an organist at age 12, and began solo organ performances at age 16. He wrote more than 200 choral, organ, instrumental and solo vocal compositions. He was one of the Episcopal Church's leading musicians. He was President of the Association of Anglican Musicians from 1989-1991. In 1996, he had left his position at St. Andrew's on-the-Sound in Wilmington, N.C., to become a consultant for parishes and dioceses in artistic matters and a crusader for fair compensation and recognition of church musicians. In his later years he taught congregations in smaller parishes how to be full participants in corporate worship, presenting "music in liturgy and how music upholds and supports corporate worship."

Meditation on “Columba” – Searle Wright

“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” is an Anthony G. Petti (1932-1985) adaption of the 1868 Sir Henry W. Baker (1821-1877) paraphrase of Psalm 23. Baker took Holy Orders in the Church of England in 1844. He was closely associated with hymnody in the Church. Besides writing, translating, and composing a number of hymns, his most notable role was as Ed­it­or-in-Chief of the first edition of Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern (1861) which sold over 60 million copies.  “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” has proven to be his most enduring work. It is said that as he lay dying his final words were those of the 3rd stanza: "Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me; and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me." It is sung to the tune: St. Columba, a traditional Irish melody.

The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am his, and he is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow, my ransomed soul he leadeth;
and where the verdant pastures grow, with food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me;
and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me.

In death's dark vale I fear no ill, with thee, dear Lord, beside me;
thy rod and staff my comfort still, thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spreadst a table in my sight; thy unction grace bestoweth;
and oh, what transport of delight from thy pure chalice floweth!

And so through all the length of days, thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever.

M. Searle Wright (1918-2004) was a composer, teacher and master of both classic and theater pipe organ.  Director of chapel music at St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University from 1952 to 1971 and president of the American Guild of Organists from 1969 to 1971, Wright wrote music that church choirs in North America have been singing for more than half a century. He was Link professor of music at the State University of New York there until he retired in 1984. Wright was organist and choir director at the First Congregational Church in Binghamton and organist for the B.C. Pops Orchestra.

Wright earned money as a teenager on weekends by playing Strauss waltzes and transcriptions of organ music on the Wurlitzer at the Capitol Theater in Binghamton, Pa., before the start of the movie.  He went to New York City to study classical organ with T. Tertius Noble, the organist and master of choristers at St. Thomas Church, and later attended Columbia University.  He perfected his improvisation techniques at the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary and began teaching students there in 1947. Wright was the first American to perform at Westminster Abbey.

Postludio – J. R. Manzanares

Jacinto Ruiz de Manzanares (1872-1937) studied at Madrid Conservatory. He was Professor of piano and composition at the Valladolid Conservatory, Spain.  He composed music for piano and organ.  “Postludio” bears an inscription which quotes a verse by Lope de Vega:

            Lead me to mercy’s ever-flowing fountains,

            For thou my shepherd guard and guide shalt be;

            I will obey thy voice, and wait to see

            Thy feet all beautiful upon the mountains.

About the Choral Music:

My Jesus, I Love Thee – Gilbert Martin

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.

Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941) is a free-lance composer and editor of choral music. For more than 30 years, organists, pianists, schools and churches have performed and enjoyed his original compositions and arrangements. He often travels throughout the country to teach and conduct musical ensembles. He received a B. Mus. from Westminster Choir College, where he was honored as a distinguished composer and graduate. He has received 21 yearly ASCAP Awards, and is a member of ACDA, AGO, AEA, and NARAS.

            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.

            Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I’ve proved him o’er and o’er!

            Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more!

            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, my Jesus, ‘tis now, ‘’tis now.

About the Hymns:

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

"The Hymn of Joy" (often called "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" after the first line) is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of musically setting it to the famous "Ode to Joy" melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's final symphony, Symphony No. 9.   Van Dyke wrote this poem in 1907 while staying at the home of Williams College president Harry Augustus Garfield. He was serving as a guest preacher at Williams at the time. He told his host that the local Berkshire Mountains had been his inspiration. The lyrics were first published in 1911 in Van Dyke's Book of Poems.

Van Dyke wrote of this hymn: “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.”  This hymn is generally considered by hymnologists to be one of the most joyous expressions of hymn lyrics in the English language.

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. In 1908–09 Dr. van Dyke was an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors.  Among his popular writings are the two Christmas stories, The Other Wise Man (1896) and The First Christmas Tree (1897). Various religious themes of his work are also expressed in his poetry, hymns and the essays collected in Little Rivers (1895) and Fisherman’s Luck (1899).

The Gift of Love

Among the most prominent New Testament texts is the discourse on love found in I Corinthians 13. Hal H. Hopson has paraphrased part of this beautiful text in what has become one of the most popular late 20th-century hymns, appearing in many major hymnals published in the U.S. since 1980. "The Gift of Love" first appeared as a very popular anthem in 1972. Both the text and the music are effective paraphrases -- the text of I Corinthians 13:1-3 and the melody as an adaptation of the beautiful folk melody "O Waly, Waly." The original tune was collected by American folksong specialist Cecil Sharp and published in his Folk Songs from Somerset (1906).  "The Gift of Love" is very flexible and, according to Hope Publishing Co., is Mr. Hopson's most popular composition -- widely used as an anthem, solo and as a hymn. Speaking of the popularity of his hymn, Hopson said: "The first 'Gift of Love' was a two-part choral arrangement. Years later, at the suggestion of  George Shorney at Hope Publishing Company, I cast it in a form to be used as a congregational hymn. Since then it has become a standard hymn to be included in many hymnals. It is noteworthy that The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989, was the first hymnal that included 'The Gift of Love.' I was once surprised to be introduced at a seminar as the Gift-of-Love-Man."

Mr. Hopson (b. 1933) is a native of Mound, Texas, and now resides in Dallas. He has an international reputation as a clinician and composer, and has published more than 1,300 compositions, which comprise almost every musical form in church music. With a special interest in congregational song, he continues to make a significant contribution to the new repertoire of hymn tunes and responsorial psalm settings as evidenced by the proliferation of his settings that are included in newly published hymnals and psalm collections.

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.

August 9, 2015

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; 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:

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Harold DeCou

This hymn’s origin is a paradox. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) worshipped in the tradition of the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Whittier was one of the most important of the 19th-century American poets. The New Englander was a Quaker abolitionist, reared in a large farmhouse in the rural setting of Merrimac Valley at East Haverhill, Mass.  Traditionally, Quakers have not sung in worship, but value silence, waiting for the “still, small voice” of God.

According to accounts Whittier had been reading in Max Müller’s The Sacred Books of the East about the use of soma, a plant found in northwest India. Soma was used to prepare an intoxicating drug that was ingested in religious rituals, resulting in a state of frenzy.  This hymn began as a part of a long narrative poem, “The Brewing of Soma,” published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1872. The poem describes Vedic priests going into the forest, brewing a drink from honey and milk, and drinking themselves into a frenzy. Whittier was critical of those who believed they might find God through unbridled ecstasy, such as the hysterical camp meetings and revivals common in his day.   Whittier’s response was a 17-stanza poem, of which stanzas 12-17 have been excised to form the hymn as found in many hymnals.

English hymnologist J.R. Watson summarizes well the contribution of this hymn: “It is the opposite end of the devotional spectrum from those hymns which encourage activity and energy; but everyone experiences the need for quiet meditation at some time, and this hymn encourages an almost mystical contemplation of the peace of God ‘which passes all understanding.’” 
 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways!

Re-clothe us in our rightful mind In purer lives thy service find,

In deeper reverence praise.

Drop thy still dews of quietness Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,

O still small voice of calm!

Harold H. DeCou (1932-2008) attended Temple University in Philadelphia and was long associated with Billy Graham and the Singspiration staff.  His output as artist, composer, arranger and orchestrator ensures that he will be remembered as one of the giants of Christian gospel music. He served as church organist at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria from 1988 to 2001. He was also an Honorary Fellow of Shenandoah Society Award.

God of Majesty and Hope – Beatrice Miller

Beatrice A. Miller (b. 1923) received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theory and composition from Northwestern University. In addition to teaching and being a church organist/choir director, she has written music for piano, voice, choirs, and organ. She has had the distinct honor of having been Oregon’s Composer of the Year in 1997, and was commissioned to write a piano concerto for the intermediate level student. 

About the Vocal Music:

The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference

Bill Gaither (b. 1936) is an Indiana-born kid with an insatiable love for music who grew to become an industry leader who would change the course of gospel music history through the songs he has written and through his influence as a mentor for other artists.  An avid fan of gospel quartets throughout his childhood, Bill founded his first group, The Bill Gaither Trio, in 1956, while he was a college student. He began teaching high school English in 1959, where he met Gloria Sickal (b. 1942), the French teacher.  They married in 1962, and spent the first five years of their married life juggling full-time teaching jobs, writing, singing, recording and publishing until music became their full-time career in 1967.  The collaborations of Bill and Gloria have resulted in more than 700 popular gospel songs.  The Gaithers have won eight Grammy Awards and more than a dozen nominations, and they have received more than two dozen Dove Awards from The Gospel Music Association, earning the title of Gospel Music Association’s “Songwriter of the Year” eight times.

“Our calling is not just making music… but communicating the reality of Christ. That might mean birthing a song about Him or simply offering a cup of cold water to someone who needs it. Gloria and I have never claimed to have God figured out, but we do know that if He could use two imperfect people like us to communicate His Truth to the world, He can use everyone sitting in the audience, working on our staff or singing with us. If we have done anything right over the years, I hope we have built bridges where people could connect with God and with each other. That is what started us writing and what will keep us going for the rest of our lives.”

“The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference” is a song for all, but especially for those who do not yet believe. The lyrics tell the story of the contrast of life circumstances with and without the Lord. It encourages believers and inspires unbelievers. The Old Rugged Cross does make the difference.

          'Twas a life filled with aimless desperation Without hope walked the shell of a man;
          Then a hand with a nailprint stretched downward, Just one touch then a new life began.
          And the old rugged cross made the difference In a life bound for heartache and defeat;
          I will praise Him forever and ever For the cross made the difference for me.
          Yes, the cross made the difference for me. 

About the Hymns:

Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy

The invitation hymn “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy” dates from 1759, when it was published in Joseph Hart’s Hymns Composed on Various Subjects under the title “Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.”  The original opening line, “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,” was modified by Augustus Toplady, the 18th-century author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”

Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was born in London, where he became an independent Calvinist preacher converted by the Moravians. Hart received an excellent education and, because of his knowledge of the classics and languages, became a highly esteemed teacher. For a number of years he drifted from the faith of his family, and by his own confession became a “loose backslider, an audacious apostate, and a bold-faced rebel.”  In 1757, at the age of 45, he experienced a spiritual awakening after attending a service at a Moravian chapel in London. During the two years that followed his renewal, he wrote many hymns marked by earnestness and love for Christ.

“Come, ye sinners” was included in Spence’s Pocket Hymn-Book (1785). Later in the 19th century, Ira D. Sankey, the musical partner of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, included this hymn in his famous Gospel Hymns, Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894), ensuring its popularity in Sunday schools and revival settings.

The anonymous refrain, beginning with “I will arise and go to Jesus,” makes a rather oblique reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son. The refrain was found in Southern hymnbooks as early as 1811.  The refrain is one of the old-fashioned camp-meeting spirituals, in which such short choruses “floated” from text to text, serving as a refrain for an appropriate longer hymn. 

Nothing but the Blood

Robert Lowry (1826-1899) has provided us with many of the most venerable nineteenth-century texts and tunes from the United States. The Philadelphia-born author and composer of this hymn was a popular Baptist preacher and educator who served churches in Pennsylvania, New York City, Brooklyn, and Plainfield, New Jersey. Lowry, a graduate of Bucknell University, was a professor of belles lettres in the University, receiving a D.D. in 1875. He became known for his gospel songs while ministering in Brooklyn, collaborating often with William H. Doane in producing some of the most popular Sunday school song collections of his day.

"Nothing but the Blood" has all the earmarks of a classic gospel song. It focuses on a single theme and hammers it home. The singer will repeat the text, "nothing but the blood of Jesus" twelve times in four stanzas. The refrain is succinct and reinforces the theme. The language is direct and obvious, with all one- or two-syllable words. The theme of cleansing from sin is prominent in gospel song literature.  Lowry adapts a call-response pattern in the stanzas that immediately engages the singer. Stanza one begins with a question: "What can wash away my sin?" The answer is resounding and definitive: "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." This is followed by a second question: "What can make me whole again?" Once more, the answer is unequivocal, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

Hebrews 9:22 appeared originally above the hymn in the original publication by Lowry and William H. Doane entitled Gospel Music (1876). The passage reads: "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin."  Themes of pardon, cleansing, atonement, and righteousness permeate the remaining stanzas. The United Methodist Hymnal changes one word in the refrain. The original text is "white as snow," an allusion to Isaiah 1:18, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The hymnal committee changed this to "bright as snow."

It is perhaps this hymn, along with others such as William Cowper’s "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" (UM Hymnal, No. 622) that offends the sensibilities of many twenty-first-century singers and, as a result, causes them to reject any hymn that mentions blood. A more discerning singer will look at each occurrence of the word in its context. For example, Augustus Toplady’s eighteenth-century hymn, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," includes the phrase in the first stanza, "let the water and the blood,/from thy wounded side which flowed . . .." This is a description of a biblical event, the crucifixion.  Charles Wesley often used the word "blood" in his hymns. However, it is not in a gory or gratuitous sense, but as a synonym for grace. One can often sing "grace" in place of "blood" in a Wesley hymn. For example, the last line of the fourth stanza of "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" could be sung, "his grace availed for me" and maintain its theological intent. "And Can It Be that I Should Gain" clearly equates the results of the shedding of Christ’s blood with mercy and love.

“Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” was first introduced at a camp meeting in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ocean Grove was established in 1869 as a place of spiritual retreat and revival and a place to escape the summer heat of northeastern cities. Over the years, many famous hymn writers came to Ocean Grove, including Fanny Crosby, William Kirkpatrick, and Eliza Hewitt, as well as Robert Lowry. Ocean Grove still hosts many famous preachers and speakers, as well as musical artists.

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.”

August 2, 2015

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; 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:

Have Thine Own Way – Don Hustad

Jeremiah 18:3-6 sets the scene for this hymn:  "Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."

The hymn was inspired in 1902 by a simple prayer of an elderly woman at a prayer meeting: "It really doesn't matter what you do with us, Lord -- just have your way with our lives . . .."   The author, Adelaide A. Pollard (1862-1934) was born in Iowa.  She moved to Chicago where she became a teacher in girls' schools. In addition, she developed a fine reputation as an itinerant Bible study teacher. Later, she worked with two evangelists, one who developed a healing ministry, and the other who focused on the imminent return of Christ.  Pollard had a strong desire to be a missionary in Africa. When this plan was not fulfilled, she taught at a Missionary Training School at Nyack-on-the-Hudson. She finally made it to Africa for a brief period before World War I, but she spent the war years in Scotland. After returning to the United States, she continued her ministry even though she was in poor health.

"Have Thine Own Way, Lord" was composed during a time when Miss Pollard was trying to raise funds to make a trip to Africa. Her unsuccessful attempt to do this left her experiencing a "distress of soul." This crisis of the soul and the simple prayer of an elderly lady provided a setting for personal reflection on the will of God for her life. After the prayer meeting, she returned home and wrote the hymn as we sing it today.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Don Hustad (1918-2013) was one of the giants of Christian music of the 20th century. Hustad had a distinguished ministry and a life-long profession as a recording artist, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor, hymnal editor, and author.  He began work as staff musician of Chicago's WMBI in the early 1940s, worked with soloist George Beverly Shea on a weekly broadcast called "Club Time," and served for some 20 years as organist for a popular radio broadcast "Songs in the Night." He taught at Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1946 to 1950, at which time Hustad was appointed director of the Sacred Music Department at Moody Bible Institute—a position he held until 1961.  During his 11-year tenure at Moody he developed the Moody Chorale into a superior choral ensemble that achieved fame nationally and internationally.   In 1961 he became Crusade organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and directed the Crusader Men Choir in the "Hour of Decision" broadcasts.  His publications include over 100 articles and five books.  Throughout his career, Hustad devoted considerable energy to music arranging and hymnal editing, serving as editorial consultant and musical advisor to Hope Publishing Company. Among his editorial contributions are fourteen hymnals and songbooks, as well as dozens of collections.  In 1989, Hustad was awarded Fellow of the Hymn Society for his outstanding contribution to American hymnody.  In 2008, he was honored by the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Conference for his contributions to church music. He earned diplomas as an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), London, UK.

Meditation on “Kedron” – Dale Wood

Jeffery W. Rowthorn (b. 1934) wrote “Creator God, Your Fingers Trace the Bold Designs of Farthest Space” while he was Chapel Minister at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. Rowthorn  wrote this text based on Psalm 148 in 1974, the year he first started writing hymn texts. One of two winners in the Hymn Society of America's contest for "New Psalms for Today," the text was published in The Hymn of April 1979.

In Psalm 148 both heavenly and earthly creatures bring praise to God. Rowthorn uses the psalm as the backdrop for a text that is not so much a paraphrase in the traditional sense of that term but a new text that affirms four great tenets of the Christian faith: the God we worship created the entire cosmos, sustains the ecology of life, redeems his people from oppression and death, and dwells by his Spirit in his people, the church.

Rowthorn graduated from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Union Theological Seminary in New York, and Cuddeson Theological College in Oxford. Ordained in 1963 in the Church of England, he served several congregations in England before immigrating to the United States, where he was chaplain at Union Theological Seminary and a faculty member in liturgics at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which he helped to establish. He was then elected Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The writer of several hymns, Rowthorn was also coeditor with Russell Schulz-Widmar of A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1991). Rowthorn has since moved to Paris, where he is Bishop in Charge of the American Churches in Europe.

Creator God, your fingers trace the bold designs of farthest space.
Let sun and moon and stars and light and what lies hidden praise your might.

Sustaining God, your hands uphold earth's mysteries known or yet untold.
Let water's fragile blend with air, enabling life, proclaim your care.

Redeeming God, your arms embrace all those oppressed for creed or race.
Let peace, descending like a dove, make known on earth your healing love.

Indwelling God, your gospel claims one family with a billion names.
Let every life be touched by grace until we praise you face to face.

Dale Wood (1934-2003) was a prominent composer, organist, choral director, and clinician.  He was honored many times by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for his “very important contribution towards the creation and development of contemporary American church music”.  He wrote many collections of organ works, most of which are based on both old and new hymn tunes.  Over eight million copies of his publications have been purchased in over 50 countries.

This Is My Father’s World – Robert Hughes

This is My Father's World was written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858-1901), a minister from New York. When Babcock lived in Lockport, he took frequent walks along the Niagara Escarpment to enjoy the overlook's panoramic vista of upstate New York scenery and Lake Ontario, telling his wife he was "going out to see the Father's world". Shortly after his death in 1901, she published a compilation of Babcock's writings entitled Thoughts for Every-Day Living that contained the poem "My Father's World." The original poem contained sixteen stanzas of four lines each. In 1916, Franklin Sheppard chose only three verses of the sixteen when he set the poem to music to a tune entitled "Terra Beata" (Latin for "Blessed Earth"). Most sources state that Sheppard adapted the music from a traditional English melody that he learned from his mother as a child.

Scripture references in the original poem include Psalm 33:5 "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love." and Psalm 50:12 "For the world is mine, and all that is it."  In ancient times, people believed that as the planets revolved in the universe, they made music or harmony. This is the belief Maltbie Babcock referred to in the line, “and round me rings the music of the spheres.” Though this belief has since been disproven, we know that objects in space do in fact emit sounds. Even more amazing, the ocean is also making noises at its very lowest and darkest depths - sounds which scientists are still unable to identify. The whole universe is singing a song of its creation, revealing something to us about He who created it.  The author shifts his focus in the final stanza from describing the visual and aural beauty of nature to the reality that all is not right with the world. Babcock observes “that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” The closing couplet, posing and answering a question, offers hope: “Why should my heart be sad?... God reigns, let the earth be glad.”

This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas -- His hand the wonders wrought.

Robert J. Hughes (1916-1999) was born in Toronto, Canada. He held degrees in music from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Trinity College of Music (London, England), and a doctorate from Oxford University (England). Hughes served as organist-choirmaster in Toronto and as bandmaster for the Royal Canadian Air Force Band during World War II. He was senior editor at the Lorenz Corporation for many years and composed numerous works for organ and choirs. Hughes also composed music for the 1967 World’s Fair (Expo 67 Montreal).

About the Choral Music:

The Artist – Joseph Martin

Joseph Martin (b. 1959 ), a native of North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Subsequently he earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. Joseph taught for five years in the Piano Pedagogy Department of the University of Texas.. He is a member of the staff of Shawnee Press as Director of Sacred Publications, with responsibilities for overseeing the editorial and creative direction of the company’s sacred publications and also coordinating the recording and production aspects of future sacred publishing efforts. Joseph has performed solo piano recitals and has been the featured artist with symphony orchestras in the United States and Mexico. As winner of the Nina Plant Wideman Competition, he performed with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. His solo recital in Ex-convento del Carmen was broadcast nationally throughout the country. Though he continues to perform in concert, he now devotes his efforts to playing in churches and for conferences of church musicians Recognized throughout the United States for his many choral compositions, over 1200 compositions are currently in print and the list continues to grow.

            Artist, Creator, I give to You my heart.

            Mold me and make me into Your work of art.

            Turn me and shape me into a vessel true.

            Lord, make me holy as I give myself to You.

            Lord, paint Your beauty on the canvas of my soul.

            With hands of love You touch and make me whole.

            Create the Masterpiece that only You can do.

            Lord, make me holy as I give myself to You.

            Artist, have Thine own way,

            Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

About the Hymns:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is a hymn based on Joachim Neander's German chorale Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, published in 1680. John Julian, in his A Dictionary of Hymnology, calls the German original "a magnificent hymn of praise to God, perhaps the finest creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class."  Neander wrote this particular hymn while dying and it says much about his faith. While contemplating the words to go along with the melody, he reflected on Psalm 103 with its claim that everything within us should praise the Father’s holy name.  It was the favorite hymn of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who first heard it in 1800.  In the Neander original, first the singer calls himself (my beloved soul) to praise God, then calls for a larger group to join the praise with musical instruments as well as song.  John Julian‍‍ '​‍s A Dictionary of Hymnology lists more than ten English translations of "Lobe den Herren" printed in various nineteenth century hymnals.

The melody used by Neander, first published in 1665, is probably based on a folk tune. The common name given to this melody is "Lobe den Herren". Several variants were published with various secular texts between 1665 to 1680, when Joachim Neander published his German hymn, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, using its meter. The text paraphrases Psalm 103 and Psalm 150.  

One interesting piece of history is the later use of Neander’s name. He often taught in a valley near the Düssel river, and over 100 years after his death the valley was named after him. It was in that valley that bones were later found, from which we get the name “Neanderthal.”

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895), was born in Dublin, Ireland.  Fanny, as she was known to her family and friends, showed interest in poetry and writing, the earliest of which first appeared in a family weekly magazine. She was greatly influenced by clergymen like the Rev. D. Walter Farquar Hook, who edited and wrote the preface to her first publication, Verses for Holy Season (1846).

John Keble was a proponent of the influential Oxford movement and an author of religious verse. His most important collection, The Christian Year, was one of Fanny’s favorites. After dedicating her first publication to Keble, the young Fanny approached him to write a preface for Hymns for Little Children (1848), which included some of her most famous hymns such as “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “Once in Royal David’s City” and “There is a Green Hill Far Away.”  In Keble’s brief preface, he notes that the proceeds of this publication were dedicated to Lady Harriet Howard’s school for deaf and dumb children, Fanny’s favorite charity. Although the hymns from these publications were intended for children, their simple language and imagery is widely popular among children of all ages.

In 1850, Fanny married William Alexander, rector of Termonamongan, who later became Bishop of Derry, Archbishop of Armagh and primate for all Ireland.  During her lifetime Alexander was known for her devotion to the poor, mentally handicapped, the deaf and the sick.

“All Things Bright and Beautiful” consists of a series of stanzas intended to elaborate on the “Creator of Heaven and Earth” statement in the Apostle’s Creed.  The hymn may have been inspired by a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all."