This is, literally, my musical diary–notes fresh from my pen and recorded in a few hours. You can find my finished works elsewhere; here, it's all about capturing the moment!
The first version of “Jesus Lives” was all business: The chords move every half note and the melody takes off quickly, leaving room to breathe but not much more.
This second version is more relaxed: It’s not just the country backbeat that makes this song feel so chill–the chords move slowly and the melody is smooth and leaves space between phrases. It’s also more guitar-friendly, which gives it a happy, chimey sound when led by a folk band.
So the question is this: Should a song about the resurrection be more energetic (#1) or relaxed (#2)?
As Easter rapidly approaches, many worship planners are simply trying to survive Holy Week. But Sundays will keep coming, and you need to have a plan for Eastertide! Don’t Worry. I have you covered. Over the next three days I will be unveiling my new Eastertide song(s) “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I.” “Why ‘song(s)’?”, you ask? Because I have actually written three different versions of the same song. Here’s how it happened:
I was searching for songs for Easter and beyond and noticed how many songs are perfect for Easter Sunday but don’t fit the week after. (“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” for example.) Practically half of the New Testament is devoted to understanding the implications of the resurrection for the believer, so where are the songs about dying to self and living for Christ, etc? Then I came across the hymn “Jesus Lives, and So Shall I.” Loved it. I printed off the words, headed to the piano, and wrote a new melody for the text. Then I tweaked the text fairly substantially. Then I had doubts about the melody. Then I composed a new melody. Then I decided I liked both. Then I thought it would be fun to write a third melody and let people choose which version they like best.
Little did I know that my humble trio of melodies was up against such formidable competition: Crüger, CPE Bach, Green Carpet Players, ChurchFolk, and Nathan Partain. Feel free to check their fine renditions, but make sure you come back over the next few days to hear my other two versions of the song. I’ll give you a chance to vote on your favorite in a few days.
1. Jesus lives, and so shall I. The sting of death is gone forever. Jesus lives—the One who died the bands of sin and death to sever. God has raised me from the dust: Jesus is my hope and trust.
2. Jesus lives! My soul revived when Jesus called. I was awakened from my sleep to glorious light; the shroud of death my Lord has shaken. From the grave God raised me up: Jesus is my hope and trust.
3. Jesus lives! New life begins within this heart so long in slavery. From the crushing weight of sin, my God’s strong arm reached down and saved me. Each new day brings grace enough: Jesus is my hope and trust.
4. Jesus lives, and nothing now can separate me from my Savior. Earthly pain nor Satan’s power could never cause his love to waver. Those he’s found are never lost: Jesus is my hope and trust.
Awake, my soul. Awake, my soul. Your Savior calls— calls you to rise with him this dawn, calls you to life within God’s love: Jesus is my hope and trust.
Update 1/10/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
For this latest collaboration with TL Moody, I took a different tack. I often match her texts with folk songs. The organic nature of the subject matter often feels like it should be matched by the string and wood of traditional folk music. And the reference to the lark in the first lines of the hymn almost lured me to follow Ralph Vaughan Williams ethereal “The Lark Ascending.” But I didn’t follow either of those muses.
Lark Bunting, Calamospiza melanocorys
Instead, I took my cues from the chorus, which is about joy welling up in the soul in praise of the Creator. What emerged was a Renaissance-style hymn with a persistent pulse underneath.
Bonus? You get to hear a chorus of Greg trombones!
What I love about this song, “The Meadow Sings,” is that the text wraps nature and doxology together so tightly and beautifully. Many environmental hymns are so heavy-handed they make you want to hop in your SUV and go eat a burger just to spite the starry-eyed, idealistic poet. But this text knits together nature, music, and the Creator so beautifully it makes all three seem part of the same chorus.
The organic nature of the text led me to compose a folk song with Celtic overtones. Of course, we’re all trying to recapture the beauty of “Be Thou My Vision” and “Morning Has Broken.” On the other hand, you could do worse…
I’m currently working on a big choral commission for the centennial celebration of Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna, MN. (“Big” as in, youth and adult choirs, handbells and handchimes, woodwinds, brass, strings, timpani, harp, and praise team.)
While it is relatively easy to write a festive choral piece that would add to a centennial celebration day, it’s a lot harder to write something that will continue to be used by the church for years to come. With that in mind, I wanted to do a reality check, creating a demo that would strip back all the instrumentation to reveal how well the song itself sings. I’m glad I did because the very act of recording the song showed me places I should leave space for breathing, words that tripped the tongue, and parts of the melody that could be streamlined. What remains is smooth as butter.
My study of Psalm 84 revealed a Psalm full of wide-eyed wonder about God’s temple, but also trust in God’s presence on the journey of life. Most commentators break the Psalm into three sections: 1. The beauty of God’s temple. 2. The blessing of the journey (to the temple and the journey of life). 3. God’s presence in the heart and life of the faithful. What a beautiful theme for a church that has journeyed for 100 years and is looking to its future! I followed this same three-part structure in my song.
The song is what I often call a “blender.” That is, a song that can live comfortably in both traditional and contemporary settings: think “In Christ Alone,” “There Is a Redeemer,” etc. This demo leans toward the contemporary with guitars and drums, but the full arrangement (to be completed any day now) leans more traditional, as it will be premiered in a large hall with lots of reverb. Ultimately, I think it will be right at home in both Trinity’s weekly traditional or contemporary services.
Update 1/10/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
My second collaboration with TL Moody is a tune for her text “Speak Sabbath O’er My Soul.” What I love about this text is that positions Sabbath as something life-giving that God does for us rather than a teeth-gritting discipline we do for God.
I went with a serene, stately setting of the text, which I think creates quite a lovely, mystical mood. The piano provides a steady pulse, and the vocals feel like inhaling and exhaling on top of that. (Yes, there are echoes of Sibelius’ “Be Still My Soul.”)
Fortuitously, the day I wrote this was also choir rehearsal day at Fuller Ave CRC. My choir didn’t know they were showing up for a recording session!
Christopher L. Webber, collaborator extraordinaire and completely unaware
My third collaboration with Christopher Webber is a new tune for his social justice hymn, “Is It I, Lord?” The meter of the text is 8.5.5.5 D, which is very unusual. (Unusual, as in “I don’t think it exists anywhere else in the world. Ever.”) It was quite challenging to compose a tune that matched this unusual meter and fit each verse of the tune. But every musical challenge has a solution!
Christopher and I work together remarkably well. Our collaboration is so seamless that we barely need words. I’m joking, of course. I’ve never met the man. Maybe someday I will and he’ll either hug me or punch me.
I have a piano score for this song and would be glad to email it to you if you ask nicely. I will let you know when all these songs are released by World Library Publications.
Update 9/16/20: Sheet music for this song can now be downloaded here.
It’s hard to believe that this piece is 23 years old! This setting of the song of Zechariah (Luke 1:67-79) was written when I lived in Pittsburgh and is performed here by the Duquesne University Choir under the direction of Brady Allred.
You can email me for music (edit: see link above). It comes in a variety of flavors: a cappella, SATB/Piano, or with brass and rhythm section; the rap is optional (and yes, I’m serious: there is a rap). You can also email me if you want to commission the rest of the movements that would complete this set. It’s going to be amazing and I know you want in!
It’s been a good season for commissions, with hymns, choral anthems, and orchestral compositions waiting to be written. But first, this setting of the biblical Song of Jonah. You’ll remember that Jonah was a runaway prophet who was swallowed by a big fish sent from God. You may not remember that once Jonah was firmly lodged inside this enormous fish’s gut, he began praying to God (in song form).
Every year, Western Seminary students perform a scriptural drama in the original Hebrew as the culmination of their language studies. This year, retiring Hebrew professor Tom Boogaart and professor of worship/chapel Ron Rienstra decided to try something different: The Book of Jonah in a new English translation and with a new musical rendition of the Prayer of Jonah, composed by yours truly.
As I began to work on the song, I was struck by the water imagery that echoes Genesis 1 and Psalms 29, 42, 69, and 130. What better way to express this “out of the depths” prayer than the thundering tones of the bass? And thus the project morphed into a song with an accompaniment of five electric basses. (Yes, that is off-the-hook awesome.)
Musically, the song uses a good deal of word painting. The first phrase, “out of the depths,” is a pentatonic melody that quickly swells from lowest range of the voice to more than an octave up. I love the way this gives a musical sense of the depths, the waves, and the turbulence of Jonah’s situation. The pre-chorus (“Baptized into the cold water”) is “adrift” melodically, with a B in the melody floating on top of the Am chord, and the heavy downbeat F# crashing against the Em chord. At the chorus, there’s a sudden lift to E major. It really feels like a ray of sunlight, doesn’t it? More word painting ensues, with “You have raised me up” leaping up and “from the pit” sinking down.
You can check out the full song (MP3, PDF), or listen to a few interludes that will be used as scene change music:
1. Harmonics
2. Chorus
3. Ascension
4. Chaos
1. Out of the depths of my deep distress
I cried to you, my Lord.
Swallowed up whole in the belly of death,
yet still you heard my voice.
Baptized into the cold water,
into the heart of the sea.
The deep was surging, surrounding;
wave after wave drowning me.
You have raised me up, O Lord,
from the pit I’d sunken in.
Gasping for my final breath,
you breathed me to life again.
2. I was resolved to a watery grave
as the waves rose to my neck.
Eyelids closed to the undertow,
garland of seaweed around my head.
My final thought while descending
into the cold arms of death
was of your glorious temple.
Then I slipped into the abyss. [CHORUS]
3. Out of the depths of my deep distress
I remembered you, my God.
From the abyss my prayer was heard
at your holy temple, Lord.
Some waste their prayers on deaf idols.
Some run when hearing God’s call.
I raise a voice of thanksgiving
unto the Lord, God of all. [CHORUS]
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
It seems that people are clamoring* for a keyboard arrangement of “Many Fields to Plow.” Who am I to say No?
What I like most about the keyboard version is that it brings out the flowing nature of the melody in a way that my voice and guitar demo doesn’t. Above is the organ MP3, but it also works well with piano. If you ask nicely, I’ll send you the score.
*At least three people have clamored: Tammy, me, and one other.
You can email me for music (edit: see link above). It comes in a variety of flavors: a cappella, SATB/Piano, or with brass and rhythm section; the rap is optional (and yes, I’m serious: there is a rap). You can also email me if you want to commission the rest of the movements that would complete this set. It’s going to be amazing and I know you want in!