Category: Arrangement

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live

DARWALL, funky fresh intro

Just a quick post from yesterday’s service, featuring the inimitable Joyful Noise Orchestra. If you are not familiar with JNO, it’s an ensemble (collective? flash mob? uprising?) of musicians that span from age 12 to 72, from beginner to pro. We lead worship every few months at Church of the Servant, and when we do I try to write something special to show them off. This time it was a contrapuntal introduction to the hymn tune DARWALL, which you may know as “Rejoice the Lord Is King.” (We sang it with the text “Join All the Glorious Names.”) If you want to verify that we were mostly playing the right notes, you can take a look at the score: PDF. If you want to verify that JNO is the best looking band in the business, check out this picture from Thanksgiving 2014.

IMG_0434
Church of the Servant’s Joyful Noise Orchestra, with Joel Klamer conducting

 

 

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs

All Hail the Power

Update 3/12/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

My final post from the 9/13/15 COS service is an oldie but goodie, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” A while back I wrote a “Haydnesque” string intro that proved to be a headache for many of our string players. But on this particular Sunday, the string quartet was made up of talented and eager college students, so I made them work a bit! (This is not to say that COS’s other string players are not talented, just not quite as eager.)

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Global

Father in Heaven

global_songs_cd_medIn my work on Global Songs for Worship I wrote a lot of arrangements. A. Lot.

I’m a constant musical tinkerer, so I often take a previous idea and build on it, depending on what musicians I have available. On 9/13/15 at COS I had a fine string quartet, so I dug deep into my string archives and pulled out this little string arrangement of the Filipino song, “Father in Heaven.” It’s a lovely song that follows a Trinitarian pattern. Why don’t more people sing this song? Why?

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church

Vivaldoxology

One of my jobs as a music director is to put a multitude of music styles together in one service, then smooth the edges so that it feels natural.

This 9/13/15 medley begins with the choir singing Vivaldi’s “Gratias Agimus Tibi.” I wrote a short fugal transition between the Vivaldi and Thomas Ken’s “Doxology” that just makes me smile. The Doxology’s closing “amen” provides the opening chords of Ron Rienstra’s “The Lord Be with You” communion music. That’s who we roll at COS–a few centuries of music wrapped up in a 4 minute bon bon.

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Retuned hymn

May the Mind

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

15 years ago I wrote a “retune” of the hymn “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior.” Of course, in those days we didn’t call them retunes, we called them, “hey I really like this hymn so I wrote some new music for it.” (Retune is catchier.) 15 days ago, I wrote string parts for the song, which we used in the 9/13/15 service at COS. They add a nice little halo to the song. (And be honest; we could all use a nice little halo.)

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs

We Sing the Mighty Power, string quartet

Update 12/29/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Last Sunday at Church of the Servant I had the luxury of leading worship with a choir and string quartet. You know I can’t resist fully exploiting an opportunity like that!

The service began with “We Sing the Mighty Power of God,” the perfect opening hymn for a sunny Fall day: “Lord, how your wonders are displayed, wherever we turn our eyes, if we survey the ground we tread or gaze upon the skies.”

I wrote this string arrangement for a worship symposium service a few year ago and I was glad for the opportunity to use it again. KINGSFOLD is a great tune, and I like the way this arrangement brings out its folk character. Add the strings and you’re golden.

If you’re interested in the score/parts, just send me an email.

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Global

All of My Heart, voiceover edition

Update 1/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

A while back I discovered the Brazilian congregational song writing duo of Rubem Amorese and Toninho Zemuner. They produce an astounding number of songs, all of them good. When they found out I had translated “Adoracão” into English, they were kind enough to ask that I sing the English over their instrumental tracks. It is nowhere near as good as the original, but I gave it my best.

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Global Live

O Come, Holy Spirit (Sarwar)

harmoniumOne of the great things about my church is that we have a constant stream of interesting people joining us from all around the world. One of them is Eric Sarwar, a musician from Pakistan. Eric and I have collaborated before. This time we worked on a song of invocation, “O Come, Holy Spirit.”

As with many of Eric’s songs, they look simple on the page, but take on a life of their own in worship. We began our service today with a quiet tanpura drone and improvisation on the song’s raga (mode). Once the tone was set, the whole Guitarchestra came in and the congregation joined us: PDF, MP3

Later in the service the communion music began with another Sarwar/Scheer collaboration, “O Lord, May Your Kingdom Come.” That led into a set of songs that flowed so well that I include it here in its entirety. Be forewarned: the MP3 is 22 minutes long (31MB). If you have the time, though, it gives you an idea of how the communion section of a Church of the Servant service runs: COS communion 6/21/15.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Kimbrough’s Psalm 104

Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

I’ve featured the music of Wendell Kimbrough before, and today he makes a return appearance. An honor to be sure…

Earlier this year his setting of Psalm 104, “Oh, Rejoice in All Your Works,” won the COS New Psalm Contest. It had its church premiere in January and we’ve sung it a few times since then. This Sunday, Pentecost, the lectionary called for Psalm 104. As fate* would have it, the choir, piano, and a brass quintet were scheduled to lead that morning, so I arranged the song for those instruments.

I was really pleased with how it sounded. Sometimes the transition from guitar-driven folk song to piano-led congregational hymn can be awkward, but in this case, it brought out a whole new majestic side to the song. I hear a best-selling choral anthem in this, don’t you?

*or providence, depending on how you roll theologically.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live

Pentecostal Splendor at COS

This Fall I arranged Pentecostal Splendor for Calvin College’s Lessons & Carols service. It was premiered beautifully, though I wasn’t able to track down a recording for my blog.

Naturally, when Pentecost arrived at my own church, I thought of using this new piece in my own context. Brass? Check. 60 voice choir? 1/3 check. Organ? Not so much…

I retooled the organ part for piano and called in favors with every singer I knew. The result can be heard here: MP3