A while back NPM (National Pastoral Musicians) held a contest for new musical settings of the English Mass which was recently approved by the US Roman Catholic bishops. For those of you who aren’t Catholic, even small changes in the language of the mass can be a pretty big deal, with publishers scrambling to release new versions of mandated text.
Of course, you know how I am about composition contests. You’ll remember that in the calm before the storm of this year’s Calvin Worship Symposium, I completed a Robot Dance Music contest entry (I won) and started a mass. I made enough progress on the mass before the symposium started that I was able to complete it during the event. This was helped along by my friend Kelly at GIA who was gracious enough to give me excellent feedback from her symposium vendor’s booth, and by Jeremy Begbie, who was kind enough to overlook that guy in the back who was editing a mass while he gave a lecture.
Fast forward a few months. I lost the NPM contest, which is not entirely unexpected. But I can’t just let 13 pages of music languish because of something as benign as losing a contest. So I did what any reasonable person would do–I asked for a second opinion in the form of YouTube. That’s right. I’ve published a “bouncing ball” version of the mass on YouTube so you can sing along while watching the music scroll by.
I named this setting “A Humble Mass” not because I think it’s a cool name like… I don’t know–Missa Lunesta or Mass of the Proletariat–but because I just couldn’t find a great name. I wanted to convey that this is a simple mass that is quite usable in congregations that only have a keyboard available to them. And it’s quite singable, with a few themes tying the whole mass together. But you never really know how effective a piece is until it’s sung by a living, breathing congregation.
If any of you would like to give this mass a go in your congregation, let me know and I’ll get you a PDF file of the mass.
During Pentecost, John Phiri from Sierra Leone preached at COS. The text “Filled with the Spirit’s Power” (Psalter Hymnal #417) fit well with his sermon thematically, but musically it left something to be desired. (Sorry Henry Lawes.) So I wrote a new tune. Check out the PDF or the MP3.
If you’re looking for a 10.10.10.10 tune, give this a try.
When I lived in Pittsburgh I was part of a men’s organization called the Rascals, Rogues and Rapscallions. It was an awesome enclave of pseudo intellectualism and cigar smoking. I, of course, couldn’t help but write music for our meetings. In fact, the Rascals’ website is now named after one of my songs (http://thatinterestingthing.org/).
One of things I did at the time was to make a rough animation of the Rascal flag, and of course, it included a brief soundtrack. It was, to tell the truth, quite a low budget affair. You can check out the original animation and soundtrack on YouTube.
For some reason, I stumbled across this file on my computer a few months ago. As I listened to the music that accompanies the animation, I realized that the music could be retooled for use as theme music, a la the NPR theme or Windows system start up music. (Ka-ching!) I recast it in a more orchestral vein and polished the recording to prepare it for submitting it to production music companies.
But first I’m giving you, my faithful listeners, a chance to hear what is now called “Ten Second Sunrise.”
My muse can be strange. This evening I was hanging out on the porch with the boys doodling with a little jazz tune on my guitar when Simon told me about our bunny Dottie doing a little dance. That reminded me of the title of one of Dav Pilkey’s alter ego’s books: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist, by Sue Denim. From there the mash up of the two ideas began, and a charming (if I don’t say so myself) new song song was born: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist.
For 20 years now I’ve been writing and recording music for special occasions, from classical music commissions to marches to theme songs. For 5 years I’ve been entering contests, from hymns to fight songs to remixes. I’ve won enough of these contests that it one day occurred to me: “Hey, maybe I could turn the ‘made to order’ side of my composing into a lucrative side career.” So I assembled a variety of songs, compositions and arrangements into 3 minute, whirlwind tour of Greg, called the demo reel. You can read a description of what you’re hearing in this PDF. Of course, if you’re interested in hearing the full cuts of any these brief snippets, just let me know. More importantly, if you know anyone who works in the world of commercial or production music, tell them I’m hanging out my shingle and I’m ready to work. Do they need a jingle, arrangement or theme music? I’m their guy.
If Casey Kasem were to do a count down of the Psalms, Psalm 52 would not be in the Top 40.
But Casey Kasem didn’t create the lectionary or write the Psalms. So when Psalm 52 appeared as the assigned Psalm for Sunday, July 18, 2010 in the lectionary, I felt a responsibility to study this difficult little chunk of God’s Word and present it in the best possible light to my congregation. The problem is that a casual reading of the text highlights a “holier than thou” vibe which is a turn off in our culture (v3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth) which is quickly followed by another cultural taboo–wishing ill on others: v5 God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Yikes.
The gulf between the Psalmist’s culture and ours is pretty wide, but if we dig a bit deeper arrive at some common ground. Psalm 52 works out of a basic belief that there is a good way to live and a bad way to live. Yes, you can get ahead using deceit, treachery and lies. (Come on, we’ve all been the recipients or perpetrators of this approach.) But in the end, our riches will provide no refuge in the face of death. So, the Psalmist says, it is better to live a life of trust in God’s steadfast love.
But enough preaching! The song started its life as an email to two friends asking if they knew of any dynamite settings of Psalm 52. Doug Gay wrote back in short order with his own metrical version of the Psalm. As the clock kept ticking I didn’t feel like I had any winners from my hymnal collection, so I sat down with Doug’s text at the piano. A new tune slowly emerged, and a new version of his text emerged as well. I don’t know that I’m ready to declare it finished yet, but we sang it in church on Sunday and it worked pretty well.
In a previous post, I complained (okay, whined) about being a runner-up and/or outright loser. But it seems my luck has changed.
This week I received word that I won the Top Golf theme song contest with my irritatingly catchy “Bring It On!” Even as I was still gloating about that big win, contemplating how many games $100 will buy at the Top Golf entertainment center in Chicago, and eating free pizza from my Google Me winnings, I found out that I came in fifth place in the Celldweller remix contest. Normally I would consider fifth place a beyond-consolation prize, but in this case I was pretty pleased. There were 80 entries and I was pretty far out of my stylistic comfort zone, so fifth place is, er, the best it’s gonna get. Thanks to everyone who took the time to go to the FiXT Remix website to vote for my song. I’ll share the prize in the form of a little extra distortion in my next recording, using the Ohmicide:Melohman distortion plugin I won as a prize.
My friend Dave Stuntz of Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC is planning to use my Psalm 127 song “Rest in the Lord” this Sunday and asked if I had a demo he could play his musicians. Indeed, I did not. I have a video of me yacking about the song in a Calvin new song chapel, and though I do play the song at the end of the video, it’s not something I would put my own musicians through, never mind Dave’s musicians.
So I decided to take the opportunity to record a quick demo of the song. It was going to be strictly a one-take affair, but you know how it goes: a cord crackles, it feels empty without the bass, boy it could really use a shaker and some background vocals…
This is also a good opportunity to update the music. I’ve made a few small changes recently, so if you have an older version of the song destroy it without delay and download the new new PDFs of the leadsheet or vocal/piano score.
Then we’ll wait for a report from Dave about how it went, and maybe he’ll even be willing to share a recording from their service.
I’m helping with worship at the WCRC event in G.R.usalem this week. On Wednesday morning there’s a band and a string quintet leading the worship service. I thought it would be nice to put them together at some point in the service. After all, the theme of the conference is “unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” Shouldn’t that include praise bands and string quintets joining together in sweet harmony?
So I wrote an intro for the Delirious song “Shout to the North” that bats the main theme back and forth between the strings in fugal fashion. Once they finish the intro, the band comes in. The strings come back with a more traditional pop string line when the refrain comes around.
I normally don’t post arrangements of copyrighted material, but this bears such little resemblance to the original that I thought Martin Smith would be okay with it. Martin, take a listen to the MP3 or look at the PDF score and let me know if you want me to take it down, okay?
I’m helping with worship at the WCRC event in G.R.usalem this week. On Wednesday morning there’s a band and a string quintet leading the worship service. I thought it would be nice to put them together at some point in the service. After all, the theme of the conference is “unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” Shouldn’t that include praise bands and string quintets joining together in sweet harmony?