The Making of Psalm 29

I’ve been composing a new setting of Psalm 29, and decided that I’d create a video of the process. “Oh boy,” you say. “That sounds exciting.” Indeed.

My compositional conundrum is that I have three different versions of the same song, and there are pros and cons to each version. I’m hoping you will listen to the MP3 (version 3) or download the PDF of version 1, version 2, or version 3 and give me some help. What is the best version of the song? Are there parts that you would change or different versions that you would combine? Maybe I should scrap the song entirely?

Feel free to leave your editorial suggestions here or at YouTube. Heck, maybe some of you will want to sing and play your ideas in a video response at YouTube. Have at it people–this is your chance to co-write a song with Greg!

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRvsPz-pL2o

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6 Responses to The Making of Psalm 29

  1. Amy says:

    I liked the one we sang today. [ed: “The God of Heaven Thunders“]

  2. Amy says:

    You bored the crap out of me.

  3. greg says:

    My wife’s comment may lead some of you to believe that she is mean. But the reality is that she just gets a kick out of writing inappropriate comments on my blog and then giving me a hard time if I delete them.

    Plus, I bore her…

  4. S. Wynia says:

    I think that version 2 is the most sing-able in terms of having less wandering through odd lands of flats and sharps. However, the end came a little abruptly. Not being near any musical instruments (only scientific instruments right here in the lab), I can’t play around with it on the keys to see what I think would improve it. I think you have a really good start to a song here though. I’ve watched this video in between doing experiments over the past 30 mins and the tune definitely gets stuck in my head-the sign of a good hook.

    By the way, did I ever tell you about FAWM? February Album Writing Month? FAWM.org is the website. If anything, you should at least check it out and see what other people are posting in terms of new songs. I think you’d really dig the site, even if you don’t get to the 14 songs in 28 days.

  5. Dianne Shapiro says:

    #1 I like the least because of its shifting keys and around measure 16 it goes into F Major then quickly back to G Major which I think is weird.

    #2 is better musically, but vocally I didn’t like holding the dotted half notes. I wanted to breathe at the end of measure 18 which might be okay in verses 2-5 but not so okay in verse 1. I liked the tag at the end which is better in version 3.

    #3 I like the musical tension in measures 15-19 but not in measures 20-24 because, while the tension goes with the words in verses 2-4 it doesn’t so much go with the words in verses 1 and 5. Also I think coming in on the third beat in measuer 20 might be confusing but I like that there is only one dotted half note to hold. I suggest measure 20 start on beat 1 on the D, then E, F#, G, A for 1.5 beats, B for .5 beats, C, B, G, A for 2 beats then continue with the rest. I think that makes the fourth line more singable and there is still tension and emphasis on the last line when the dotted half note is held.

  6. Rev. B says:

    I liked them all! Even the middle one was better than a lot of stuff in the hymnbook….

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