Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas. Some of this information is original; most of it is copied from other websites such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.
About the Organ Music:
Carlisle - Healey Willan
(c.1960, C. F. Peters Corp)
“All Praise to You, O Lord” was written by Hyde Wyndham Beadon (1812-1891), who was educated at Eton and at St. John's College, Cambridge, B.A., 1835, M.A., 1839. He became, in 1837, Vicar of Haselbury Plucknett, and, in 1838, Vicar of Latton. His hymns were published in The Parish Hymn Book, 1863 and 1875, of which he was co-editor with the Rev. G. Phillimore.
CARLISLE was written by Charles Lockhart (1745-1815). He was first organist of the Lock Hospital, and was for some years associated with Martin Madan in the musical arrangements there. Though blind from infancy, Lockhart had a distinct musical gift, and was especially known for training children’s choirs. His earliest tunes were printed on separate sheets. He published a set of hymn tunes about 1810.
All praise to you, O Lord, who by your mighty pow'r
did manifest your glory forth in Cana's marriage hour.
You speak, and it is done; obedient to your word,
the water redd'ning into wine proclaims the present Lord.
O, may this grace be ours: in you always to live
and drink of those refreshing streams which you alone can give.
So, led from strength to strength, grant us, O Lord, to see
the marriage supper of the Lamb, the great epiphany.
Healey Willan (1880-1968) was an Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but is best known for his religious music. Willan was born in England, and he began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne. He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the Royal College of Organists' Associateship in 1897 and Fellowship in 1899. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910, Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant"). In 1913, Willan emigrated to Canada. In 1921, he become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto), where he remained until his death. St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians. In 1920, the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan Head of its Theory Department. In 1934, he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939. From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur; in 1956, Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers", became the first non-English church musician to be so honoured. People who remember Willan from his time at St Mary Magdalene's like to moderate his somewhat dourly pious public image by quoting him: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption.”
The Marriage in Cana of Galilee - Jaromir Weinberger
(c.1939, H.W.Gray)
Jaromír Weinberger (1896-1967) was a Bohemian born Jewish subject of the Austrian Empire, who became a naturalized American composer. Weinberger was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, into a family of Jewish origin. He heard Czech folksongs from time spent at his grandparents' farm as a youth. He started playing the piano aged 5, and composing and conducting aged 10. He became a student at the Prague Conservatory at age 14. In 1922, Weinberger moved to the United States where he took up a position as an instructor at Cornell University. Between 1922 and 1926 he was professor of composition at the Ithaca Conservatory (now the music school of Ithaca College), New York.
When he returned to Czechoslovakia he was appointed director of the National Theater in Bratislava, and later received appointments in Eger, Hungary, and Prague. In 1926 Weinberger completed Schwanda the Bagpiper (Švanda Dudák), which became highly successful, with thousands of performances in hundreds of theatres including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His operetta Frühlingsstürme was first performed at the Theatre in Admiralspalast in Berlin on January 19, 1933, but the show was closed down by the Nazi government in March. His subsequent European works include the Passacaglia for orchestra and organ, Six Bohemian Dances for violin and piano, the opera The Outcasts of Poker Flat and a grand oratorio Christmas, though none of them matched the success of Schwanda the Bagpiper.
In 1939, after extensive travels to the United States, Bratislava and Vienna, he left Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis and settled in New York state, teaching there and in Ohio. He wrote a number of works on commission from American orchestras. He became an American citizen in 1948. In later life, he developed cancer of the brain. This, together with money worries and the neglect of his music, prompted him to take a lethal sedative overdose in August 1967.
Among his organ compositions is this set of pieces called Bible Poems, about which he wrote: “I composed the following six Preludes, representing my first composition for organ, while in New York in April, 1939. They were inspired by the New Testament and in them I have attempted to give symbolic expression to the Biblical quotations. Contents: 1. Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent; 2. Lord Jesus, walking on the sea; 3. Marriage in Cana of Galilee; 4. Hosanna; 5. The Last Supper; 6. Hear, O Israel.”
About the Choral Music:
My Shepherd Will Supply My Need – Douglas Wagner
(c.1988, The Sacred Music Press)
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.
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.
My shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is his hame;
In pastures fresh he makes me feed beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back when I forsake his ways,
And leads me, for his mercy’s sake, in paths of truth and grace.
When I walk through the shades of death, thy presence is my stay;
One word of thy supporting breath drive all my fears away.
Thy hand in sight of all my foes does still my table spread.
My cup with blessing overflows, thy oil annoints my head.
The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days;
O may thy house be mine abode and all my work be praise.
There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come;
No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.
A Closing Prayer - Don Besig
(c.1978, Harold Flammer, Inc.)
Don Besig was a public school music teacher for over thirty years in western New York. He taught at all levels and since his retirement has continued to serve as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator. Recognizing a need for choral music written especially for student singers and volunteer church choirs, he began composing for his own choral groups in 1960. He is also the recipient of several ASCAP Plus Awards Don is a graduate of Ithaca College and a member of Phi Mu Alpha and ASCAP. He and Nancy Price collaborate to write music and lyrics.
The time has come, O Lord, for us to leave this place.
Guide us and protect us and lead us in thy grace.
Wherever life may take us as we go our separate ways,
Help us share with others the things we've shared today.
About the Hymns:
God Almighty, We Are Waiting
(c.2005, Hope Publishing Co)
“God Almighty, We Are Waiting” looks back to the birth of Christ, looks forward to the coming kingdom, and prays for “in the meantime” living on earth, with each stanza addressing one person of the Trinity.
The hymn’s author, Ann Bell Worley, states: “God Almighty, We Are Waiting” was my first hymn. I remember writing down the first line of “God Almighty,” and keeping a notebook by my bedside that evening, tossing and turning, and writing a line at a time. In the morning, I had a full hymn. My undergraduate degree is in music, and I grew up in a liturgical tradition. Both of those factors highly influenced my experience in, and contributions to the Baptist churches I served. I loved teaching the significance of the Christian year in a denomination that traditionally didn't follow it, because it had tremendous impact on people who were intentionally living their faith and hadn't been exposed to Christian seasons outside of Christmas and Easter.
Growing up at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Dickinson, Texas, the Trinitarian theology of Christianity was a mystery Ann embraced as a child and grew to love as an adult. She was intentional about using inclusive language in her description of God.
One of the most loved Welsh tunes, HYFRYDOL was composed by Rowland Hugh Prichard (1811-1887) in 1830 when he was only nineteen. It was published with about forty of his other tunes in his children's hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion (The Singers' Friend) in 1844. Prichard (sometimes spelled Pritchard) was a textile worker and an amateur musician. He had a good singing voice and was appointed precentor in Graienyn. Many of his tunes were published in Welsh periodicals. In 1880 Prichard became a loom tender's assistant at the Welsh Flannel Manufacturing Company in Holywell.
God Almighty, we are waiting for a savior to appear.
Meet us in our desert journey; give a sign that you are near:
burning bushes, parted waters, food aplenty in the wild.
As we look for signs and wonders, help us see you in a child.
God Incarnate, we are waiting for the feast day of your birth.
Looking back and looking forward to the Christ's return to earth.
Help us to proclaim the gospel, 'til the world is reconciled.
Let us set your holy table for each woman, man, and child.
God, the Spirit, we are waiting for your presence here and now.
Humbled by our sinful weakness, at your mercy we will bow.
Search our hearts and make us ready, speak in language strong and mild,
help each one of us, your people, to receive you like a child.
Christ is Made the Sure Foundation
This hymn was written by John Mason Neale, who was born in London in 1818, studied at Cambridge, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1842. He was offered a parish, but chronic ill health, which was to continue throughout his life, prevented him from taking it. In 1846 he was made warden of Sackville College, a position he held until his death in 1866.. Sackville College was not an educational institution, but an almshouse, a charitable residence for the poor.
In 1854 Neale co-founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, an order of women in the Anglican Church dedicated to nursing the sick. Many Anglicans in his day, however, were very suspicious of anything suggestive of Roman Catholicism. Only nine years earlier, John H. Newman had encouraged Roman practices in the Anglican Church. This encouraged the suspicion that anyone like Neale was an agent of the Vatican, assigned to destroy the Anglican Church by subverting it from within. Once Neale was attacked and mauled at a funeral of one of the Sisters. From time to time unruly crowds threatened to stone him or to burn his house. He received no honor or recognition in England, and his doctorate was bestowed by Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut). However, his basic goodness eventually won the confidence of many who had fiercely opposed him, and the Sisterhood of St. Margaret survived and prospered.
Neale translated the Eastern liturgies into English, and wrote a mystical and devotional commentary on the Psalms. However, he is best known as a hymn writer and translator, having enriched English hymnody with many ancient and mediaeval hymns translated from Latin and Greek and many original hymn texts.
Regarding the importance of translating and preserving the ancient texts, he wrote:
Among the most pressing of the inconveniences consequent on the adoption of the vernacular language in the office-books of the Reformation, must be reckoned the immediate disuse of all the hymns of the Western Church. That treasury, into which the saints of every age and country had poured their contributions, delighting, each in his generation, to express their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, in language which whould be the heritage of their Holy Mother until the end of time--those noble hymns, which had solaced anghorets on their mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against the burden and heat of the day, missionaries in girding themslves for martyrdom--henceforth became as a sealed book and as a dead letter. The prayers and collects, the versicles and responses, of the earlier Church might, without any great loss of beauty, be preserved; but the hymns, whether of the sevenfold daily office, of the weekly commemoration of creation and redemption, of the yearly revolution of the Church's seasons, or of the birthdays to glory of martyrs and confessors--those hymns by which day unto day had uttered speech, and night unto night had taught knowledge--could not, by the hands then employed in ecclesiastical matters….The Church of England had, then, to wait. She had, as it has well been said, to begin over again. There might arise saints within herself, who, one by one, should enrich her with hymns in her own language; there might arise poets, who should be capable of supplying her office-books with versions of the hymns of earlier times. In the meantime the psalms were her own; and grievous as was the loss she had sustained, she might be content to suffice herself with those, and expect in patience the rest.
Text: 7th cent. Latin; trans. by John Mason Neale
Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and cornerstone;
chosen of the Lord and precious,
binding all the church in one;
holy Zion's help forever,
and her confidence alone.
To this temple, where we call thee,
come, O Lord of Hosts, today!
With thy faithful loving-kindness
hear thy people as they pray,
and thy fullest benediction
shed within its walls alway.
Here vouchsafe to all thy servants
what they ask of thee to gain;
what they gain from thee forever
with the blessed to retain,
and hereafter in thy glory
evermore with thee to reign.
Laud and honor to the Father,
laud and honor to the Son,
laud and honor to the Spirit,
ever three and ever one;
one in might and one in glory,
while unending ages run.
The hymn tune WESTMINSTER ABBEY was written by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar. Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke (d. 1672), Master of the Children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey (d. 1674), Cooke's successor. Henry was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673, when he became assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, who held the post of keeper of wind instruments to the King. Purcell is said to have been composing at nine years old, but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670. In 1679, Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil. Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theatre. Purcell is buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music that he had earlier composed for Queen Mary's funeral was performed during his as well. Purcell was universally mourned as 'a very great master of music.' Following his death, the officials at Westminster honoured him by unanimously voting that he be buried with no expense in the north aisle of the Abbey. His epitaph reads: "Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.”
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
