Category: Choir

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live

Mary’s Song/Our King of Peace (Kimbrough)

Mary+of+the+Annunciation+detail+face+of+Mary-1600x1200-514Update: 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

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Global Live

O Lord May Your Kingdom Come (Isaiah 11)

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.”

MP3

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 47: Clap Your Hands, for cantor, choir, flute, and percussion

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.

 

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Arrangement Choir Church Finale demo

In Your Pentecostal Splendor

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.

It is scored for choir, brass, and organ. The arrangement features some fun antiphonal interplay between the brass and organ as well as a fluttering contrapuntal section for 3-part women. For now, a Finale-fied MP3 will have to suffice. To hear the real thing, join me on December 7 at LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church at either 3 p.m. or 6 p.m.

 

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Psalm 105: Give Thanks to the Lord

105cementThere are various traditions of Psalm-singing: Metrical, Responsorial, etc. My church generally feels most comfortable with the metrical Psalms that are part of our Reformed heritage. However, there are merits to each approach, so I try to include as many song styles as possible in our psalmody.

Last week the lectionary called for Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45, a Psalm which opens with praise, then follows with the story of God providing manna, quails, and water in the wilderness. Existing settings are slim, seldom mentioning Meribah and Massah, which are an essential connecting point to the Old Testament reading. I decided that the world needed a new responsorial setting of the Psalm.*

Responsorial singing, you’ll remember, is when a leader sings/chants verses and the congregation responds with a refrain. The key to a good responsorial setting is to have a quickly learnable, highly memorable refrain for the congregation, and a chant tone for the choir that has a logical, flowing harmonic progression. In this case, I decided to include a light rhythmic piano accompaniment, which is pretty unusual in this style. (Out of the box: it’s where you’ll find me.) I’ll spare you the gory details of Joseph Gelineau, the Grail Psalter, and sprung rhythm, and simply let you listen to a recording from the service or take a peek at the music.

*The need is deep, so you may not yet have felt your need of my new Psalm 105 setting. It will come.

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Everlasting to Everlasting (Psalm 118) Easter @ COS

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

The last song from my Hallel Psalm cantata, Everlasting to Everlasting, is a setting of Psalm 118 for which the cantata is named. Psalm 118 is also the lectionary Psalm for Easter Sunday, so I decided to use the song at Church of the Servant this year. This is a slow burner–it sneaks up on you rather than grabbing you by the collar and shaking you–but I think it worked rather well. Of course, who can dislike a song that starts with a boy soprano? Thank you, Christian Voetberg for doing the work of winning over the congregation to my new song!

Listen to the MP3.

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Kimbrough’s Psalm 31: In You, Lord, I Refuge Take

Update 3/16/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Wendell Kimbrough is one of my favorite new congregational songwriters. I figured I’d hitch my wagon to this rising star early on his career so that when he becomes a household name, I’d be a household footnote.

One of his latest songs is a setting of Psalm 31 called “In You, Lord, I Refuge Take.” It’s simple–most congregational songs are–but also profound, translating the desperate prayer of Psalm 31 into fresh new language that sings well. I wrote a four part harmonization of it so we could use it in my church. As you can hear from the recording, my congregation took to it right away.

Since you all are so kind to stop by my blog, here’s little bonus Palm Sunday music for you: Hosanna in the Highest, and Sanna Sannanina (piccolo, djembe, choir).

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Choir Church Live Psalms

Deeper than the Sea in Canada

The Rosthern Junior College Choir in Saskatchewan, Canada did a bang up job of singing “Deeper than the Sea” (Psalm 36):

What are you waiting for? Get your sorry self over to GIA and buy a few dozen copies for your choir!

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Retuned hymn

Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory (SATB/Piano)

Update 2/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory, SATB/Piano: MP3

A new setting of the 1839 text, “Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory” was born a little over 24 hours ago. This beautiful hymn by James John Cummins had fallen into disuse until fairly recently, when Greg Thompson’s “By Thy Mercy” appeared on the Indelible Grace CD By Thy Mercy and High Street Hymn’s self-titled CD.

I wrote my own setting in 2012 and decided to bring it back again this Lent in an arrangement for SATB choir and piano. I’ve got to admit that I was pleased with how it turned out. The tune sings well, as you can hear by the way the congregation owns it when they join the choir in verse 4; the choral texture adds richness; and the piano provides a certain gravitas to the song’s theme.

We sang it Sunday morning in worship and then again that afternoon at the home of one of church friends who is terminally ill. It gave poignancy to the line “when we feel our mortal weakness, when all human help is vain.” Something else I observed during that visit is that Margaret requested a lot of upbeat hymns–not insubstantial, but also not morose. It made me wonder if that’s one of the roles music plays in faith: it reminds those who are likely far from death that there will one day be, in the words of verse 6, a “solemn hour of dying”; and it gives those close to death a hope of joy as fresh as the songs of their youth.

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Choir Church Live

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Charles Wesley’s hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”  is a timeless text that has been forever in search of a timeless tune. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting that my new music for the text is the apex of three centuries of “Jesus, Lover” tunes. Just a humble contribution to the fray.

I’ve had a draft of this sitting in my idea folder for a few years now. But a good idea is just a lot of wasted potential until combined with a deadline. In this case, the deadline was a Lent hymn series that will explore a different musical setting of “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” every week. You can read about there series in this Liturgy Lesson while you listen to the MP3 from this week’s service. Email me if you want to see the music.