Music Notes for November 24, 2024

Hymn of the Day: All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name! ELW 634
Text: Edward Perronet, 1726-1792, sts. 1-4; J. Rippon, A Selection of Hymns, 1787, sts. 5-6
Tune: CORONATION Oliver Holden, 1765-1844

The first stanza of this hymn was printed anonymously in the Gospel Magazine (November (1779). Six months later the Gospel Magazine (April 1780) printed it again, this time with seven more stanzas by Edward Perronet and the title "On the Resurrection, the Lord is King." The hymn appeared once more in A Selection of Hymns (London, 1787) by John Rippen (1751-1836), There some stanzas were altered or completely changed. The title was "The spiritual Coronation," with a reference to Song of Solomon 3:11. Seven stanzas follow with titles: Angels, Martyrs, Converted Jews, Believing Gentiles, Sinners of Every Age, Sinners of Every Nation, Ourselves." With only minor modifications Evangelical Lutheran Worship uses as its first four stanzas the first four of Perronet from the Gospel Magazine and as its last two the last two from Rippon ("Sinners of Every Nation" and "Ourselves").

As with "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds" (ELW 620), the name of Jesus is associated with the imagery of the church as the bride of Christ from the Song of Solomon, but here the crowning on the wedding day is emphasized.
Edward Perronet came from a family of Huguenots who had fled from France to Switzerland and then moved to England, where Edward's father was an Anglican priest who sympathized with the Wesleys. In 1746 Edward and his brother became itinerant Methodist preachers. However, against the Wesleys' wishes, as one of these preachers he administered communion. In 1757 he published The Mitre, an intemperate satire on the Church of England, which further angered the Wesleys. He left them in 1771 to become one of the ministers of Selina, the Countess of Huntingdon. His attacks were not welcome there either, and he became a Congregational minister of a church near Canterbury. He wrote three volumes of religious poems.

John Rippon was born in England, joined the Baptist church at the age of sixteen, and the next year began to study for the Baptist ministry at the Baptist Academy in Bristol. In 1772, when he was twenty-two, he became the interim pastor at the Carter Lane Baptist Church in London. A year later he was made permanent and stayed for the next sixty-three years, until he died.

Offertory Anthem: “The Royal Banners Forward Go” Robert Benson (1942)

This anthem gives us a taste of an ancient procession combined with the Vexilla regis proderunt chant melody.

Composer's Note:

Legend holds that on No­vem­ber 19, 568, St. Ra­de­gund pre­sent­ed to the town of Poi­ti­ers a frag­ment be­lieved to be the true Cross. Fortunatus (the author of the hymn) was the one chos­en to re­ceive the rel­ic on its ar­riv­al at Poi­ti­ers. Imagine then, that along its journey, the relic is being carried in a grand procession that passes through cities and villages, and throngs of believers gathered along the roadside to see this mighty symbol of the Passion.

The royal banners forward go,
The cross shines forth in mystic glow;
Where he, by whom our flesh was made,
In that same flesh, our ransom paid.

Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life’s torrent rushing from His side,
To wash us in that precious flood,
Where flowed the water and the blood.

Fulfilled is all that David told
In true prophetic song of old,
That God, the nation's King should be,
And reign in triumph from the tree.

O tree of beauty, tree most fair,
Ordained those holy limbs to bear:
Gone is your shame, each crimsoned bough
Proclaims the King of Glory now.

Blest tree, whose chosen branches bore
The wealth that did the world restore,
The price of humankind to pay,
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.

To you, eternal Three in One,
Our songs shall rise in unison;
Those whom you ransom and restore,
Preserve and govern evermore. Amen.

Opening Voluntary: Chorale Prelude on SONG 13 Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Orlando Gibbons (baptised 25 December 1583 – 1625) was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods. He was a leading composer in the England of his day. He composed SONG 13 in soprano and bass parts and used it as a setting for a text from the Song of Songs. The tune was published in George Withers' Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1623) as hymn number 13 (hence the tune name). As in other hymnals, the melody is presented in a simplified isorhythmic (all equal rhythms) form; the more rhythmically varied original also had more notes and was better suited to solo singing.

There are 99 published chorale preludes by Healey Willan, however most of them are not Lutheran in origin. This is the third of Willan's set of Six Chorale Preludes, composed in 1950, based on the hymn tune of Orlando Gibbons, often known in hymnbooks as SONG 13.

Closing Voluntary: “Our God Reigns” David Blackwell (1961)

Leonard E. Smith, Jr., (1942) a singer, songwriter and music publisher of pop, gospel, folk, and contemporary Christian music, composed this song in 1973 in Riverton, New Jersey. Educated at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he received a BA in philosophy, Smith first taught in public high schools, but his evangelical efforts in the schools created problems, resulting in his dismissal. He then began painting houses to support his family. One night as he was reading Isaiah 52 he was overwhelmed by the conviction that God was in control of his life and of all creation; he wrote this song that night in just five minutes. The song was first sung at New Covenant Community Church, where Smith served as worship leader. Though not published for some time, it became known internationally when evangelist Bob Mumford included it in his crusades. It was first published in a Servant Publications hymnal, Songs of Praise (vol. 2, 1977). In 1978 Smith added four additional verses. This hymn celebrates the rule and reign of God over the affairs of men and nations. He rules, not like an earthly king, but more like a shepherd taking care of His sheep, or like a mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wings. We are and have always been perfectly safe and secure living in Him. WHAT were we thinking? "In Him we live, and move, and have our being" means exactly what it says.

David Blackwell is an award-winning composer and freelance arranger, writer and editor. Undoubtedly one of our finest educational writers, his music is published in the UK and US and performed worldwide.