Category: Church

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Psalms

Restore Us, O God! (first draft)

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for the final version of this song can be downloaded here.

Has it really been a month since my last post? Shame on me! Also shame on me for telling Naaman Wood back in August that I wanted to collaborate with him, and not doing anything about it until now.

One of the things he sent me was a setting of Psalm 80, still in draft form. My first attempt at setting it to music sounded too Getty. My second attempt was just a little lackluster. (You know, it’s not easy to write something that sounds fresh, but that is singable by a congregation!) But the third time was the charm. I went with more of a folk ballad feel. It reminds me a little bit of the Yiddish song “Donna Donna” by Aaron Zeitlin and Sholom Secunda, made famous by Donovan, Joan Baez (video below), and my new favorite, Nehama Hendel. I thought the minor feel fit the pleading nature of Psalm 80 well.

This is as much of a demo I could create on an Advent morning before most of the church staff arrived. It starts out Donovan and ends up Jack White: MP3

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Global

Somos uno en Cristo / We Are One in Christ Jesus

Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song is available here.

There’s a wonderful little song called “Somos uno en Cristo” that is making its way into a number of recent hymnals. Unfortunately, the arrangement that invariably appears with the song doesn’t bring out the best in it. I decided to write an accompaniment that allowed the melody to flow more freely, that included the characteristic V7 chord lifting into the B section, and that added a little tag at the end where people could catch their breath before singing the next verse. Nothing fancy, but it helps: MP3, (see link above for PDF)

Now someone needs to work on the translation…

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs

God Himself Is with Us, flute descant

Update: Sheet music for this descant is now available at gregscheer.com.

My golden rule of worship planning is “people first.” That is, instead of planning a bunch of great songs and then squishing some musicians into your plan, you should plan songs that you think your musicians can lead well.

This Sunday’s musicians included flutist Kristen Zoeteway. One thing I know about Kristen is that she’s always up for a challenge. Give her a difficult part and a few days to practice and she’ll nail it. So when I was choosing music for the service I included “God Himself Is with Us,” for which I wrote a flute descant a few years ago. But I couldn’t leave it at that, could I? No, I decided I needed to bookend that verse 3 descant with a theme and variations style flute intro.

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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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Church Congregational Songs Demos

Who Can Compare?

I’ve been reading the book of Isaiah lately, and when I got to Isaiah 40:12-26, I thought, “This sounds familiar.” Indeed. 16 years ago I wrote a song based on that passage.

It’s fun to go back to old songs, because time allows for some perspective. This song, for example, is a reasonable rendition of this scripture. But it’s not a great song. The lyrics are good, but somehow don’t pull you in. The melody is memorable, but a bit glib. (In my defense, it was written at a time when songs like “I Will Celebrate” were in vogue.) The pacing is too slow–four verses go on for over five minutes.

all_misfit_toys_welcome_here-1.jpg
Photo from the animated television special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Credit: Rankin/Bass (formerly Videocraft International, Ltd.), and DreamWorks Classics, a subsidiary of DreamWorks Animation.

And that’s why I created a new page at my main website called the “Island of Misfit Songs.” Like its namesake, “The Island of Misfit Toys,” from the animated special Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, this is the place where good, but not quite great songs reside on my website.

To summarize: This blog is an unfiltered musical diary, mostly focusing on new music I’ve written or recorded. My main website is my official catalog of works, including a new pages for Psalm songs, hymn tunes, and a list of songs by scripture. The Island of Misfit Songs is my attempt to trim back the good in order to leave room for the best, without erasing them from the site entirely.

Feel free to vote songs on or off the island.

 

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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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Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Psalm 149 at COS

149My sabbatical ended, fully and officially, as I returned to worship leading at Church of the Servant this Sunday. I wanted to make sure people noticed that I was back–and had warm feelings about continuing to pay my salary–so I wrote a new setting of Psalm 149 for the service. You can read more about the song in a previous post.

Below is a recording from the service. I had the idea for the repeated notes in the strings while I was running the day before and was quite pleased with how they sounded. With all those talented musicians and a congregation that sings better than most choirs, it’s hard to go wrong!

Psalm 149, MP3

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Psalms

Psalm 149: Let God’s People Sing a New Song

149Update 3/12/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Listen: MP3 (Yucky one-take demo).
Look: See link above.

My church follows the lectionary, a three year cycle of scripture readings. Generally speaking that’s a really good thing. But every once in a while you hit on one of those “difficult” scriptures. (I guess that’s the point.) On September 7th the lectionary Psalm will be Psalm 149. Unlike its kinder, gentler siblings, Psalm 148 and 150, this Psalm starts off with a “sing to the Lord a new song” theme, but quickly descends into a savage war cry: “Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples.” Yikes! It sounds like death metal lyrics or the “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” of antiquity!

I began searching for a suitable musical setting of the Psalm and didn’t find much. The front runner concluded with the line, “sing praises for aye.” I just can’t see myself singing “aye” in worship unless it’s on “bring a pirate to church” Sunday.

So I set about writing a new one. First, I consulted some commentaries. It turns out that Psalm 149 is in two parts (v1-4, v5-9), sandwiched by hallelujahs. The first half praises God for salvation. The second half praises God for victory. It’s the second half that is so uncomfortable for modern readers. It sounds triumphalistic, nationalistic, and downright bloody. I’m not one to jump right to allegorical interpretations, but I’m also not comfortable with promoting the idea that we (The USA? Israel?) execute judgment on the pagans. I didn’t want to soften God’s judgment–God is, after all, the King of kings–but I took the sword out of our hands, and emphasized the justice of God’s reign rather than vengeance on non-believers. I don’t know that I got it just right, but it’s certainly better than your Psalm 149 song!

NOTE: I updated the melody on 8/29/14 to give people a place to breathe. It is now three 8th notes closer to perfection!

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Church Congregational Songs

An Offering of Praise

urban_dox_internsI’ve been in Richmond working with five talented young songwriters in the Urban Doxology Songwriting Internship. Their task: write great new songs for urban churches, using East End Fellowship as a test congregation. But what kind of songs should they be? Should they mimic hip hop? “Urbanify” songs from the CCLI charts? Continue the black gospel tradition? A little of all three?

I figured I had given them enough grief about their songs over the last few weeks that it would be unfair for me not to give it a try myself. What I came up with has a Bruno Mars “Locked Out of Heaven” feel in the beginning, some juicy gospel chords in the chorus, and a modern P&W style repeated bridge. (That doesn’t make it three times as good as a mono-style song, I just thought it was interesting enough to note.) Lyrically, I decided that an urban song could (should?) have simple, direct lyrics that would relate to a wide variety of educational backgrounds (this is true at EEF, at least). I was also eager to return to the basics of salvation and righteousness in Christ. We shouldn’t get tired of that, right?

Here’s the MP3 I recorded on my computer’s mic with just my voice and a guitar. (Granted, I had some help from Logic Pro X’s drummer and octave transpose pedal.) The recording makes me sound insanely white. I’m confident that if the interns sing it, it will quickly sound more urban.

1. Imprisoned in a pit of shame,
That I had dug with my own hands.
Locked within these prison walls
Of my own making.
Everywhere the smell of sin—
Regrets, remorse, a heart of pain.
And I had given up all hope
Of salvation.

CHORUS
Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay:
his life for mine, his blood divine made a way.
All that I can give is the ransomed life I live;
Spend all my days a debtor to God’s grace.
All that I can give is the ransomed life I live,
and I give it as an offering of praise.

2. Released from such a debt of sin,
Redeemed from certain death I live
Renewed to the holy radiance
of my Savior.
Live as a debtor to his love.
Live in his grace, it is enough.
Live every day in confidence
Of his favor.     CHORUS

BRIDGE
In Jesus Christ I am made right.
In Jesus Christ I have life.

3. Nothing I have ever done
or will ever do will change his love.
He looks on me and sees his Son;
Sees me righteous.
Righteous in the work of Christ,
The Holy Lamb once sacrificed,
Once, for all, throughout all time.
It is finished.     CHORUS