March 31, 2013: Easter Sunday

Mar 31 2013 Easter Sunday

Hymn: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

The text for this hymn comes from an anonymous Latin manuscript written in the fourteenth century. It was translated into German, then later to English in 1708. The hymn, paired with the EASTER HYMN tune that we’ll sing today, was published in Lyra Davidica, an early songbook. The tune has been called “extraordinary for its time, anticipating the more exuberant tunes of the Evangelical revival later in the [eighteenth] century.”

Response: Christ is Risen!  Shout Hosanna!

Brian Wren wrote the text to this Easter piece in September 1984.  Wren was inspired by the Easter text “Christ is Risen, Raise Your Voices.” Paul Westermeyer writes that the hymn is “a celebration of life, with numerous zesty images that drive to the song of Hosanna in the face of the ‘grim, demonic chorus.’” The tune HYMN TO JOY is taken from a tune in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, “Choral.”  Edward Hodges adopted it for use as a hymn.

Hymn: Christ Is Alive!

Brian Wren wrote this hymn in April 1968 for Easter not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He “tried to express an Easter hope out of that terrible event,” rather than Easter as “long ago, far away, and high above.” The hymn has been revised several times as Wren has sought to keep the original theme of the text while seeking better language. The fourth stanza, revised in 1995 and therefore not included in The Presbyterian Hymnal, reads, “Women and men, in age and youth, / can feel the Spirit, hear the call, / and find the way, the life, the truth, / revealed in Jesus, freed for all.”

Anthem: Earth, Earth, Awake: Your Praises Sing

This Easter anthem is replete with images of earth and God’s creation, calling them to respond to Christ’s resurrection. The first and third lines of the first verse implore creation to sing praise and pay homage, while the second and fourth lines speak to the power of the resurrection. The second verse encompasses the world’s song in response to Easter, making known Christ’s “promise of joy for all who weep.” Keeping in line with the theme of nature and creation, Christ is shown as the light that “pales the dawn” and life that “bursts like flame from death’s cold tomb.” The fourth verse serves as a doxology to the victorious, loving Trinity.

Anthem: Rise, O Church, like Christ Arisen

Susan Palo Cherwien was commissioned in 1997 to write a hymn on the occasion of a church’s fiftieth anniversary. She was influenced by a lecture during which the speaker said, “God invited us here [to the Eucharistic meal]; who are we, not to become merciful?” Paul Westermeyer writes: “The result was this sending hymn about the church rising to take up its role in the world in this (and every) generation, remembering the future God gives us to receive.”

March 24, 2013: Palm/Passion Sunday

Mar 24 2013 Palm Sunday

Hymn: All Glory, Laud, and Honor

The original text of this hymn comes from a long poem by Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans (760-821). He became Charlemagne’s leading theologian, all the while honing his gift of poetry. The hymn references four different Biblical texts: Psalm 24:7-10, Psalm 118:25-26, Matthew 21:1-17, and Luke 19:37-38.

Hymn: Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!

Edward Hayes Plumptre wrote this hymn for the Peterborough Choral Festival of 1865. The full text contained ten stanzas that were condensed and edited over the years. Written as a processional hymn, we should keep that in mind as we close worship and go out into the world with this hymn: “Then on, ye pure in heart! Rejoice, give thanks, and sing!”

Hymn: Hosanna, Loud Hosanna

From The Psalter Hymnal Handbook: “Like ‘All Glory, Laud, and Honor,’ this text is based on Christ’s triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. However, ‘Hosanna, Loud Hosanna’ focuses more on the children’s role in that event. The text was written by Jeannette Threlfall in an ‘idle moment’ (as she says she wrote all of her hymns, all others of which have been forgotten). Undoubtedly, Threlfall had Mark 11 in mind when she wrote this text, but she also alludes to Jesus’ welcoming of the children in Mark 10:13-16. Stanzas 1 and 2 tell how the children shared in the songs during Christ’s procession into Jerusalem. Stanza 3 is our cue to participate in praising our Redeemer.”

Anthem: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Gilbert Martin arranged Isaac Watts’ famous hymn as a present to the graduating class of 1968 at Westminster Choir College. Based on the tune by Lowell Mason, the anthem effectively conveys the shifts in mood of Watts’ hymn through dynamic and key changes. “When I Survey” was titled “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ. Galatians 6:14.” The scripture referenced reads, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” As is Watts’ trademark, the hymn is full of scripture references, including Philippians 3:7, and Galatians 2:20.

Anthem: My Song Is Love Unknown

George Herbert has a connection to this anthem; a poem he wrote called “Love Unknown” seems to have influenced Samuel Crossman’s own writing. For example, in Herbert’s poem, Jesus speaks in stanzas; after each stanza comes the refrain “Was ever grief like mine?” Whether or not Herbert’s writing inspired Crossman, the text is a fitting conclusion to Lent as we move toward Holy Week and the Passion. Gracia Grindal writes that a “befuddled balladeer” tells a story with this “contradiction and paradox: ‘Love to the loveless shown / that they might lovely be.’ …Few hymns tell the story so well and so powerfully. And few tell us so much about ourselves.”

March 10, 2013: The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Mar 10 2013 

Hymn: When Morning Gilds the Skies

First published in 1828 in a German Catholic songbook, this hymn was titled “A Christian Greeting.” Edward Caswall, who organized it into six four-line stanzas with a double refrain, translated it to English in 1854. He later added eight more stanzas for an 1858 publication. Robert Bridges said this hymn “is of great merit, and I have tried to give a better version of it than the current one [Caswall’s], keeping the original meter, and preserving the old translation, since it is by them that the hymn is known.” The tune LAUDES DOMINI was written by Joseph Barnby for Caswall’s translation.

Hymn: My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less
When speaking of his hymn, author Edward Mote said, "one day it came into my mind as I went to labor to write a hymn on the 'Gracious Experience of a Christian.'" The firstfruits of his labor were four stanzas and the refrain of this hymn. After leaving a meeting, he visited a sick parishioner, where they sang the original four stanzas. He then returned home and penned the final two. The hymn was published in 1836 under the title "The Immutable Basis of a Sinner's Hope," and originally began, "Nor earth nor hell my soul can move." The tune SOLID ROCK was penned by William Bradbury, who also wrote "Jesus Loves Me."

Hymn: Take My Life

We take our information on the origin of this “consecration hymn” from the author’s manuscripts. She wrote: “I went for a little visit of five days. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long-prayed-for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, ‘Lord, give me all in this house!’ And [God] just did. The last night of my visit… I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another till they finished with ‘Ever, only, all for Thee.’”

Anthem: When Jesus Wept

LindaJo McKim writes, “Both the text and the music of this canon were composed by William Billings and appeared in the New England Psalm Singer (1770), a collection of one hundred twenty vocal compositions. This completely American collection was the first of its type and also the first music book to contain tunes by a single American composer.” The “fuguing tune” that Billings wrote became one of the most popular musical forms of the era, and remained in vogue some seventy-five years until more instrumental music began to inundate the musical culture.

March 3, 2013: The Third Sunday in Lent

Mar 3 2013

Hymn: The Church’s One Foundation

The text of this hymn was penned in response to the Colenso affair (1866), in which a South African bishop made critical statements about the Bible and questioned aspects of the Christian faith. Samuel John Stone responded by writing this hymn; the third stanza is a direct reference to this affair.

Hymn: Lord, We Have Come at Your Own Invitation

From LindaJo McKim: “This text was written by Fred Pratt Green at the request of Martin Ellis in 1977. Ellis wanted a hymn to be sung at the Taunton School Confirmation Service. The original form of the hymn was two stanzas of eight lines and set to Samuel Wesley’s tune EPIPHANY. A four-stanza version was prepared for Partners in Praise. The present version of the text has dropped the last four lines of the poem:

So, in the world, where each duty assigned us

Gives us the chance to create or destroy,

Help us to make those decisions that bind us

Lord, to yourself, in obedience and joy.”

Hymn: Go With Us, Lord

Mary Jackson Cathey wrote this text in 1986 for the children’s choir of National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., where she was director of children’s ministry. Cathey is a graduate of Winthrop and served churches and schools in South Carolina for a time. The tune TALLIS’ CANON was written by English composer Thomas Tallis to be used as one of nine tunes and several anthems in a Psalter, published in 1561.