In the late 1960s young adults involved in the Jesus Movement began simple writing songs of worship to God in a folk style where the guitar rather than piano or organ was the lead instrument. These songs were adopted by Christians who worshipped in charismatic churches and by the mid-seventies they were regularly being incorporated into church services.
These contemporary worship songs were published by record labels, such as Maranatha! Music, which was based in California, and by the 1980s the most popular ones were being included in standard denominational hymnals. At first the mainstream denominations tended to use them only during services aimed at young people as many of the older generation complained they were simplistic and repetitive. However by the 1990s many of these churches were incorporating them in all their services with instead of the traditional organ or piano accompaniment, mixed instrumental bands that utilized the musical talents of members of their congregations.
a modern worship team By David Ball
Worship choruses such as "Shine, Jesus, Shine" by Graham Kendrick, "Shout To The Lord" by Darlene Zschech or "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman have become as well known to the modern Christian as traditional hymns such as "Amazing Grace" were to the mainstream Christian over the previous two hundred years.
Charles survived a fire when he was a few months old that destroyed the Epworth vicarage. A maid courageously carried him out of the burning building in her arms.
Charles was strictly homeschooled by his parents along with his siblings. Later, he attended Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.
Charles graduated with a master's degree in classical languages and literature.
Portrait by John Russell
CAREER RECORD
Charles followed his father and brother John into Anglican orders in 1735.
In October 1735, Charles and his brother John sailed for Savannah in Georgia Colony in British America at the request of its governor, James Oglethorpe.
Charles was asked to be chaplain to the garrison and colony at nearby Fort Frederica, St. Simon's Island, arriving there on March 9, 1736. Matters did not turn out well, and he was largely rejected by the settlers.
From 1740 Charles was a regular and itinerant preacher with his brother John. One of his sermons, “Awake Thou That Sleepest,” first preached before the University of Oxford in 1742, became the most frequently published Methodist tract of the Wesleys' lifetime.
After marrying in 1749, Charles made his home in Bristol and supervised the Methodist society, which met at the New Room there.
Wesley moved to London in 1771 and shared the preaching at City Road Chapel.
Charles Wesley preaching, by William Gush
HYMNS
Charles Wesley wrote over 6000 hymns, more than any other male. (Fanny Crosby wrote 8000). He had the ability of expressing faith in simple ways. His motivation in writing his hymns was to teach the illiterate good doctrine. His brother, John, said that Charles' hymnal was the best theological book in existence. It is said Methodism was born in song and Charles was the chief songwriter.
In 1738 Charles Wesley converted from High Church to Evangelical three days before his brother, John, had the same experience. "And Can It Be" was written in 1738 to celebrate Wesley's conversion. The lines "My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee" are based on the story of the liberation of Saint Peter in the New Testament.
A year later Wesley wrote the hymn "O for A Thousand Tongues," to celebrate the first anniversary of his conversion. It was inspired by a Moravian friend Peter Bohler, who had remarked to him, "If I had a thousand tongues I would praise Christ with them all."
In 1760 Charles Wesley wrote the lyrics to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." He borrowed the 45-year-old tune of "Thus When Mars from Wars Returning," from the English composer John Blow's opera, Venus and Adonis.
The tune we use today was composed by Felix Mendelssohn. Its from the second chorus "Gott ist Licht" ("God is Light"), of the cantata Festgesang ("Festival Song") composed to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of movable type printing, In 1855 Dr. William Cummings, who was an enthusiast of the German composer, put Wesley's words and Mendelssohn's music together.
Worship of the Shepherds by Bronzino
During the awakening, Charles Wesley's most popular hymn was "Jesus Lover of my Soul", which was inspired by Wesley seeing through an open window a small bird pursued by a large hawk. Through the window fluttered the frightened sparrow into Wesley's arms.
He amassed some £175,000 from his writings.
BELIEFS
At Oxford, Charles formed a prayer group among his fellow students in 1727. They focused on studying the Bible and living a holy life. Other students mocked them, saying they were the "Holy Club" and "the Methodists".
Charles converted to evangelical Christianity on May 21, 1738 through a sister of a contact of his in America, Mrs Turner. As she spoke to him about Christ, he picked up his Bible and opened to “He hath put a new song, in my mouth, even praise unto our God.” Psalm 40 v 3.
His journal entry for May 21 reads:
"I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ...I saw that by faith I stood, by the continual support of faith...I went to bed still sensible of my own weakness...yet confident of Christ's protection."
Early portrait of Wesley
PERSONAL LIFE
In 1749 Charles married Sarah "Sally" Gwyne, the much younger daughter of a Welsh magistrate who had been converted to Methodism by Howell Harris.
The wedding took place at the small parish church at Llanlleonfel near Garth, which is 6 miles (10 km) west of Builth Wells. The marriage was conducted by John Wesley.
In September 1749 the Wesleys moved into 4 Charles Street in Bristol which remained their main residence until 1771.
Sarah led the singing in Charles' congregation and often accompanied him on his evangelistic journeys.
Despite being on the road a lot Wesley had a way of meeting his wife across the miles. The idea was that they should agree to pray exactly at the same time each day at a certain time on certain other days. Though separated they should at these times meet as if it were God’s mercy seat.
"Sally" Wesley
Only three of the couple's children survived infancy including two sons, Charles and Samuel. Samuel became a Catholic in 1784 and was a celebrated organist and writer of church music. His Uncle John commented: "You can be saved in any church and you can be damned in any church. What matters is how is your heart with Christ."
Due to his sensitive, artistic nature, Wesley frequently became depressed.
DEATH
On his deathbed he sent for the church's rector, John Harley, and told him "Sir, whatever the world may say of me, I have lived, and I die, a member of the Church of England. I pray you to bury me in your churchyard."
Charles Wesley died on March 29, 1788 aged 80 in London. He uttered his last words, "I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness—satisfied, satisfied!" before dying.
He was buried, as requested, in the Marylebone Parish church graveyard.
Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England on July 17, 1674, the eldest of nine children.
He was brought up in a home of committed Christians; his father, also Isaac Watts, was a respected nonconformist who had twice been imprisoned for his religious beliefs. His mother was of Huguenot origin.
Watts had a classical education at King Edward VI School, Southampton, learning Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Watts displayed a propensity for poetry from an early age. Once doing familyprayers the boy laughed out loud. When his parents questioned him about it, he said he had just seen a mouse run up the bell rope hanging by the fireplace, and he had made up a rhyme on the spot.
A little mouse for want of stairs Ran up a rope to say its prayers.
Issac received corporal punishment from his father for this, to which he responded:
O father, father, pity take And I will no more verses make
Watts could not attend Cambridge or Oxford University because of his nonconformist beliefs (these universities were restricted to Anglicans in his day). Instead, he attended the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690.
After completing his education Watts was appointed pastor of a large independent chapel, Mark Lane Congregational Chapel, in London. He helped train preachers and took work as a private tutor.
HYMN WRITING
Isaac Watts is often called the father of English hymnody.
Issac Watts
In 1692 the 18-year-old Isaac Watts complained to his father that the hymns sung at church were tuneless. His father suggested he provide something better. The result was "Behold the Glories of the Lamb," which is considered the birth of the English hymn.
When not pastoring his congregation at Mark Lane, Watts wrote poetry based on scripture. In 1707 he published Hymns and Spiritual Songs, the first real hymnbook in the English language. Before this book, only Psalms or adaptations of existing poems were sung in churches but Watts saw no reason why Christians shouldn't sing God's praises in the form of good poetry specifically written for that purpose.
"Joy to the World" was written by Isaac Watts in 1719. The scripture-based words are from Psalm 98, in particular verse 4: "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music." It was not written as a Christmas song—the original theme was the second coming of Jesus our Lord and King.
Watts is also the founder of children's hymnody. His Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children, first published in 1715, is a collection of didactic, moralistic poetry and is considered to be the first hymnbook for children.
Divine Songs for Children included Watts' well-known poem "Against Idleness and Mischief". This was parodied by Lewis Carroll in "How Doth the Little Crocodile", included in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland novel.
Many church leaders were opposed to his efforts and some called his hymns "Watt's Whims." The common people, however, delighted in them.
Watts was the first to write hymn words based on personal feelings and testimony. When he used the word "I" in the opening line of his most famous hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," he was actually revolutionizing the way people express their faith in music.
Watts is credited with some 750 hymns, as well as many books. His joyful hymns expressed wonder, praise and adoration covering the whole range of Christian experience. They prepared the way for the great revival under the Wesleys and Whitfield.
BELIEFS
Watts had a rich Christian background, and most of his hymns are paraphrases of the Bible.
He held religious opinions that were more nondenominational or ecumenical than was common for a nonconformist Congregationalist. Watts had a greater interest in promoting education and scholarship than preaching for any particular sect.
Watts spoke candidly about the irreligon of his time, regretting "the decay of vital religion in the hearts and minds of men."
PERSONAL LIFE
Only 5 feet tall, Watts had a large head - made larger by a huge wig - and small piercing eyes. But he was known for his generosity, humanity and godliness.
Like all young men Watts pined for feminine company, but the ladies tended to judge him on his looks rather than his character. On one occasion, Watts plucked up the courage to propose to a beloved. In refusing his matrimonial proposal she responded, "I like the jewel but not the setting."
Books were Watt's chosen companions in his many times of illness, and he maintained an extensive correspondence.
Watts lived for a time with the nonconformist Hartopp family at Fleetwood House on Church Street in Stoke Newington. Through them, he became acquainted with their immediate neighbors the merchant and banker Sir Thomas Abney and his wife Lady Mary. During one bout with ill health when he was 38, Watts was invited to spend a week on the estate of Sir Thomas Abney, who had become a friend and admirer. As his health did not improve, Abney invited him to stay longer. Watts so endeared himself to the family that he remained as a guest at their home for the remaining 36 years of his life.
Statue of Isaac Watts, Abney Park Cemetery By Stephencdickson
HEALTH, LATER YEARS AND DEATH
During the last three decades of Watts' life, he was more or less an invalid. But living in the comfortable, happy surroundings of the Abney household, he continued to use his brilliant mind to write hymns and books.
His literary work was prodigious in spite of weakness and much illness. Watts even wrote a textbook on logic which was particularly popular; its full title was, Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences. The work was first published in 1724, and it was printed in twenty editions.
Watts died on November 25, 1748 aged 74; he was buried in Bunhill Fields.
The Church of England, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada celebrate Issac Watts' feast day on November 25 each year.
Hanging in Westminster Abbey is a tablet picturing Watts writing at a table while angels whisper songs in his ear.
Disaster hit the church at St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, Austria when the church organ broke down just before the Christmas of 1818. The priest, 26-year-old Father Josef Mohr, realized it couldn't be repaired in time to provide music on Christmas Eve. He recounted his troubles to his friend, a headmaster and amateur composer named Franz Gruber, while giving him as a present a poem he had written two years earlier. Gruber was so taken by the rhythm of the poem that he came up with an instrumental accompaniment,
On Christmas Eve 1818 there was music after all at St. Nicholas. Mohr played his guitar while the pair sung the song. It was the first public performance of "Stille Nacht" or "Silent Night".
Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. Photograph by Gakuro
When the organ builder, Carl Mauracher, finally did show up to repair the St. Nicholas organ, he was given a copy of the "Silent Night" composition and brought it home. From there, traveling folk singers got a hold of the tune and began incorporating the carol into their repertoire. The first edition was published by Friese (de) in 1833 in a collection of Four Genuine Tyrolean Songs.
"Silent Night" didn’t find universal fame until the 1850s when it became a favorite of the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
As the song gained popularity throughout Europe, Franz Gruber composed several different orchestral arrangements. He donated all profits from the carol to local charities for children and the elderly, and eventually died penniless in 1863.
Autograph (c. 1860) of the carol by Franz Gruber
An Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church, New York City, wrote and published in 1859 the English translation that is most frequently sung today, translated from three of Mohr's original six verses.
Bing Crosby’s version is the third best-selling single of all time.
On Spotify there are over 26,000 different versions of "Silent Night," meaning you could listen to a different rendition of the carol every night for 72 years.
A version titled "A Very Silent Night" was released as a Christmas single by the New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in 2007. It was recorded at frequencies too high for humans to hear, but the song is audible to most dogs. It proved very popular in New Zealand, where it topped the singles chart, raising about $20,000 for the SPCA.
Music licensing company PPL announced in December 2010 that this carol tops the list of Britain's "most recorded Christmas song of all time." Said Mike Dalby, Lead Reporting Analyst at PPL: "Silent Night is a beautiful carol which encapsulates the feeling of Christmas entirely. Everyone from punk band The Dickies right through to Sinead O'Connor has recorded it, which exemplifies just how much it resonates with all different types of artists."
Source Much of this material was originally written for Songfacts
The best-known and probably the most often used book among the scriptures is the Book of Psalms. They are a collection of poetic hymns and prayers dating from various periods in the history of Israel. The collection was assembled so that it could be conveniently used at worship services.
Scroll of the Psalms. By Pete unseth - Wikipedia
The Psalms were written not merely as poems, but as songs for singing. More than a third of the psalms are addressed to the Director of Music.
The word 'psalm' literally means 'twang' or 'pluck', referring to the stringed instruments that were used to accompany the singing of psalms.
David Playing the Harp by Jan de Bray, 1670.
The book of Psalms contains 150 of the poetic hymns and songs and prayers. It is the longest book in the Bible.
King David is traditionally reckoned on having written 73 of the 150 Psalms in the Bible. These songs and prayers stand out as great poetry. They spotlight the heights and depths of human experience. "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He lays me down in pastures green" he wrote in the famous Psalm 23.
An 1880 Baxter process illustration of Psalm 23, from the Religious Tract Society's magazine The Sunday at Home
The biblical poetry of Psalms uses parallelism as its primary poetic device. Parallelism is a kind of rhyme, in which an idea is developed by the use of repetition, synonyms, or opposites Synonymous parallelism involves two lines expressing essentially the same idea. An example of synonymous parallelism:
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
(Psalm 27:1)
The Psalms contain several prophecies that were later fulfilled in Jesus' lifetime. One example is Psalm 22 16-18 in which David gave an amazingly accurate description of the suffering the Messiah would endure hundreds of years later on the cross:
"Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men have encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones: people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
When David wrote in verse 16 "they have pierced my hands and feet" he was prophesying the crucifixion centuries before the Romans introduced it. Two verses later he prophesies: "They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing" predicting the custom of Roman soldiers, referred to in the Gospel passage, of dividing up the clothing of executed criminals among themselves.
When Augustine of Hippo lay dying, he had the penitential psalms copied onto parchment and attached to the wall of his bedroom so he can read them during his last hours.
In 1640 Pilgrim settlers in Massachusetts published the first book in America, the Bay Psalm Book, which were metrical translations of psalms into English. Thirty learned and devout ministers translated them from the original Hebrew.
Title page of the Bay Psalm Book.
Matthew Maury (January 14, 1806 – February 1, 1873) used Psalm 8 as a guide when he discovered ocean currents in the 19th century At one time, when Maury was in bed recovering from a badly broken leg, he asked one of his daughters to fetch his Bible and read to him. She chose Psalm 8, the eighth verse of which speaks of "whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea," he repeated "the paths of the sea, the paths of the sea, if God says the paths of the sea, they are there, and if I ever get out of this bed I will find them."
As soon as he was strong enough, Maury began his deep sea soundings and he found that two ridges extended from the New York coast to England. In 1847 he published the Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage and drastically reduced the length of ocean voyages.
Charles Lindbergh's gravestone epitaph quotes Psalms 139:9, It reads: “Charles A. Lindbergh Born: Michigan, 1902. Died: Maui, 1974. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.”
An Oratorio is a sacred story or drama scored for orchestra and solo voices.
The history of the oratorio began in the mid-16th century, when the Italian priest St Philip Neri (July 21, 1515 – May 25, 1595) organised a congregation consisting of secular priests and lay brothers, who took no vows but lived communally. He introduced devotional services in his Oratory (or prayer hall) at Rome and it is from this that the term comes. The services included acting, sermons, prayers, hymn singing, and devotional music and were intended for the reform of the youth of the city.
Philip Romolo Neri
The earliest surviving oratorio is Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo (The Representation of Soul and Body) by Emilio del Cavaliere. Produced in Rome in 1600, it featured dramatic action, including ballet.
The definitive form of oratorio emerged in the mid 17th century as two types developed:
Oratorio volgare (in Italian), an example being Marco Marazzoli's S Tomaso
Oratorio latino (in Latin) – which was first developed at the Oratorio del Santissimo Crocifisso, related to the church of San Marcello al Corso in Rome. The most significant composer was Giacomo Carissimi, whose Latin oratorios were as significant as the operatic works of Monteverdi.
German oratorio began with Heinrich Schutz, who combined German with Italian elements in his Easter Oratorio, published in 1623, and Christmas Oratorio (1664).
The emotional expression and vigorous choruses of Schutz's oratorios anticipated Johann Sebastian Bach's larger-scale Passion oratorios-- Passion According to St. John (1724) and Passion According to St. Matthew (1729).
The Georgian era saw George Frideric Handel define the English oratorio. He is credited with writing the first English language oratorio, Esther, which began in 1718 as a masque, or chamber drama, before being heavily revised into a full oratorio in 1732.
Handel is most famous today for his Messiah (1741), but his other oratorios were based on themes from Greek and Roman mythology as well as Biblical topics.
Messiah staged at the English National Opera, 2009
With the death of Bach and Handel in the 1750s, the oratorio ceased to be a vital, creative tradition. A notable exception, Franz Joseph Haydn's The Creation was completed in 1798.
Not until Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah (1846) did another oratorio of long-lasting endurance appear.
In Britain, John Stainer's The Crucifixion (1887) became the stereotypical work of massed amateur choral societies.
Edward Elgar tried to revive the oratorio in the first years of the next century and his Dream of Gerontius (1900) made a significant contribution to the form in the next 60 years. Elgar wrote two other oratorios: The Apostles and The Kingdom.
Oratorio returned haltingly to public attention with works such as Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927) William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast at Leeds (1931) and, Arthur Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher in Basel (1938).
Popular musicians began to compose works in the form later in the century, most notably Paul McCartney with his Liverpool Oratorio (1991).
John Mason Neale was born on January 24, 1818 to the Revd Cornelius Neale and Susanna Neale. He was named after the 17th century Puritan cleric and hymn writer John Mason, of whom his mother was a descendant.
He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where despite being said to be the best classical scholar in his year his lack of ability in mathematics prevented him taking an honours degree.
Neale was ordained in 1841 and was a leading light of the Oxford Movement, which sought to bring Catholic practices into Anglicanism, Neale was so displeased his congregations that, on various occasions, they accused him of being a Vatican 'secret agent', physically attacked him at a nun's funeral, stoned him, and threatened to burn him out of house and home.
John Mason Neale
Neale is best known as a hymn writer and, especially, translator, having enriched English hymnody with many ancient and medieval hymns translated from Latin and Greek.The English Hymnal (1906) contains 63 of his translated hymns and six original hymns by Neale. His translations include: "All Glory, Laud and Honour," "A Great and Mighty Wonder" and "O come, O come, Emmanuel."
John Mason Neale was a prolific reader and one day he came across a long narrative German poem about Wenceslas, the Duke of Bohemia, who in 935 gained control of Bohemia and was renowned for his piety. A section in which the king walked out into the snow to rescue a poor swineherd particularly struck him. Neale adapted the poem into English and borrowed the tune to go with it from "Tempus Adest Floridum" ("Spring has unwrapped her flowers"), a 13th century spring carol. "Good King Wenceslas" was included in a 1853 publication Carols for Christmas-tide, by Neale and the Rev. Thomas Helmore (vice-Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea).
The story inspired much more than a carol. Neale was so touched by the quality of mercy in the tale of Wenceslas he read that he founded the Society of St Margaret, which still offers care to the poor in their homes.
After several setbacks George Handel the Anglo-German composer was at his lowest ebb. He set to work to compose an oratorio with words taken from the Book of Isaiah and The Gospels in which he intended to depict Christ's life, death, resurrection and eternal glory. For 22 days and nights he worked solidly hardly eating, or sleeping, surviving totally on coffee. He completed his oratorio on September 14, 1741. The result was a masterpiece, The Messiah. "I saw the great God himself, on his throne" said Handel "and all his company of Angels".
"Messiah" was first performed at Fishamble Street, Dublin on April 13, 1742, as part of a charity series of concerts that Handel was invited to give by the Lord Lieutenant. The Anglo German composer led the concert from the harpsichord. So great was the demand for the first performance that men were asked to attend without their swords and women without the hoops in their skirts so more people could be fitted in.
The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, where Messiah was first performed
The warm reception accorded to Messiah in Dublin was not repeated in London when Handel introduced the work at the Covent Garden Theatre on March 23, 1743. The press felt that the work's subject matter was too exalted to be performed in a theatre, particularly by secular singer-actresses such as Susanna Cibber and Kitty Clive.
However, the Messiah's first performance in London did prove to be a hit with King George II. In fact at the end of the Hallelujah chorus, he stood up and the rest of the audience followed his lead. This practice has continued until now.
Some of the pieces were repeated ideas from some of Handel's earlier works. For instance an early love song called "No I won't trust you, blind love, cruel love" became" For unto us a child is born. "
The final bars of the "Hallelujah" chorus, from Handel's manuscript
After the success of “The Messiah,” Handel was taken to visit the dying, insane satirist Jonathan Swift. When the Dean realized it was Handel he cried "Oh! a German and a Genius. A prodigy! Admit him."
"The Messiah" was repeatedly revised by Handel, reaching its most familiar version in the performance to benefit the Foundling Hospital in 1754.
The Mass is the term used to describe celebration of the Eucharist in the Western liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism. The term comes from the late-Latin word missa (dismissal), a word used in the concluding formula of Mass in Latin: "Ite, missa est" ("Go, it is the dismissal”)
The usual words that are set to music in The Mass are known as the Ordinary. These are the words of the service which are the same every day. The Ordinary consists of five parts: Kyrie (Lord have mercy upon us….), Gloria (Glory be to thee….), Credo (I believe in God the Father….), Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy….) and Agnus Dei (O Lamb of God…).
By the 15th century the mass was normally performed by a choir. Among the earliest mass settings is that by the 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut, which probably was conceived for performance by solo voices but is often performed chorally.
A 15th-century Mass
Before the 15th century, most musical settings of the Ordinary of the Mass were grouped according to movement. All of the Kyries were together, all of the Glorias were together, and so on. A priest selecting the music for the service would choose one from each group to be sung, and so any setting of a movement could be used in combination with any other. The Tournai Mass, a polyphonic setting of the mass from 14th-century France, is the first known mass to have been written in a manuscript as if it were a single unified setting of the entire Ordinary.
On the feast of Epiphany, January 6, 1494, Christopher Columbus and all his men disembarked at Isabela on the island of Haiti and entered the temporary church that they had built. There they heard Fray Buil offer mass--the first mass ever heard on land in the New World.
Some of the most famous of all musical works of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods are masses. Many of the most famous of the great masses of the Romantic era were Requiem masses.
During the last hundred years many composers have written masses in a diversity of styles which were not meant to be sung in a church service: they are written as concert pieces. Some of them are quite long and fill a whole concert program. An example is David Fanshawe's African Sanctus, which is the Latin Mass is juxtaposed with live recordings of traditional African music,
Pope St. Pius X initiated many regulations reforming the liturgical music of the Mass in the early 20th century. He felt that some of the Masses composed by the famous post-Renaissance composers were too long and often more appropriate for a theatrical rather than a church setting. He advocated primarily Gregorian plainchant and polyphony.
On March 7, 1964, at a Roman parish church, Pope Paul VI celebrated the Mass in Italian instead of Latin. In doing so he implemented one of the most significant changes of the Second Vatican Council—worship in the vernacular. The date happened to be that year's First Sunday of Lent.
There's a special minimally-fermented wine used at masses where the priest is a current or recovering alcoholic.
“Jerusalem” was originally a poem, And did those feet in ancient time written by William Blake. It was part of the preface to his long poem Milton, which was published between 1804 and 1808.
Blake's poem was inspired by the old legend that Jesus Christ, while still a young man, accompanied Joseph of Arimathea to Glastonbury in south western England. Blake, who had an idiosyncratic view of his Christian religion, believed in this legend. Ironically, considering its later success, Blake decided to discard the poem in later editions.
Sir Hubert Parry put Blake's poem to music in 1916 to beef up British morale during the bleakest days of World War 1.
“Jerusalem” is the official anthem of the British Women's Institute, and historically was used by the National Union of Suffrage Societies.
Many of the English population would like "Jerusalem" to replace "God Save The Queen" as the English national anthem.
The 1981 Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire got its title from a couplet in "Jerusalem", which is sung in the film. The couplet in question is: "Bring me my bow, of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire/Bring me my spear, O clouds unfold. Bring me my chariot of fire."
One day in 1946, an Apollo Records record company representative overheard Mahalia Jackson singing and asked her to make a recording. “Move On Up a Little Higher” was the result. Released in 1947, the single went platinum and Jackson was thrust into the national spotlight and became an internationally famous Gospel singer.
Suddenly famous, Jackson bought an automobile large enough to sleep in so that she would have a place to spend the night when she performed in segregated areas where motels refused rooms to blacks. She also carried her own food with her so that she would not have to patronize segregated restaurants.
Jackson's remarkable singing eventually attracted white audiences. Her popularity spread nationally and internationally. One of Jackson's most famous concerts took place in Israel, where she performed for an audience of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Jackson in the Concertgebouw (1961)
One of Martin Luther King Jr's favorite hymns was Mahalia Jackson's rendition of "How I Got Over." She sang it at the March on Washington in 1963 and in moments when he felt discouraged, he'd call her just to hear her sing.
Mahalia Jackson sung the gospel tune "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at the funeral of Martin Luther King Junior in 1968.
Mahalia Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972, at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois, of heart failure and diabetes complications.
Her funeral was held at Chicago's Great Salem Baptist Church on January 31, 1972. Over 40,000 mourners attended the open-casket service, which featured a closing version of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" by Aretha Franklin. The mourners included Coretta Scott King, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Sammy Davis, Jr.
The first Protestant collection of hymns and psalms in the vernacular was published by the Bohemian Brethren in Prague in 1501. It contained 89 sacred songs in Czech.
Martin Luther's first German hymnal was published in 1524. It contained 16 hymns mostly written by the Protestant reformer himself including "The Mighty Fortress Of God".
Isaac Watts' 1707 Hymns and Spiritual Songs collection, was the first real hymn book in the English language. He headed it with the text, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," taken from Galatians 6 v 14.
Hymns Ancient and Modern, the first comprehensive collection of hymns, was introduced by the Anglican Church in 1861. It brought together hymns by new writers with older ones so that the Christian faith could be taught by singing. Hymns were matched to the seasons of the Christian year and despite the fact one of the editors, Henry Baker, held some controversially radical Anglo-Catholic views, it proved to be popular with Anglicans of all persuasions.
Three years after his conversion, Dwight Moody became a lay preacher and evangelist working amongst the wild and depraved young men of Chicago. Later he began to hold evangelistic campaigns both in America and Britain with the powerful singer Ira Sankey. In 1875, Moody and Sankey collected together a selection of hymns for their revivalist meetings, which they published in a sixpenny pamphlet Sacred Songs and Solos. This collection sold by the bucketload and proved uniquely suitable for evangelistic campaigns in both America and Britain at which people flocked to hear Sankey sing and Moody preach.
By the early 20th century demand for popular hymns was spreading to the Roman Catholic Church and in 1912 they introduced the Westminster Hymnal. The hymns were collected together by Richard Terry, the Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was born in Southampton, England, the son of a Congregationalist minister, who was incarcerated twice for his non-conformist views. He followed his father into the ministry, pasturing a large Independent Chapel in London. His books on theology and logic gained him wide repute, but Watts considered his sacred songs to be his most significant contribution to the church. He wrote over 750 hymns, and is recognized as the 'Father of English Hymnody'.
Watts was the first to write hymn words based on personal feelings and testimony. When he used the word "I" in the opening line of his most famous hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" he was actually revolutionizing the way people express their faith in music.
For centuries the Church of England asserted that since there are no hymns in the Book of Common Prayer, their use in church was illegal. In the late 1810s, the vicar of a Shropshire parish, Reginald Heber (1783-1826), tried to secure from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London official Episcopal authorization to use a small hymnbook containing hymns he had written, but they declined to grant it. Among the sacred songs Heber had penned were “From Greenland's Icy Mountains” and "Holy, Holy, Holy." A collection of Heber's hymns was eventually published shortly after his death.
John Bacchus Dykes (see below), a church organist and vicar of St. Oswald's, Durham, resolutely upheld the high church tradition, to the consternation of his bishop, and was something of a renegade figure in the Victorian Church. Worn out with his labors and constant friction with his bishop, Dykes died on January 22, 1876, just fifty-two years old. His admirers raised £10,000 to support his widow and children.
Dykes wrote over 300 hymn tunes in his lifetime. The hymn by which he is best remembered today, is the tune Nicaea for Reginald Heber's text of "Holy, Holy, Holy," which was found among his papers after he passed away. The tune name is a tribute to the First Council of Nicaea which formalized the doctrine of the Trinity in 325.
The blind American hymn writer, Fanny Crosby (March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), was incredibly prolific, penning over 8,000 hymns, more than any other person. Fanny was once asked if she wished that she hadn't been born without sight. She replied the good thing about being born blind is she knew the first face she would see would be the face of Jesus.
The first recorded instance of communal singing in church took place in 385 AD during at the Milan Basilica when the congregation had locked themselves inside. The Arian Empress, Justina, had demanded Bishop Ambrose's basilica be handed over for Arian worship, sending imperial troops to fulfil this by starving the distressed congregation out.
On Palm Sunday, Ambrose preached a sermon about not giving up churches. In order to calm the people, the musical bishop taught them to sing the hymns he had composed and he split the congregation in two in order to alternate verses of the hymns. Hearing this, the hearts of the soldiers softened, they joined in the singing and ended the siege.
The world's first Protestant collection of hymns and psalms in the vernacular was published in Prague by Moravian church in 1501.
Elisabeth Cruciger's hymn "Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn" was the only song by a female author published in the Lutheran 1524 hymnal Erfurt Enchiridion.
After the mid-sixteenth century Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church abolished all instrumentation in church except the organ. All secular elements such as harmony and folk melodies were also prohibited.
As women were banned from singing in Christian churches, the desire for adult female voices led to the practice of castration.
The Protestant Reformation produced a great burst of hymn writing and in the seventeenth century the dissenting groups, in particular the Baptists began using them in congregational worship. Most of these hymns were either taken directly from scripture, especially Psalms, or from already existing poems.
In 1692 an 18-year-old English Non-conformist Isaac Watts (1674-1748) complained to his father that the hymns sung at church were tuneless. His father suggested he provide something better. The result was “Behold the Glories of the Lamb,” which is considered the birth of the English hymn. Isaac Watts went on to write over 750 hymns, and is recognized as the 'Father of English Hymnody'.
An innovation of the Church of England in the 1890s was the placing of hymn numbers on boards.
The words of the hymn "How Great Thou Art" were written in 1885 by the Rev. Carl Boberg, a Swedish evangelist, who set it to a Swedish folk melody. The hymn was translated into German then Russian and when an English missionary Stuart Hine, who was working in the Ukraine, heard a native congregation sing the Russian words, so entranced was he that he produced an English version. The hymn didn't really attain world-wide popularity until it was incorporated into the services of the Billy Graham Crusades in the 1950s.
Unaccompanied chanting of scriptures and prayers had been part of the liturgy of the Church since its early days. Pope Gregory The Great (c540-604) greatly admired the Eastern Byzantine chants he had heard and he wanted them introduced into Western church services so he asked for examples to be collected and organized.
It took around 200 years for these plainsong chorales to be formulated into what became known as plainsong or the Gregorian chant and to be unified throughout Europe, under the guidance of Charlemagne.. It was taken to France from Rome between about AD 750 and 850 and was most highly developed by Parisian masters from about 1000 to 1150.
In 1083 troops were summoned to Glastonbury Abbey in south west England to quell a rebellion over the abbot's plan to scrap Gregorian chanting. Three monks were killed and 18 wounded.
The Roman Catholic Church still uses this early form of vocal music. However, other types of chant that also developed have become extinct. These include Gallician, Mozarabic, and Ambrosian chant.
One of the offshoots of the Second Great Awakening that swept through the United States in the first part of the nineteenth century was that slaves were inspired to create gospel songs, which incorporated their own folk traditions.
Slave Songs of the United States, the first major collection of these spirituals, was published in 1867.
In 1874 singer and composer Philip P. Bliss edited a revival song book Gospel Songs, which was the first published use of the term 'gospel' in music.
Thomas A. Dorsey is considered the Father Of Gospel Music. His first gospel song, "If You See my Savior Tell Him That You Saw Me" was published in 1932. Dorsey was recognized as a musical innovator for the way he combined African American spirituals with the rhythms of the blues and jazz to produce a new form of Christian music.
The gospel composer was accused of bringing the blues and jazz into the church. "I went into a church once and they almost threw me out because I sang one of my gospel songs" Dorsey remembered. "After I’d sung it the people accepted it in such a way that the preacher denounced it saying, "You can’t sing no gospel, you can only preach it. I wanted to tell him that was a lie but I didn’t."
Dorsey wrote his best known gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" after experiencing the double tragedy of losing his wife after she gave birth then losing his baby son.
The renowned singer Mahalia Jackson was the first Gospel star, appealing to white as well as black audiences. However, she was forced to sleep in her car at night when she performed in segregated areas where motels refused rooms to African Americans. Jackson also carried her own food with her, as she didn’t patronize segregated restaurants.
Mahalia Jackson's 1946 recording of "Move on Up a Little Higher" was Gospel Music's first million seller.
Elvis Presley's 1960 LP His Hand in Mine is often considered the start of contemporary gospel music
The three Grammys that Elvis received were all for gospel music, He won two for his version of "How Great Thou Art" and one for his He Touched Me album.
The largest gospel choir consists of 21,262 participants, achieved by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) (Philippines), in Ciudad de Victoria, Bocaue and Santa Maria, Philippines, on May 22, 2016.
The choir collectively sang three hymns in the Philippine Arena, accompanied by an organ.
Before converting to evangelical Christianity, William Cowper (1731-1800) was institutionalised for insanity in the period 1763–65.
Cowper and Anglican cleric John Newton both lived in the village of Olney and were great friends. Cowper helped Newton with his religious services and they also run a weekly prayer meeting, for which they were in the habit of writing a new hymn to sing, some of which were included in their Olney Hymns collection.
The phrase “God moves in a mysterious way” comes from William Cowper's 1779 poem "Light Shining out of Darkness," which was No.35 in their Olney Hymns collection. The words go “God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform."
The words were inspired by an experience of sheltering from a thunderstorm under an oak tree on Yardley Chase near Cowper's Olney home in Suffolk.
Also published in the same Olney Hymns collection was John Newton’s "Amazing Grace."
The phrase "to go the whole hog" meaning to commit to do something is thought to be from a William Cowper poem. It suggests that while sampling which part of a hog is inedible, the whole hog is eaten.
Cowper was a keen and innovative gardener who grew many of the plants newly introduced ton England in the 18th century. His letters and poems contain many references to plants and how he grew them.
Cowper was seized with dropsy in the spring of 1800 and died aged 68 on April 25. He is buried in the chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury, St Nicholas's Church, East Dereham, Norfolk.
Following the ravages of the Black Death many people started paying money to their priests to dedicate masses to them and their families, believing that this would ensure divine protection on Earth. The result of this was an income for the church that was spent on intricate decoration and liturgical music. Most churches had at least resident musician whose task was to produce music on a weekly basis for both the mass and the choir.
High, clear-toned male voices were favoured in Medieval European church music, resulting in a vocal quality that could help the listener hear the words that were being sung. The highest parts were sung by trebles (boy sopranos) and adult male falsettos, although by the 15th century composers had begun to explore the bass range.
Ray Repp is a Roman Catholic singer-songwriter credited with introducing folk music into Catholic masses with his 1965 album Mass for Young Americans that formed the earliest stirrings of Contemporary Christian music.
In the late 1960s few Christians believed that the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll ethos of much of the then music scene was compatible with their Christian faith, and Christian music tended to be closer to folk and country to rock.
However there were a few Christian artists who were pioneering a Christian form of rock music. The daddy of them all was Larry Norman who in 1969 released the first ever Christian rock album, Upon This Rock.
In 1975 Radio stations specializing in Christian Contemporary Music began broadcasting in America.
Stryper's 1984 The Yellow and Black Attack was the first Christian metal album and set the stage for later Christian artists in punk, hip hop and other genres.
The Old Testament tells us that sister of Moses, Miriam, led a women’s choir with a timbrel in her hand. The Song of Moses & Miriam was a victory song describing the miraculous parting of The Red Sea, which the Hebrews had just witnessed: "Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and driver He has hurled into the sea."
Saint Ambrose is considered as the first who introduced the antiphonant method of chanting, or one side of the choir alternately responding to the other; from whence that particular mode obtained the name of the "chant."
Charlemagne, the founder of the Carolingian Empire, was fond of music and took pride in his boys choir. Impressed by the beautiful Gregorian music of Rome, Charlemagne had monks sent over from Rome to train his Frankish singers.
Choral music long has been associated with the church. Although choirs existed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, their role was restricted to unison performances of plainsong. By the 15th century the mass was normally performed by a choir.
The saintly King Henry VI of England founded Kings College at Cambridge University in 1441. He left instructions for a choir of six lay clerks and 16 boys to be trained at the college school and to sing at daily services.
William Billings (1746-1800), the first American composer, founded the continent's first singing class in Stoughton, Massachusetts in 1774 and the first church choir as well.
The Handel and Haydn Society, familiarly known as H+H, is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it is the second oldest musical organization in the United States after the U.S. Marine Band (founded 1798) and the oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States. It gave its first performance on December 25, 1815.
Handel and Haydn Chorus rehearsal, 1903
On January 2, 1921, just two months to the day after its first broadcast, KDKA aired the first religious service in the history of radio. Pittsburgh's Calvary Episcopal Church was chosen because one of the Westinghouse engineers happened to be a member of the choir and made the arrangements. The technicians (one a Jew, one Catholic) were outfitted with choir robes in order to keep them from distracting the congregation.
On Wednesday, March 1, 1950, West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska exploded during what was meant to be choir practice. However, no one in the 15-person choir was hurt or killed, because they were all running late for different reasons. No one was in the building when it went up in flames.
In 1973 3M designer Art Fry, frustrated by errant hymnbook page markers at choir practice, realized the need for a low-tack sticky note. He applied a weak glue to yellow paper and the Post-It note was born.
In 1980 the Reverend Robin Everett suggested advertising slogans on clergy and choir robes as a means of supplementing church income. The time will come when, the English vicar wrote in his parish magazine, on mounting the pulpit he would confront the congregation with the slogan, “British Gas.”
The Pope's personal choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir comprising 20 men and 30 boys, is the oldest in the world, dating back 1,500 years.
Shakira was rejected from the school choir because the teacher thought she sounded like a goat.
When choir members sing together, their heartbeats often synchronize.
