Category: Church

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Arrangement Choir Church Commissions Congregational Songs Global Live

Keur Moussa Magnificat

Update 10/11/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

This year, Church of the Servant (my “alma mater” church) commissioned me to arrange a lovely “Magnificat” by Keur Moussa. I don’t know a lot about the Keur Moussa Abbey, but my impression is that they are something like the Taizé of Senegal. The Keur Moussa community has developed its own style of singing that combines the beautiful austerity of Catholic chant with the insistent rhythms of West Africa.

If you listen to the original recording you’ll hear a simple perfection that is irresistible, with the vocals and rhythms held in perfect balance. You’ll also hear what I found most difficult about writing this arrangement: the more “interesting” my arrangement was, the more it betrayed the original song. I must have reminded myself a hundred times while working on it: “Greg, don’t gild the lily!” But it was not easy to remain simple when writing for choir, string orchestra, guitars, and a smattering of percussion!

In the end, I felt that I struck a good balance. The arrangement is complex, but not flashy; exciting, but still mesmerizing. But I am hardly an impartial observer. You be the judge. The above recording is from the December 15, 2019 premiere at COS’s annual Lessons & Carols service.

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Demos

Lead On, O King Eternal

Henry T. Smart, 1813-1879
Ernest W. Shurtleff, 1862-1917

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in the case of this Sunday’s service, I needed an arrangement of “Lead On, O King Eternal” for worship band. Henry Smart’s tune is triumphant, bordering on a march. That doesn’t work well with pop music instruments. So I softened the march rhythm and gave it a bit of a groove with a jangly electric guitar line a la early Elvis Costello. It might be the perfect blend of old and new; it might be an awkward marriage of substance and style. I will report back on how it works.

Interested in downloading the leadsheet? Go here.

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O My Soul! @ Calvin University

On October 28, I was privileged to lead Calvin University’s chapel with the Campus Choir. We focused on Psalm 103–my favorite–singing four different versions of the Psalm as a way of “preaching with song.” We sang Taizé’s “Bless the Lord My Soul,” Matt Redman’s “Ten Thousand Reasons,” and the classic hymn “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven.” We concluded with my anthem, “Bless the Lord, O My Soul!” which begins at 17:23. A good time was had by all. (As far as I could tell.)

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Choir Church Demos Live

Jesus, Be Enough – SATB Choir, Piano, and opt. Flute

Last year I attended a songwriting retreat that focused on writing Christmas songs for too often overlooked themes. Great writers like Liz Vice, Matt Papa, Eddie Espinosa, and Latifah Alattas applied their skills to theological ideas like the union of heaven and earth in the person of Christ and the dark side of the Christmas story such as the slaughter of the innocents and the flight to Egypt.

It was at this retreat that I wrote “Jesus, Be Enough.” In the year since, I’ve wondered what this song wants to be when it grows up. Now, just in time for Christmas, it has decided that it would like to be a choral anthem! Above, you can listen to a rough demo I recorded at choir rehearsal this evening. To download it for your choir you can visit my website: https://gregscheer.com/product/jesus-be-enough/.

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Church Rock and/or Roll

Refugee King, with Liz Vice, et al

It was my great pleasure to work with Liz Vic, Wen Reagan, Bruce Benedict, and Lester Ruth to write this song, “Away in A Manger.” Most Christmas songs are all sweetness, with the baby Jesus sleeping contentedly, “no crying he makes.” This song turns that idyllic picture on its head, revealing the drama and stress of a real family with a real baby who was the target of jealous politician’s wrath, forcing them to flee “away from the manger” to the safety of Egypt. Liz does a wonderful job on this new recording, just in time for Christmas.

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Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Festival of the Psalms in Jakarta

Singing Scheer Psalms in Indonesia translation is certainly a niche interest. Nonetheless, I wanted to make this video available for all the people who might be interested. Both of you…

I’m making self-deprecating jokes, but this was a really wonderful evening. The GKY Manggabesar is a singing congregation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my friend (and GKY pastor) Lucky Samuel had already taught many of these songs to his congregation. What a gift to hear them singing songs I had written half a world away in their own language!

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Arrangement Choir Church Commissions Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Rejoice in All Your Works @ Calvin Graduation

I was commissioned by Calvin College to arrange Wendell Kimbrough’s fabulous song “Rejoice in All Your Works (Psalm 104)” for their 2018 graduation ceremony. The song is arranged for choir, wind ensemble, praise band, and 5,000 singers.

It was a lot of notes. (Which means a lot of work and a lot of time.) But it was worth it to hear the Van Noord arena reverberate with the sound of praise coming from joyful graduates and their grateful families.

An octavo of the choral anthem (with more modest instrumental forces) will be published by GIA in the coming year.

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Church Commissions Congregational Songs Live

Prayer of Jonah at the Calvin Worship Symposium

If you missed Western Seminary’s performance of my “Prayer of Jonah,” just click below. The song starts at 20:57, but the whole service is well worth watching.

Oh, if you happen to be looking for a scripture song accompanied by 5 electric basses (and really, who isn’t?) just contact me for the music.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Retuned hymn

The Song of Moses and the Lamb

The sermon at Fuller this week comes from the story of Moses’ birth and adoption by Pharoah’s daughter (Exodus 2:1-10), exploring Moses as a foreshadowing of Christ. As I looked for appropriate songs to sing, I came across a once-popular hymn by William Hammond called, “Awake and Sing the Song.” This hymnic rabbit trail led to the original 1745 publication of Hammond’s poem that featured no less than 14 verses! The rabbit trail continued to Revelation 15:2-4 in which the harp-wielding saints sing the “song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.” Pure worship planning gold.

The Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb (1425-29)

Naturally, I felt the need to write a new tune for it–it’s who I am. I knew the text called for a tune as rough as a sea chanty, as epic as a murder ballad, and as joyously raucous as a shape-note hymn. What I came up with is a pentatonic melody that is equal parts “What Wondrous Love” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” I’m quite pleased with it. (And that’s not always the case after singing a dozen takes of a new melody while recording a demo.) I was also pleased that I was able to work in my favorite phrase from the original hymn, “we, his miracles of grace.”

The one remaining question: does it need a chorus? Musically, it feels complete without it, but thematically we are being called to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, but we never do. The actual song appears in Rev 15:3-4:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

I have a chorus drafted. If enough people request it, I’ll add it.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Quirky

I’ve Got Joy!

This Sunday at Fuller Ave, Nate was preaching from 2 Corinthians 13:11: “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice!” The service was all about joy, so we decided the praise set should be a rambunctious Sunday School Singalong.

A scene of pure joy from my favorite boys.

On a long bike ride the day before the service I got to singing a little ditty inspired by NRBQ’s “Down in My Heart.” Nothing deep, just a tune full of joy. I was enjoying it so much that I stopped on the side of the road and sang it into my cellphone just in case I forgot it!

The next day I introduced it to the congregation. It fit beautifully alongside “This Is the Day,” “Rejoice in the Lord Always,” and “I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy (Down in My Heart).”