The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer
So how does a young man from Narragansett, Rhode Island have a cantata premiered in East Germany?
First, he spends a year studying in Salzburg, Austria. No. Wait. First, he meets an au pair in Narragansett who is kind of enough to help him practice his German and dumb enough to say “If you ever get to Austria, I’d love to see you.”
The next 8 posts are movements from a cantata based on Psalm 113 that premiered at the 100 year anniversary of the Hermsdorfer Kirche in the former East Germany. To make sure you don’t lose interest, I’ll tell a little bit of the the story with each post.
One of my early church compositions, we also used “The Lord Bless You” at Pitt Men’s Glee Club concerts. Both this two-part choir and a leadsheet version are available. It’s a perky little thang, ain’t it?
When I directed the music at Bellefield Presbyterian, the choir would recess down the middle aisle each week and stand in the back until the benediction, at which point we’d sing an Amen.
You know me. It wasn’t too long before I was writing new ones. Specifically, I wrote a series of rounds. This one I actually notated on a circular staff. (I let the choir sing it from a normal score, though, because I thought it would be unwieldy to sing while spinning your music in circles…) Amen #1.
I usually reserve this blog for premieres, but as you know, a composition’s success is measured by repeat performances. In the case of a congregational song, there’s a big difference between what’s on the page, how it sounds when a congregation sings it, and how well it settles in after repeated singing.
So here are two songs that Church of the Servant has sung a few times each. Deeper than the Sea is published as a choral anthem, but that doesn’t mean that it sings well when given to a congregation. In this recording, it’s led by the Guitarchestra. From the Dust was rejected by the same publisher, but once again, that doesn’t mean much in terms of its worth as a congregational song. In this particular case, the COS choir sings the choral anthem version of the song, but the congregation is invited to join in on the refrains.
What do you think? Do these two have that undefinable it that makes a great congregational song? If there were a musical cage fight between the two songs, which one would win?
This Lent, Church of the Servant is using a different version of Isaac Watts’ text “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed” each Sunday. Kauflin, Benedict, Governor–we’re doing them all. My own humble contribution to the collection is an arrangement of the traditional tune MARTYRDOM. Check it out.
If I were to have a big hit, this would be it. It sort of won the CRC Sesquicentennial hymn contest, then appeared in Contemporary Songs for Worship, and can now be found in Psalms for All Seasons, #145G. But there were already too many of my songs and arrangements on the PfAS CD, so this got cut. After all, you don’t want to overdose on Greg. But here’s a small fix to hold you over until my next blog post.
And thus, my loyal readers, concludes my 16 song series of songs that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. But don’t lament the one that got away. No, just head on over to the Psalms for All Seasons website, where you can buy the book and CD so you can get all the songs and recordings that did make the cut.
I added verses to Barbara Boertje’s “How Good It Is,” but I’ve never posted a recording of the full choral arrangement. Until now.
This choral anthem will be coming out on GIA soon. Six years in production, it’s gonna be good… Here’s a recording of a read-through of the choral anthem, sans narration sections.
Update 2/8/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
I’ve blogged about “From the Dust” before, but I’ve had no recording of the choral arrangement until now.
This one didn’t make it into Psalms for All Seasons and has been rejected by one publisher to date.* But I still hold out hope that it will find a good home and be loved for a long time.
*However, the rejection letter was personal and touching: Thank you for submitting your work ‘From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up’ for our review. We regret that we are unable to accept this for publication at this time. Thank you for allowing us to review your material. We hope that you will give us the privilege of reviewing more of your work in the future.