The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer

At Church of the Servant, there’s a little thing we do called “Guitarchestra.” We bring together as many guitarists, mandolinists, and banjists (is that a word?) as we can into one glorious glob of worship-leading stringiness. This post is for all the members of the COS Guitarchestra who missed rehearsal this week. It’ll give you an idea of how each song sounds. I’m sorry the recordings are so bad–I’m having some serious computer issues. Here are the songs to learn for Sunday, August 5, in order:
Gather Us In, Joyful, Joyful We Adore You, What the Lord Has Done in Me, Thanks Be to God Our Savior, I Will Hide Your Word Inside My Heart, Gracias Señor, Holy, holy, holy Lord (Bell), Come, Ye Sinners, Here I Am to Worship, Before the Throne of God Above, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Blessed Assurance

This Sunday at Church of the Servant we sang the Psalter Hymnal version of Psalm 82, “There Where the Judges Gather.” After the service Ron and Deb Rienstra commented that the tune which accompanied the text was too nice. What it really needed was a tune that got across the “stick it to the man” tone of the Psalm.

How could I resist?

I spent the next few days writing and recording this new version of “There Where the Judges Gather.” The tune, appropriately enough, is called “STICK IT TO THE MAN.” Do punk rock and metrical Psalms go together? You be the judge. Listen to the MP3 or download the lead sheet.

We sang the new setting of Psalm 30 this Sunday at COS and it went surprisingly well for a new congregational tune. People picked it up quickly and gained momentum each verse. Listen to the recording from the 11am service or download the final version of the PDF file.

One person remarked that he wouldn’t have known that it was a Psalm if it hadn’t said so in the liturgy. I didn’t know if he meant that as a good thing or a bad thing. Jack, COS’s pastor thought the words were great. He thought he was paying me a compliment until he realized I had only written the music. My wife Amy pronounced the song “okay.”

Even in the face of such ambivalent reactions,  I remain undaunted! My calling in life is to fill up the world with so-so music, and I intend to do it with gusto!

Once again, I’ve turned to Michael Morgan’s 1999 Psalter for Christian Worship as the starting point for a new Psalm setting, this time Psalm 30. I like the way Morgan places the joyous sentiments of the Psalm text in the first half of each verse, and the lament and supplication in the second half. That allows the musical setting to reinforce the meaning of the text in each verse.

Morgan recommends the tune ABBOT’S LEIGH (”God Is Here”) for the text. That’s a beautiful tune, but I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. I wrote a draft of a new tune one afternoon last week, obsessed about it the rest of the evening, revised it the next morning, got some helpful feedback from my friend David that afternoon, then finished it by dinner time.

We’ll sing it at COS as the lectionary Psalm this Sunday. In the meantime, you can download a PDF file of the music or listen to a cheesy Finalefied MP3.

Yesterday, we sang a new setting of Psalm 5 that I composed for two narrators and congregational refrain. I was quite pleased with the way it sounded, though I’ll probably raise the key and make a few minor changes. If you want the music, just email me. Otherwise, take a listen.

What is a blog but a slice of one’s life? So you want a fresh slice of music from Greg’s life? I thought so.

Here are a few things we sang at Church of the Servant this Sunday. We’ll start with a choir piece called “Ride On.” It was published as a vocal solo piece by Augsburg Fortress a while back, and I thought I’d see how it would work for SATB choir. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this piece–I love it, but everyone else hates it. Just kidding. It started as a pop/gospel setting of the old text “Ride On, Ride On in Majesty” for congregation. But then I realized it was too hard for congregation, so I gave another go at it as a vocal solo. But then I realized that the archaic text was at odds with the contemporary music (you just can’t groove words like “strewn”), so I wrote a new text based on the same theme and meter. But then I realized that if was writing something for vocal solo, I should vary the verses a little, so I turned verse 3 into a bridge. But then I was planning choir music for Palm Sunday, and I realized that I could turn that the vocal solo into a choir version. But then we tried it in rehearsal and I realized that it was much harder for a choir to sing all the syncopations than a single vocalist. Or a married vocalist, but it really depends on the vocalist more than their marital status. But that’s really beside the point. The point is that I have a love/hate relationship with the song, and I’ll be glad to hear your opinion. So without further ado, click to listen to Ride On.

Next up on our three slice meal of worship wurst is Sanna & All Glory, Laud and Honor. These two songs were used during the palm procession. Nothing too fancy, but it gives an idea of our style at COS. I like the way the South African “Sanna” (which is a shortened version of the word “Hosanna”) sits alongside the traditional “All Glory.” And the drums and strings really make things festive. Try to ignore the cantor. He’s not really as big of a windbag as he sounds on this recording, it just happens that his mic was high in the mix.

Finally, what church service recording would be complete without a child crying in the background? What makes this recording so exquiste is that this particular little screamer has such impeccable timing. You’ve got to love it: “This is the day the Lord has made (waaaaaaah!!!!) Hallelujah!” And of course the juxtaposition of the seren Taize chant with the primal scream is priceless. Give a listen: This Is the Day.

Having trouble with the above links? Try these: Ride On, Sanna & All Glory, This Is the Day.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere about the CRC sesquicentennial (that’s 150, for those of you who are counting) hymn contest I entered a while back. I submitted three songs–one for each of the sesquicentennial theme scriptures–and got runner up for one of them. The winning hymn text was written by my CICW colleague Bert Polman. The text will be introduced to the denomination using the tune NETTLETON (”Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”). That’s a good tune choice in that it’s familiar (and a great tune), but I felt like it needed something special, so I wrote one:
Grace Through Every Generation (mp3)
Grace Through Every Generation (printed music)

I wrote this setting of Psalm 36:5-9 for the CRC sesquicentennial hymn contest. I lost. But then the Psalm came up in the lectionary, so I decided to create an arrangement for choir, piano and congregation that we’ll use January 14 at Church of the Servant. Chords are included so it can be accompanied by guitar and bass to get that “folk choir” kind of sound.

Here is the score:
Deeper than the Sea (pdf)

And a quick and dirty demo created by Finale:
Deeper than the Sea (mp3)

Don’t have a choir? Don’t despair! Here’s the leadsheet for praise band:
Deeper than the Sea (pdf-praise)

And a rough demo in a somewhat Chris Tomlin style:
Deeper than the Sea (mp3-praise)