Once again, this song is not new to my blog, but this is a new recording. And as a Psalms for All Seasons reject, it fits squarely in this series of Killer B posts: MP3.
Category: Choir
Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song and arrangement can be downloaded here.
Hands down, one of my favorite hymns is “The King of Love My Shepherd Is.” I wrote an SSA arrangement of this which found a home in the Augsburg Choirbook for Women. More recently I re-arranged it for SATB choir. Here is is: MP3.
This choral/congregation setting of Psalm 13 began its life as Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed (which, by the way, I think you should sing in your church this upcoming Lent). When TCS and I were doing the initial reading sessions, I decided that the arrangement of the tune MARTYRDOM would fit both texts. This tune and text combination appear in Psalms for All Seasons, but not this arrangement. You can only get that right here: MP3.
Chris Smit was such a hit singing “Peace in the Valley” at Church of the Servant’s Lessons & Carols service a few weeks ago, that a repeat performance was demanded for the Christmas Eve Service. Sadly, he lost his voice a few days before the service, so his understudy–me–filled in. I felt ill-equipped to follow the footsteps of those who have sung the song in my churches in the past–Chris and Charlotte Kerce–but I stepped in and did what I could. Here’s the recording.
Back when I was doing my masters at the University of Pittsburgh I studied conducting with John Goldsmith, the director of the Heinz Chapel Choir. Besides being a great singer, scholar and teacher, he was kind enough to try out my arrangement of “Lo, How a Rose.” He must have liked it, because 20 years later he included it on the Heinz Chapel Choir’s new CD, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Nothing John does is half-baked. This recording is no exception: MP3.
If you like what you hear, why don’t you head on over to www.gregscheer.com where you’ll find the full arrangement. It can be sung a cappella, with piano, or even with string orchestra. And for $15 for your whole choir, you can’t go wrong.
My latest commissioned composition, “The Christian’s Farewell,” was premiered Saturday night in Waco, Texas in the “Southern Harmony” Concert at Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library. The musicians did a lovely job! You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KDyiU3a3LM.
Check out videos from the whole concert here: http://elsalvadormusical.blogspot.com/2011/05/southern-harmonyconcert-at-baylor.html
From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up (Solo, SATB Choir and Piano)
I posted a song at the beginning of Lent called From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up, with verses taken from Psalm 103. Here it is again, this time arranged as a choral anthem: MP3, PDF.
In December I blogged about an arrangement of mine that we used in this year’s Lessons & Carols service at Church of the Servant. The hymn “The God of Abraham Praise” fits beautifully with the reading about the calling of Abraham, so I arranged it for string orchestra, oboe and flute. It worked so well that I convinced Robert Nordling to commission a full arrangement for the Calvin College Orchestra. It will premiere Saturday, March 5 at 8pm in the Covenant Fine Arts Center. I hope to see you there. In the meantime, you can listen to Finalified MP3.
My friend Carlos Colón-Quintana was kind enough to commission a new choral work for an upcoming concert at Baylor University. The concert is an interesting mix of children’s choir, fiddle, barbershop quartet, and strings, unified around the theme of William Walker’s Southern Harmony. I decided to write an arrangement of “The Christian’s Farewell,” which most of us know as “How Firm a Foundation.”
There was a point about a week ago at which I was having doubts that I could coax this into a finished composition that did justice to the depth of the text and the simplicity of the melody. But now I’m really pleased with how it turned out. (And, no, I don’t always say that.)
Having complimented myself on the score, I’ll quickly add that I’m not particularly proud of the demo included here. It’s a combination of Finale playing the instruments and me singing both the children’s and men’s choir parts. But, hey–you work with what you’ve got. Take a listen to the demo or read the lyrics below.
1. Farewell, my dear brethren, the time is at hand
That we must be parted from this social band;
Our sev’ral engagements now call us away,
Our parting is needful, and we must obey.
2. Farewell, faithful soldiers, you’ll soon be discharged,
The war will be ended, your bounty enlarged,
With shouting and singing, though Jordan may roar,
You’ll enter fair Canaan, and rest on the shore. Farewell.
3. Farewell, younger brethren, just listed for war,
Sore trials await you, but Jesus is near;
Although you must travel the dark wilderness,
Your Captain’s before you, he’ll lead you to peace.
4. Farewell, trembling mourners, with sad, broken hearts,
O hasten to Jesus, and choose the good part!
He’s full of compassion, and mighty to save,
His arms are extended, your souls to receive.
6. Farewell, my dear brethren, farewell all around,
Perhaps we’ll not meet till the last trump shall sound.
To meet you in glory I give you my hand,
Our Savior to praise in a pure social band.
Categories
Incarnation
Christmas is a time of incarnation. Of course, the most important incarnation is the Incarnation in which God took on flesh in the form of Jesus. The most negative aspect of Christmas incarnation is when we step on the scale at the end of the season and see the results of all those holiday parties, Christmas cookies, and festive meals: too often we have incarnated in the sense that we have “taken on flesh.”
But this blogpost is about a different kind of incarnation. Two of my compositions went from being ideas in my head, to being notes on paper, and have finally “taken on flesh” in the form of performances and recordings. “A Mark of Grace” began it’s life last year around this time as a hymn of response for Neal Plantinga’s sermon and Cain and Abel at the 2010 Calvin Worship Symposium. “The God of Abraham Praise” is newly written, and was spurred on in part because of Adoro Music’s new series of instrumental arrangements for congregation singing, Everything that Has Breath.
These latest incarnations of my work took place at last Sunday’s Lessons & Carols service at Church of the Servant.