The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerUpdate: This song is now available at gregscheer.com.
“By the Babylonian Rivers” is one of my favorite songs from Global Songs for Worship and one of my favorite Psalm settings in general. We used it at COS last week and I decided that the line “Lord God, hear your lonely band” fairly demanded an instrumental interlude. I wrote one, and Kurt (accordion) and Emily (violin) took it home: MP3.
Update: Sheet music for this song
is now available at gregscheer.com.
If you are involved in church music at all, you know there’s a deep divide between “traditional” and “contemporary” music. Don’t get me wrong, the ugly worship wars of the 80s and 90s are mostly over, and people generally see the value in having a wide variety of worship materials. However, the musicians themselves come from very different places: the “traditional” musicians are classically trained note readers who rarely improvise, and the “contemporary” musicians are more comfortable working from recordings and making music off the page.
Part of my mission is to be a bridge between these two worlds. Whenever I find a song from the contemporary world that I think could work in a traditional setting, I make a point of arranging it for non-improvising musicians.
The latest is a four part arrangement of Andy Piercy’s “Comfortable Words.” Andy was part of the band After the Fire, which had a huge impact on me as a teen. (What was not to admire? The were Christians, English, and played New Wave!) Andy and I have become friends in the last year and led a Psalm songwriting workshop together, where Andy sang this song in morning prayer. I thought it would make a good crossover song so I wrote a quick arrangement of it. Nothing fancy, just something a pianist or choir could use to lead the song.
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
One of my favorite Epiphany hymns is “Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning.” Written by Reginald “Holy, Holy, Holy” Heber in 1811, it wonderfully ties together the visit of the Magi with our own offerings to Christ. Most hymnals combine it with the dime-a-dozen tune MORNING STAR, but the 1982 Episcopal hymnal makes a far better choice, pairing it with the outstanding tune from Southern Harmony, STAR IN THE EAST. (Music matters, friends!)
In 2013 the entire song was part of Church of the Servant’s Lessons & Carols service, and since that time we have sung verses 3 and 4 as our offertory hymn during Epiphany. The Southern Harmony harmonization is raw and we needed something that would work for pianists as well as guitar-based ensembles, so I wrote a new arrangement. I must humbly say that it is the best thing since sliced communion bread.
3. Shall we then yield him, in costly devotion
odors of Edom, and offerings divine,
gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?
4. Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
vainly with gifts would his favor secure;
richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
When Cardiphonia released its new Songs for the Incarnation, I eagerly listened through the 23 song collection multiple times. (If you haven’t heard it yet, do yourself a favor and make it the soundtrack to your Christmas festivities.) One of the stand out tracks is Wendell Kimbrough’s “Mary’s Song.” Right away I knew I had to include this thoughtful rendering of the Magnificat in my church’s worship this year.
For my context, though, I needed a written piano accompaniment. And heck, if I’ve got strings and choir available, why not use them? So I wrote this arrangement. Follow the link above for the following:
leadsheet
choral anthem with piano
orchestration with choir and strings
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
Sunday evening was Church of the Servant’s Lessons & Carols service. In it we sang a new song based on Isaiah 11: the peaceable Kingdom. The song was an East/West collaboration between Pakistani Eric Sarwar and me. He wrote the music based on the shiv ranjni raga and I wrote the text and arranged it for the instruments we had at our church. We called it “our experiment,” as we navigated between our music cultures. We decided after the service that the experiment was successful. It was a beautiful statement of longing for God’s promised Kingdom, which at times we can almost taste and other times seems very far off.
Very far off indeed. Today on my way to work I heard reports of a Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan that left 141 children dead.
It seems appropriate to post this song on a day that we pray, “The babe in arms shall fear no harm from the snake or the adder. O Lord, may your Kingdom come.”
Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song is available here.
There’s a wonderful little song called “Somos uno en Cristo” that is making its way into a number of recent hymnals. Unfortunately, the arrangement that invariably appears with the song doesn’t bring out the best in it. I decided to write an accompaniment that allowed the melody to flow more freely, that included the characteristic V7 chord lifting into the B section, and that added a little tag at the end where people could catch their breath before singing the next verse. Nothing fancy, but it helps: MP3, (see link above for PDF)
Now someone needs to work on the translation…
Update: Sheet music for this descant is now available at gregscheer.com.
My golden rule of worship planning is “people first.” That is, instead of planning a bunch of great songs and then squishing some musicians into your plan, you should plan songs that you think your musicians can lead well.
This Sunday’s musicians included flutist Kristen Zoeteway. One thing I know about Kristen is that she’s always up for a challenge. Give her a difficult part and a few days to practice and she’ll nail it. So when I was choosing music for the service I included “God Himself Is with Us,” for which I wrote a flute descant a few years ago. But I couldn’t leave it at that, could I? No, I decided I needed to bookend that verse 3 descant with a theme and variations style flute intro.
When I was working on Global Songs for Worship, I found a Yoruban song in the collection Ẹ Kọrin S’Oluwa, edited by Godwin Sadoh. It was published as “Psalm 47: Clap Your Hands” in both Global Songs for Worship and Psalms for All Seasons, as well being recorded on the GSfW CD.
I’m pleased to say that as of Sunday morning, it is now also an anthem for cantor, choir, flute and percussion. Take a listen to the COS choir leading it: MP3. It is surprisingly simple to sing, which isn’t always the case with African songs and arrangements. In fact, because the congregation had already sung the song on a number of occasions, I had them join the choir on verses 2-4.
I was recently commissioned to arrange “In Your Pentecostal Splendor” for the Calvin College Lessons & Carols service. This hymn might be new to you, but at my church we sing it every week during one of our Pentecost season liturgies. The text was written by John E. Spears in 1916 and the tune EDEN CHURCH was written by Dale Wood in 1959. As far as I know, this text/tune combination only appears in our church’s Joyful Noises song collection.
#2 in the Emily Brink hit parade is a collaboration with Ron Rienstra. Ron had written a short song in a bouncy, country style for an event years ago and wondered if I’d revisit it with him. I applied some gospel sauce and it turned into this: PDF, MP3.
And no, I don’t know how it is possible for a professional musician to sing so out of tune…