May 22, 2016

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.  

2016 is our church's Year of Jubilee!  Join us in our 3-week celebration as we burn our mortgage.  Our church is now debt free. 

About the Organ Music:

Psalm XIX – Benedetto Marcello

Born in Venice, Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) was a member of a noble family and his compositions are frequently referred to as Patrizio Veneto. Although he was a music student of Antonio Lotti and Francesco Gasparini, his father wanted Benedetto to devote himself to law. Benedetto managed to combine a life in law and public service with one in music. In 1711, he was appointed a member of the Council of Forty (in Venice's central government), and in 1730, he went to Pola as Provveditore (district governor). Due to his health having been "impaired by the climate” of Istria, Marcello retired after eight years in the capacity of Camerlengo to Brescia, where he died of tuberculosis.  Benedetto Marcello was the brother of Alessandro Marcello, also a notable composer. Benedetto Marcello married his singing student Rosanna Scalfi in a secret ceremony, because as a nobleman, his marriage to a commoner was unlawful.  After Marcello's death the marriage was declared null by the state, and Rosanna was unable to inherit his estate.  She filed suit in 1742 against Benedetto's brother Alessandro Marcello, seeking financial support.  Marcello composed a variety of music including considerable church music, oratorios, hundreds of solo cantatas, duets, sonatas, concertos and sinfonias.

About the Choral Music:

Praise the Lord – Douglas Wagner

Douglas E. Wagner, a native of Chicago, Illinois, is an international recognized composer and arranger. With thirty years as a high school music educator and administrator behind him, Mr. Wagner now devotes all of his time and energy to writing, editing and their allied activities. He is an A.S.C.A.P. award-winning composer, an editor for a major publishing company, and has served several denominations as a church musician.  2,500 titles by Douglas E. Wagner have been published since 1973, included works for choir (sacred and secular), concert band, orchestra, handbell ensemble, organ, piano, instrumental solo, and voice. Fifteen million copies of his music have been sold to date.

            Praise the Lord, bless His name, all who stand in the house of the Lord.

            Praise the Lord.  Bless the Lord.  Sing praise to His name.

Renew Your Church – Lloyd Larsen

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.

“Renew Your Church” is based on the hymn All is Well  from the Sacred Harp collection of 1844 and is a call for revival.

            Renew Your church, our ministries restore: both to serve and adore.

            Make it again as salt throughout the land, and as light from a stand.

            Mid somber shadows of the night, where greed and hatreds spread their blight,

            O send us forth with power endued; help us, Lord, be renewed.

            Teach us Your Word, reveal its truth divine, on our path let it shine;

            Tell of Your works, Your mighty acts of grace, from each page show Your face.

            As You have loved us, send Your Son, and our salvation now is won,

            O let our hearts with love be stirred; help us, Lord, know Your Word.

            Teach us to pray, for You are ever near, Your still small voice, Lord, let us hear.

            Our souls are restless till they rest in You, this the goal we pursue.

            Before Your presence keep us still that we may find Your will.
            We’ll seek Your guidance every day; Lord, teach us how to pray.

            Teach us to love, with strength of heart and mind, each and all, humankind;

            Break down old walls of prejudice and hate, leave us not to our fate.

            As You have loved and given Your life to end hostility and strife,

            O share Your grace from heaven above; teach us, Lord, how to love.

            Amen, amen!

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.”

Forward Through the Ages

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929) was a Harvard-trained Unitarian minister. Known for his interest in hymns and worship, he served congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri and California. The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems (1918) contains 50 of his hymns.  Eminent British hymnologist John Julian noted in 1896: “Amongst Unitarian hymn writers of the last twenty years Mr. Hosmer is the most powerful and original known to us.”  Though he displayed an aptitude for poetry at a young age, most of Hosmer’s hymns were written after he turned 40.  He wrote the hymn in 1908 for the installation of a minister for the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, Calif.  It is typical of the social gospel hymns which were the product of the turn-of-the-20th-century theology that expressed optimism and the evolving perfection of humanity. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) solidified the social gospel in his volume Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907). By the 1930s the social gospel hymn had become the marching song of liberal Protestantism in the United States.

To God Be the Glory

Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915), born in New York and died in Connecticut, wrote over 8,500 gospel hymns. In 1972, Hope Publishing Co. found over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts. Her work defined what it meant to be a successful writer of gospel hymns.  By the age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby was completely blind. She entered the New York School for the Blind at age twelve. She began writing hymns and poetry at age twelve.  Her collaborators in publishing gospel hymns included the most successful and popular composers of her day, including William Bradbury, William Doane, Robert Lowry, Ira Sankey, and William Kirkpatrick. Crosby used numerous pen names in publishing her songs, including: Ella Dale, Mrs. Kate Gringley and Miss Viola V. A.  She married blind musician Alexander Van Alstyne, and the British most often refer to her by her married name rather than Fanny Crosby.  She was a lifelong Methodist and her contributions to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) include: “Blessed Assurance,” “Close to Thee,” “I Am Thine, O Lord,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “To God Be the Glory.”
Frances Jane Crosby’s hymns have historically been among the most popular songs sung by Methodists.  “To God be the glory” was included in William Doane’s Songs of Devotion in 1870.  Ira Sankey probably saw the hymn in Doane’s collection and incorporated it into the first edition of his Sacred Songs and Solos (1875).  Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey helped to establish the hymn’s popularity during their revivals in Great Britain in the late 19th century.  It also appeared in some British hymnals including the Methodist Hymn Book (1933).

However, it was not until the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville that Cliff Barrows introduced this song to congregations in the United States.  Mr. Graham and Mr. Barrows had learned the song during the 1952 revivals they had conducted in Great Britain.  Hymnologist William J. Reynolds, writing in his hymnal companion Hymns of Faith (1964), documented the return of this hymn to the USA: “It is most extraordinary that this long-forgotten American gospel song should have been imported from England and become immensely popular during the last decade.” 

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

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 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.

May 15, 2016

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.  


2016 is our church's Year of Jubilee!  Join us in our 3-week celebration as we burn our mortgage.  Our church is now debt free. 

About the Organ Music:

Komm, o komm du Geist des Lebens - Max Drischner

Heinrich Held (1620-1659) studied law at the Universities of Königsberg, Frankfurt a. Oder, and Leyden. He practiced law in Silesia until his death. One of the best Silesian hymnwriters, he suffered many hardships due to wars. His only extant poetical work is his Deutscher Gedichte Vortrab, Frankfurt a. Oder, 1643. Only one hymn from that volume came into German use. Much more important are his other hymns, which are known to us through Crüger's Praxis, and other hymnbooks of the period.

Komm, o Komm, du Geist des Lebens is a fine hymn of Invocation to the Holy Spirit. In Luppius's Andächtig singender Christen Mund, 1692, it is entitled "Devout Prayer and Hymn to God the Holy Ghost." It is sometimes erroneously ascribed to Joachim Neander.

Come, oh, come, Thou quick'ning Spirit, God from all eternity!
May Thy power never fail us; Dwell within us constantly.
Then shall truth and life and light Banish all the gloom of night.

Grant our hearts in fullest measure Wisdom, counsel, purity,
That they ever may be seeking Only that which pleaseth Thee.
Let Thy knowledge spread and grow, Working error's overthrow.

Show us, Lord, the path of blessing; When we trespass on our way,
Cast, O Lord, our sins behind Thee And be with us day by day.
Should we stray, O Lord, recall; Work repentance when we fall.

With our spirit bear Thou witness That we are the sons of God
Who rely upon Him solely When we pass beneath the rod;
For we know, as children should, That the cross is for our good.

Prompt us, Lord, to come before Him With a childlike heart to pray;
Sigh in us, O Holy Spirit, When we know not what to say.
Then our prayer is not in vain, And our faith new strength shall gain.

If our soul can find no comfort And despondency grows strong
That the heart cries out in anguish:  "O my God, how long, how long?"
Comfort then the aching breast, Grant it courage, patience, rest.

Holy Spirit, strong and mighty, Thou who makest all things new,
Make Thy work within us perfect And the evil foe subdue.
Grant us weapons for the strife And with vict'ry crown our life.

Guard, O God, our faith forever; Let not Satan, death, or shame
Ever part us from our Savior; "Lord our Refuge" is Thy name.
Though our flesh cry ever: Nay! Be Thy Word to us still Yea!

And when life's frail thread is breaking, Then assure us more and more,
As the heirs of life unending, Of the glory there in store,
Glory never yet expressed, Glory of the saints at rest.

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.

Sprit of God, Descend Upon My Heart – Joe Utterback

The words of this sung prayer are among the most passionate in the history of hymnody.  This masterpiece of Christian devotional poetry is the work of George Croly (1780-1860), an Anglican minister born in Dublin, Ireland, but whose ministry took place in London. Having served a small parish in Ireland, he moved to London to pursue a literary career where he wrote in several mediums including poetry, novels, history and biography.  In 1835, Croly accepted the challenge to reopen a church in one of the worst slum areas of London  that had been closed for over a century. He was known among his peers as thoroughly conservative in theology with no tolerance for liberal views. Through personal charisma and dynamic preaching, he attracted large crowds to St. Stephen’s Church.  Croly prepared a new hymnal in 1854 for his congregation and published it as Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship. “Spirit of God, Descend upon my Heart” first appeared in that hymnal under the title “Holiness Desired.” It is the only hymn by Croly to have survived. Croly’s original text follows:

Spirit of God, who dwells within my heart, wean it from sin, through all its pulses move. 
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as you are, and make me love you as I ought to love. 

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, no sudden rending of the veil of clay, 
no angel visitant, no opening skies; but take the dimness of my soul away. 

Did you not bid us love you, God and King,

Love you with all our heart and strength and mind? 
I see the cross there teach my heart to cling. O let me seek you and O let me find! 

Teach me to feel that you are always nigh; teach me the struggles of the soul to bear, 
to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh; teach me the patience of unceasing prayer. 

Teach me to love you as your angels love, one holy passion filling all my frame: 
the fullness of the heaven-descended Dove; my heart an altar, and your love the flame. 

Joe Utterback (b. 1944) has been a compelling artist on the American jazz scene for more than fifty years, which have included European and American tours, as well as long-term gigs in the jazz centers of Kansas City, St. Louis, San Francisco, and currently New York City.  His piano style has been greatly influenced by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, and Art Tatum.  Utterback’s nearly 400 published compositions reflect the energy, color, and moods of his improvisations. His many jazz-influenced works for piano, voice, chamber music, organ, and choir have been performed throughout the United States and in more than fifty foreign countries.

Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heilger Geist - Armin Knab

"Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" ("Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost") is a Lutheran hymn for Pentecost, with words written by Martin Luther based on the Latin "Veni Creator Spiritus". The hymn in seven stanzas was first published in 1524. The melody is derived from the chant of the Latin hymn. 

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, And make our hearts Your place of rest; 
Come with Your grace and heav'nly aid And fill the hearts which You have made.

To You, the Counselor, we cry, To You, the gift of God Most High;
The fount of life, the fire of love, The soul's anointing from above.

In You, with graces sevenfold, We God's almighty hand behold
While You with tongues of fire proclaim To all the world His holy name.

Your light to ev'ry thought impart, And shed Your love in ev'ry heart;
The weakness of our mortal state With deathless might invigorate.

Drive far away our wily foe, And Your abiding peace bestow;
With You as our protecting guide, No evil can with us abide.

Teach us to know the Father, Son, And You, from both, as Three in One
That we Your name may ever bless And in our lives the truth confess.

Praise we the Father and Son, And Holy Spirit, with them One, 
And may the Son on us bestow The gifts that from the Spirit flow.


Armin Knab (1881-1951) studied law at the University of Wurtzberg, while studying piano at the conservatory there.  He practiced law and became a judge while composing music until 1934.  At that time, he resigned his seat on the bench and joined the Berlin Akademie für Kirchen und Schulmusik as a teacher of theory and composition.  He won the Max Reger Prize in 1940.  Knab's most famous works was created for educational purpose and he become famous in the 1920s for his work with the German youth music movement.

About the Choral Music:

Spirit of God, Descend upon my Heart – Joan Pinkston

Joan J. Pinkston studied at Bob Jones University, the Hartt College of Music, and Westminster Choir College.  She is a member of several national and regional music organizations and is a Fellow of Melodious Accord.  Pinkston has published numerous traditionally styled sacred choral pieces. In 2002, Hymns of Grace and Glory was published and features more than seventy of her own hymn tunes. During her 40 years as a professional musician, she has published over 400 pieces of music, given over a hundred workshops on composing and arranging, and performed numerous sacred concerts. Her hymn arrangements for piano and orchestra are featured on the recording Our Great Savior.. A recording of her piano arrangements, Our Song of Praise, was released in 2010. Pinkston has taught music theory, hymn improvisation, orchestration and choral composition at Bob Jones University for more than forty-five years She serves as pianist at Faith Free Presbyterian Church of Greenville, SC.

            Spirit of Got, descend upon my heart;

            Wean it from earth through all its pulses move;

            Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,

            And make me to love Thee as I ought to love.

            Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love;

            One holy passion filling all my frame;

            The baptism of the heav’n descended Dove.

            My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.

            Amen.

Little David, Play on Your Harp – John Leavitt

          God’s Project

“Little David, Play on Your Harp” is a traditional African-American spiritual of unknown authorship.  It is one of many spirituals which minimize issues of sadness and despair in favor of bold assertions of confidence, hope, and joy. 

John Leavitt (b. 1956) is a composer, conductor, teacher, and church musician. He received the Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Leavitt is a lifetime member of the American Choral Directors Association and is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, from which he has received annual recognition for his achievements in composition.  Currently, Dr. Leavitt serves on the faculty of MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, KS as professor of music and director of choirs. In 2010, Dr. Leavitt was the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’s American Masterpieces which partnered with the Kansas Arts Commission and the Kansas Music Educators Association. He was commissioned by them to write a new choral work in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the State of Kansas.

            Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, Hallelujah!

            David was a shepherd boy.  He slew Goliath and shouted for joy!

            David was a mighty king and all the people came to sing.

            Play that harp.  David, play that harp.  Play that harp again;

            Play on your harp, Hallelujah!

About the Hymns:

O Spirit of the Living God

Henry Hallam Tweedy (1868-1953) hailed from the northeast, born in Binghamton, N.Y. He was granted degrees from Phillips Andover Academy, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary and the University of Berlin.  A Congregational pastor, he served churches in New York and Connecticut, and later taught practical theology from 1909-1937 at Yale Divinity School.  He co-authored several books, including Training the Devotional Life (1919) and Religious Training in School and Home (1917). His most important contribution, however, was as editor of the hymnal Christian Worship and Praise (1939).  In addition to editing a hymnal, Tweedy published a practical volume, The Minister and His Hymnal, and won several hymn contests sponsored by the Homiletic Review and the Hymn Society of America.

Tweedy said he composed “O Spirit of the Living God” because “some of the old Pentecostal hymns were to me unsatisfactory, and I was eager to interpret the symbolism of the story in Acts in a way that modern men could understand and sincerely mean.”  The text is an exposition of Acts 2, a passage focused on Pentecost. The hymn was first published in the Methodist Hymnal (1935).

Spirit of the Living God

This is one of the most long-lasting and widely used choruses in Christian worship. Every aspect of the song embodies a simple sincerity.  The melody encompasses only five notes, and three of the four lines repeat the same nine words. Yet for many, the straightforward petitions of this song draw the singer into an attitude of prayer.

During January and February of 1926, the George T. Stephans Evangelistic Party conducted a citywide revival in the tabernacle in Orlando, Fla.  Daniel Iverson, a Presbyterian minister from Lumberton, N.C., spent several days in Orlando visiting with the Stephans team. The day he arrived, he was greatly impressed by a message on the Holy Spirit given by Dr. Barron, a physician from Columbia, S.C.  Later that day Iverson went to the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, sat down at the piano, and wrote this song.  Miss Birdie Loes, the pianist for the Stephans team, wrote it out on manuscript paper.  E. Powell Lee, the team song leader, was immediately impressed and taught it to the people that evening in the tabernacle, and used it throughout the campaign.

While the inspiration for the hymn is not known for certain, it is likely that Iverson knew a hymn by Adelaide Pollard (1862-1934), “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” based on Jeremiah 18:6: “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” (KJV).  The first stanza of Pollard’s hymn uses similar language (“Mold me and make me”). The final stanza also contains a petition to the Spirit (“Fill with thy Spirit”).  Pollard’s hymn was written about 25 years before Iverson’s 1926 composition.

The authorship of “Spirit of the Living God” was lost for a time because the song could so easily be taught without music or even printed words. It first appeared in Revival Songs (1929) in a slightly revised version.  Southern Baptist gospel song composer B.B. McKinney made slight alterations and published it again in his Songs of Victory (1937).   E. Powell Lee, the song leader for the Stephans evangelistic team, brought Iverson’s name to light and his name was restored to the song in later printings of the Baptist Hymnal in the 1960s.

Lord, You Give the Great Commission

Jeffery W. Rowthorn (b. 1934) wrote this text in 1978 while he was Chapel Minister at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. The text was first published in Laudamus (1980), a hymnal supplement edited by Rowthorn and used at the Yale Divinity School.  This powerful text about the various ministries of the Christian church has two striking features: each stanza includes a quotation of Christ's words (usually from Matthew), and a concluding refrain line turns each stanza into a prayer. Christ's words are applied to the tasks of God's people in the world with a fervent prayer that the Spirit will equip the saints to carry out these ministries faithfully.

Rowthorn graduated from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Union Theological Serninary 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.

May 8, 2016

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.  

2016 is our church's Year of Jubilee!  Join us in our 3-week celebration as we burn our mortgage.  Our church is now debt free.  Week One: Time to ReNew

About the Organ Music:

Les Cloches - Nicolas Lebègue

Nicolas Lebègue (c.1631-1702) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born in Laon and settled in Paris in the 1650s, quickly establishing himself as one of the best organists of the country. He lived and worked in Paris until his death, but frequently made trips to other cities to consult on organ building and maintenance matters. The first reference to Lebègue is found in a 1661 document, in which the composer is already described as "the famous Parisian organist".  He made important contributions to the development of the French organ school by devising pieces with independent pedal parts and developing the Tierce en taille genre. His music also includes the earliest published unmeasured preludes, as well as some of the earliest known noëls.  Lebègue started publishing his music in 1676, and was selected to become one of the organistes du Roi ("organist to the King"),

Organ clocks or flute clocks are precision mechanical clocks combined with a small organ. The mechanical clock movement is linked to the musical mechanism and the tunes are generated by a barrel, usually of wood. The result is melodious and tunes were composed especially for organ clocks by such famous composers as Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart.  The organ clocks were built for affluent, culturally sophisticated people, with an appreciation of art and music. They possibly originated in the late seventeenth century, but their heyday was in the “Age of Reason” in the eighteenth century. The finest specimens were built primarily in Berlin around 1770. But many were made in Vienna a decade later, and in England, the Netherlands and France.  The greatest advances in organ clock making were made by the Viennese. They made the clockwork in such a high standard that the motion of the wheels and pinions and the rotation of the fly did not drown the melodious sounds of the organ itself. The tonal quality of the pipes was perfected and remains unsurpassed to this day. Finally they doubled the musical playing time to 5 to 8 minutes, without the necessity of rewinding the clockwork to drive the mechanism.

Many composers of the Baroque and Classical periods in England, France, and Germany wrote music for mechanical clocks, including Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Toccata, from Heures Intimes - Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters (1903-1986) was an important Belgian composer, organist and teacher.  When sixteen years old, he began his studies at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen (since moved to Leuven), which was named after the nineteenth-century organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens.  In 1923 he became an organ teacher at the Institute; simultaneously he acquired the position of chief organist at the St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, which he held for most of the rest of his life;  As an organist and pedagogue, Peeters enjoyed great renown, giving concerts and liturgical masterclasses all over the world. He also made recordings of sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century organ music; some of these have been reissued in recent years on compact disc. Most of his own pieces (he wrote well over 100) were for organ, for choir, or for both. Peeters was created a baron by King Baudouin of Belgium in 1971.

Heures Intimes (Intimate Hours) is a collection of 25 pieces for organ or harmonium.  The harmonium is a type of pump organ that generates sound with air passing through sets of reeds from a bellows that is supplied by pumping a pair of pedals.  More portable than pipe organs, reed organs were widely used in smaller churches and in private homes in the 19th century, but their volume and tonal range are limited, and they generally had one or sometimes two manuals, with pedal-boards being rare. Harmoniums reached the height of their popularity in the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were especially popular in small churches and chapels where a pipe organ would be too large or too expensive. Harmoniums generally weigh less than similar sized pianos and are not as easily damaged in transport, thus they were also popular throughout the colonies of the European powers in this period not only because it was easier to ship the instrument out to where it was needed, but it was also easier to transport overland in areas where good-quality roads and railways may have been non-existent. An added attraction of the harmonium in tropical regions was that the instrument held its tune regardless of heat and humidity, unlike the piano.  At the peak of the instruments' Western popularity around 1900, a wide variety of styles of harmoniums were being produced. These ranged from simple models with plain cases and only four or five stops (if any at all), up to large instruments with ornate cases, up to a dozen stops and other mechanisms such as couplers. Expensive harmoniums were often built to resemble pipe organs, with ranks of fake pipes attached to the top of the instrument.

About the Handbell Music:

Jubilation – Fred Gramann

          Jubilation Ringers

A native of Washington state, Gramann began his early organ studies with Dr. Edward Hansen of Seattle, winning the student organ competition sponsored by the Seattle Chapter of the American Guild of Organists while still in high school. While earning a bachelor's degree in organ performance at Syracuse University, he won first prize in the 1972 Ft. Wayne National Organ Competition and was awarded the Arthur Poister Prize for outstanding organist in the Syracuse University School of Music for four consecutive years. He earned a master's degree in organ performance at the University of Michigan in 1976, and became Director of Music at the American Church in Paris, the oldest non‑governmental American institution abroad.  Mr. Gramann started a handbell program at the American Church in 1981 thanks to a gift of two octaves of handbells. The program has since grown to include three handbell choirs performing on five octaves of Schulmerich handbells, four‑and‑a‑half octaves of Malmark handbells, four octaves of Petit and Fritsen handbells, five octaves of Choirchimes, and a growing set of Whitechapel handbells. Fred has had numerous choral anthems and handbell works published in the US and is Honorary Associate Director of the Raleigh Ringers.

About the Choral Music:

Come Build a Church – Ken Medema

Ken Medema (b. 1943) is a composer-singer-songwriter who has been performing in the United States, Canada, and Europe for more than thirty years. Some of his best known songs began as live improvisations.  Medema was born almost blind; his eyes let him tell light from shadow and see outlines of major objects. He began playing the piano when he was five years old, and three years later began taking lessons in classical music through braille music, playing by ear and improvising in different styles. In 1969, he majored in music therapy at Michigan State University in Lansing, studying both piano and voice. Afterwards he worked as a music therapist in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and later at Essex County Hospital in New Jersey.  In 1973, he began performing and recording his own songs while at Essex County Hospital. "I had a bunch of teenagers who were really hurting," he says, "and I started writing songs about their lives. Then I thought, 'Why don't you start writing songs about your Christian life?' So I started doing that, and people really responded." 

            Come build a church with soul and spirit, come build a church of flesh and bone.

            We need no tower rising skyward; no house of wood, or glass, or stone.

            Come build a church with human frailty.  Come build a church of flesh and blood.

            Jesus shall be its sure foundation; it shall be built by the hand of God.

            Guide our feet in peaceful pathways.  Teach us peace of heart and mind;

            Peace with God and all Cod’s children; till we leave our wars behind.

            Surely joy will come and find us like a breeze that cools the night;

            Like the rain upon the desert; like a candle’s gentle light.

About the Hymns:

For the Beauty of the Earth

Folliott Piermont (1835-1917) was born in Bath, England and was a lay member of the Anglican Church. Following his graduation from Queen's College, Cambridge, he taught the classics for a time at Somerset College, later becoming a freelance writer. During his 82 years of life, Pierpoint published seven volumes of poems and hymn texts, many of them showing his love for nature. He is most remembered for this beautiful hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth.

Piermont was about 29 years old when he wrote the text for this joyful hymn.  It was a lovely day in late spring.  While enjoying the surrounding area of his native city of Bath, in England, he was inspired by the beautiful countryside with its winding cool and peaceful river, Avon, in the distance. The tuneful songbirds, the wind whispering over a vibrantly colored hillside, all seemed to be praising the Creator with their unrestrained gladness and peace.  Overwhelmed with emotion, he expressed his feelings of gratitude in the penning of this sacred song.  The text was inspired by Hebrews 13:15:  "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."  It first appeared in 1864 in a book of Eucharistic hymns and poems entitled Lyra Eucharistica, Hymns and Verses on The Holy Communion, Ancient and Modern, with other Poems with the title "The Sacrifice of 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, Lousia 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, Lousia 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.

This is a Day of New Beginnings

Brian Arthur Wren (b. 1936) is Emeritus Professor of Worship, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is a writer, preacher, worship and workshop leader, and internationally published hymn-poet, with entries in most recent denominational hymnals in North America, Britain and Australia. Some of his hymn-poems have been translated into Finnish, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and Korean. Brian holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Oxford University. He is a Minister of the United Reformed Church (UK). Wren provides an account of the composition of this text in notes provided in one of the collection of his texts, Faith Looking Forward (1983). The hymn was “written for a New Year’s Day service [1978] at Holy Family Church, 

Blackbird Leys, Oxford. In itself, the new year is an arbitrary convention, its newness a mere mark on the calendar. The recurrent awakening of life in nature is not a strong enough foundation for hope of real change. Yet by faith in the really new events of the Christian story, a day, or a month, or an hour can become charged with promise, and be a springboard to a changed life.”

As one of the leading hymnwriters of our time, Dr. Wren has contributed more hymns to the UM Hymnal (1989) than any other hymnwriter currently living. This text is supported by a melody composed by Dr. Young (b. 1926), one of the leading tune writers of this day.