January 22, 2012

Jan 22 2012

Hymn: God Is Here!

The story of this hymn’s advent is as follows: The text was written by Fred Pratt Green in 1979, at the request of the co-director of music at University United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, who wrote: “We are in need of a hymn. It would be sung for the first time at the closing service of an eight-month long festival centering round the themes of Worship, Music and the Arts...” The closing service was to be a “dedication of new reading desks, communion table, and font, and finally, the rededication of the people to the life commanded of us and given through Jesus Christ.” The text was written in 8.7.8.7.D meter so that the tune ABBOT’S LEIGH could be introduced to the congregation.

Hymn: Though I May Speak

This text originally appeared as an anthem written by Hal Hopson as a paraphrase of I Corinthians 13, set to the British folk song O WALY WALY. After being published in 1972, the anthem gained enough popularity to be converted and used as a hymn, particularly for weddings. Hal Hopson was a major contributor to the Presbyterian Psalter, published in 1994.

Hymn: O God, Our Faithful God

This hymn originally in German was written by Johann Heermann and titled “A Daily Prayer.” Paul Westermeyer writes, “Like Psalm 90 it contrasts the ever-flowing fountain of God—without whom nothing is—with the speck of humanity who nonetheless confidently ask God to turn with compassion to us and prosper our handiwork.” Englishwoman Catherine Winkworth, a prolific translator of German hymns, performed the translation. She promoted women’s higher education, and wrote a book, Christian Singers of Germany, which has long been of interest to music scholars. A tablet on the wall of Bristol Cathedral states that she “opened a new source of light, consolation, and strength in many thousand homes.”

Anthem: Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me

The tune for this anthem, ADORO TE DEVOTE, is a beautiful melody that comes from seventeenth-century French songbook. It has changed little over the centuries, and its chant-like quality makes it very singable. The American composer K. Lee Scott set the tune with a text from Thomas Lynch, an English minister who published a nineteenth-century songbook (The Rivulet), which almost caused a split in the Congregational Church. The “Rivulet Controversy,” as it was called, centered on Lynch’s frequent references to nature in his hymn texts, but the controversy was probably exacerbated by his fresh poetic style. “Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me” doesn’t contain examples of his controversial imagery, but does demonstrate Lynch’s creative poetic style. 

January 15, 2012

Jan 15 2012

Hymn: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

The English Baptist minister Robert Robinson wrote this hymn about 1758 and had it published a year later. Methodist hymnologist Carlton Young notes that hymn was originally four stanzas long, but, hymnal editors in the eighteenth century eliminated the final “apocalyptic climax,” a pattern which has been followed to present day. The fourth stanza reads as follows: “O that Day when freed from sinning, I shall see thy lovely Face;/Clothèd then in blood-washed Linnen [sic] How I’ll sing thy sovereign grace;/Come, my Lord, no longer tarry, Take my ransom’d Soul away; Send thine Angels now to carry/Me to realms of endless day.” In the hymn, it is helpful to know that “Ebenezer” means “Stone of Help,” as found in 1 Samuel 7:12, and a “fetter” is a kind of chain or manacle. The tune NETTLETON is an American folk hymn, named after the famous nineteenth-century evangelist, Ahasel Nettleton. Young writes, “The hymn’s strong evangelical themes and its singable and rousing tune have made this one of our most beloved hymns.”

Hymn: Live Into Hope (8:30)

From LindaJo McKim in The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion: The text is by Jane Parker Huber for United Presbyterian Women’s National Meeting and is based on Luke 4:16-20. The team planning worship wanted a hymn that expounded the Luke passage, was written in inclusive language, raised one’s spirits even in difficult situations, and was familiar enough to be sung with enthusiasm when first heard.

Hymn: Let Streams of Living Justice (10:55)

Here is what William Whitla, author of this hymn, says about it: I wrote the hymn in 1989 just after the events in Tiananmen Square, and when the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina were bringing their campaign to the conscience of the world. At the same time, the religious and racial disputes in Ireland, Israel-Palestine, the Congo and other parts of Africa, and in Canada and many other countries over First Nation or Aboriginal rights all seemed impossible to solve. Unfortunately, similar events are still replayed, and only too-similar images in the Near East, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Somalia—not to mention the school shootings at home—recur and are now extended well beyond those earlier sad happenings. So I used some images from those events, especially in verse two [omitted in the insert, printed below], to tell of the bad news before the Good news of verses three and four. Subsequent events only sharpened those images, alas.

To me all of these parts are needed for a full expression of the biblical promises of hope and justice so long awaited, including the too-common images of both the child with the gun and the old ones dreaming for peace.

Stanza 2:

The dreaded disappearance of family and friend;

the torture and the silence—the fear that knows no end;

the mother with her candle, the child who holds a gun,

the old one nursing hatred—all seek release to come.

Each candle burns for freedom; each lights a tyrant’s fall;

each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.

The tune THAXTED comes from English composer Gustav Holst’s orchestral piece, The Planets, where it is the theme for “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.” The melody is in ABA form, with the first two lines and last two lines matching identically.

Hymn: O Christ, the Great Foundation

The original text of this Chinese hymn was written by Timothy T’ingfang Lew in 1933. The English translation by Mildred A. Wiant appeared in the 1977 revised edition of Hymns of Universal Praise, sponsored by the Chinese Christian Literature Council of Hong Kong. The original hymnal, published in 1936, was the result of Lew’s work to prepare a Chinese Union hymnal. The tune AURELIA is one of the most popular Victorian hymn tunes in the repertory. Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the grandson of Charles Wesley, was so confident that the tune would be popular that his wife named it aurelia (“magnificent” or “splendid”) from aurea (“golden”).

10:55 Anthem: Offertory

This piece was originally written by John Ness Beck as a vocal solo, and was later rearranged as a choral work by adding alto, tenor, and bass parts to it. The sopranos carry the melody throughout while the other voices support the melody with their own part. It sets the text of Micah 6:6-8, outlining what the Lord requires of us in both our daily living and devotion.

Response: Song of Hope

The text was written by Alvin L. Schutmaat in 1984 and first published in the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, that year. As the tune name suggests, ARGENTINA is a folk melody of unknown authorship, which Schutmaat harmonized for this text.

January 8, 2012

Jan 8 2012


Hymn: Baptized in Water
Each stanza of this hymn begins with allusions to John 3:5 (Jesus’ baptism) and Ephesians 1:13 (marked with the seal of the Spirit), then unpacks what God does in baptism—cleanses, makes us heir sof salvation, promises, frees, forgives, etc. and leads us to give our thankful praise to God. In The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990), an alteration was made to the third stanza, where “born of one Father” became “born of the Spirit.” Other hymnals have accepted this change since its publication, although the author does not agree with the change: “By removing father, (a) the Trinitarian significance is omitted and (b) ‘Spirit’ is repeated unnecessarily.”

Hymn: We Know that Christ Is Raised
The author writes of this hymn, written in 1967 when he was a tutor at Cheshunt College, Cambridge: “A good deal of work was going on round the corner producing living cells. This hymn attempted to illustrate the Christian doctrine of baptism in relation to those experiments.” The hymn is, as Paul Westermeyer puts it, a statement of the explosive nature of baptism in all contexts. The text was specifically written for the tune ENGELBERG. Westermeyer writes, “The pulse of this one is so strong that the long notes at phrase ends never sit down but are always propelled onward with enough space for breath.” Sing it heartily and with conviction!

Hymn: Shall We Gather at the River
Robert Lowry wrote this hymn during a period of exhaustion, during which his imagination took wing, and he asked why “hymn writers had said so much about the ‘river of death’ and so little about the ‘pure water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.’”

8:30 Offertory: Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters
Paul Westermeyer comments on this hymn: “‘New life’ and ‘Living waters’ imply many facets of baptism. Some of them are made explicit in this hymn by Ruth Duck: God’s washing, cleansing, numbering, blessing, compassing with love and light, anointing, renewing, guiding, freeing from sin, and made one with Christ in his death and new life—so that we are reborn, recreated, and transformed.”

10:55 Anthem: I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry
In 1985, John Ylvisaker was working for the Media Services Center of the American Lutheran Church. While working on a baptism series called “Reflections,” he began to write a song with a “dance-like beat and fast rhythm” before he saw the video to which the music would be set. Once he saw the film, he realized that “the lyrics were on target, but not the music. Thus began the most arduous task any composer can face—changing a completed work into something else. However, the original ‘false labor’ later gave way to the ‘birth’ of ‘Borning Cry’ which is now included in songbooks and hymnals around the world.”

January 1, 2012

Jan 1 2012

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Henry van Dyke wrote this hymn in 1907, and from the outset intended that it be sung to the famous tune from the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Dr. van Dyke wrote of his hymn writing, “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 these are hymns of trust and joy and hope.” Indeed, an appropriate way for us to begin the New Year, singing of trust, and joy, and hope.

Hymn: Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Isaac Watts wrote this hymn as a metrical version of Psalm 90:1-5, and had it published under the title “Man Frail, and God Eternal.” John Julian, a famous musicologist, once wrote that the hymn is “undoubtedly one of [Watts’] finest compositions and his best paraphrase.” Much like our opening hymn, this one serves to remind us of the strength and assurance God has provided to us in the past, and that which God will provide in the future.

Hymn: As With Gladness, Men of Old

This hymn, written by William Chatterton Dix, was penned while the author was sick in bed and was inspired by the Gospel lesson for the day. The tune used was originally penned by the German Conrad Kocher, and was later modified by William Henry Monk, who set the text to his tune, and named it after the author.

Solo: The God of All Eternity

The author of this text, John Bell, is a minister in the Church of Scotland and has been an influential speaker and writer on congregational singing for several decades. He writes of this setting, “New Year’s is a good time to remember that God is the Lord of tomorrow rather than the patron saint of yesterday.”