Category: Church

Categories
Choir Church Demos Psalms

2013 Spring Cleaning: I Cry Aloud to the Lord

Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this composition can be downloaded here.

Sometimes spring cleaning can get downright dirty. In this case, my men’s choir composition based on Psalm 142, “I Cry Aloud to the Lord,” is sung by Greg, Greg, Greg, and Greg. I apologize in advance. On the other hand, it’s pretty fun to hear what I did 20 years ago when I got a hold of a 4 track cassette recorder.

Listen to the MP3. You may want to look at the score to have any idea of what the piece is supposed to sound like!

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Psalms

2013 Spring Cleaning: Lead Me to the Rock

Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

In preparation for the Cry Out to God! CD, The Choral Scholars and I read through hundreds of Psalms. Literally, hundreds. We’d read through 40 songs in an evening, making quick recordings as we went, and after many of these mammoth sight-reading sessions we eventually winnowed it down to the 22 songs that appeared on the final CD.

One of the songs that didn’t make the CD was “Lead Me to the Rock,” my setting of Psalm 61. It’s just a first read through, so go easy on us. If you want the leadsheet, piano accompaniment, or a different demo, see the link above. If you want the MP3, click on the word “MP3.” (That’s how the Internet works, you know.)

Categories
Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

2013 Spring Cleaning: As the Deer

I can’t believe I’ve never uploaded my setting of Psalm 42/43, “As the Deer,” to this blog. It’s kind of my big hit, appearing on the Greg Scheer Songbook CD, as a choral anthem in Augsburg Fortress’s GladSong Choirbook, on the Choral Scholar CD Cry Out to God, and even available in Chinese translation.

Sorry for the oversight. Here’s an MP3 to make it up to you.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Finale demo Global

Abana – SATB & Piano

Like “Kwake Yesu,” the Arabic Lord’s Prayer is something I’m really proud of. It just seems to capture people’s spiritual imagination. This is especially satisfying, given the fact that a hymn expert (who shall remain unnamed) declared that congregations would never sing it. A half dozen hymnals and recordings later, I think we can safely say that hymn experts don’t always predict what congregations will and won’t do!

But enough gloating. The version that appears in hymnals is an arrangement by me that makes heavy use of a drone in a hymn texture. That’s lovely, but not like the recordings I’ve heard of the song from Egypt. This SATB and Piano arrangement is more along those lines: almost Klezmer-like use of the harmonic scale, a rhythmic accompaniment with lots of rubato, and vocal harmonies that tend to move in thirds.

It’s stale Finale playback, but it’s the best I’ve got for now: MP3

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Finale demo Global

Kwake Yesu for SATB/piano

My dad tells me that there’s a Spanish proverb that says something to the effect of, “Write a book. Have a son. Plant a tree.” I’ve done the first two and figure I’m covered on the third, because I have two of the second.

When I take stock of things I’ve done that I’m proud of and that are likely to outlive me, the song “Kwake Yesu Nasimama” is pretty high up on the list. I didn’t write the song–just translated it–but there’s no better feeling than finding a great song from Kenya (or elsewhere) and making it available to the larger Church. This Kenyan heartsong has already become the heartsong of lots of people in the English-speaking world.

In any case, the next step was to make choral arrangement of the song. And that’s just what I did. I’m not going to upload the score, because it’s under consideration by a publisher. And though this publisher rarely answers my email, I want to give them first crack at rejecting it before I blog it. But I’m sure I could be convinced to send you the PDF score if you ask me nicely via email…

For now take a listen to this sterile Finale playback, and imagine a heartfelt performance: MP3

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs

A Hymn of Glory (AGINCOURT/DEO GRACIAS)

Looking for that perfect Mother’s Day gift? I don’t have any advice on that. But if you’re looking for the perfect Ascension song, I can hook you up.

“A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing” is the quintessential Ascension hymn, telling the story of Jesus’ ascent with the same kind of narrative arc you often find in Easter songs. Lots of tunes go with this long meter (8.8.8.8) text, but my favorite is DEO GRACIAS (sometimes called AGINCOURT). Its weighty minor melody is offset by a dancing rhythm.

It’s usually accompanied by organ, but I wanted to make this Medieval melody available to folk bands, worship teams, and early music consorts, so I wrote a new arrangement of it. Here’s the PDF leadsheet, and here’s an MP3 of the Guitarchestra playing the song.

 

Categories
Choir Church Congregational Songs Contests Live

We Are the Children of God, new recording

As I announced previously, I lost the Grandfather Home for Children song contest, even though my song was the best. (A fact that was lost on the judges.) But the kind subscriber who alerted me to the contest liked my song enough to include it in his own church’s worship. Here is Dean and his crew at Erwin Presbyterian Church, TN, singing “We Are the Children of God.”

It does my heart good to know the song has found a loving home. As a matter of fact, I’m glad to hear from anyone who uses my music. Feel free to let me know you’re using a song or send me a recording. That’s what this blog is all about!

Categories
Church Congregational Songs

“Lord God, Now Let Your Servants Depart in Peace” appears on The Gospel Coalition’s Songs for the Book of Luke

I’m very pleased to have Brooks Ritter sing my song “Lord God, Now Let Your Servants Depart in Peace” on The Gospel Coalition’s new CD, Songs for the Book of Luke. The whole project is great.

What are you waiting for? Get out your credit card and go buy it!

Also, I just added a new page for the song at my website, where you can download a leadsheet and SATB/piano accompaniment, and hear the demo I made a few years ago.

Categories
Art Music Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 118: This Is the Day! (Easter 2013)

Easter is always a big day for church music, and this year was no exception. What was an exception was the difficulty level of the piece I wrote for the day’s Psalm. I actually wrote this setting of Psalm 118 a few years ago, but this time around I got a good recording of it.

Psalm 118 is a sprawling, rhapsodic Psalm of emotional valleys and mountains. I wanted the composition to reflect that, but I also wanted to make it accessible to the congregation. What I came up with is a short, tuneful refrain that the congregation sings repeatedly throughout the piece. The choir, on the other hand, is given a number of episodes, each mirroring the feelings of the different parts of the Psalm. Put Laura de Jong on soprano, support her with strings, and throw in a timpani–and you’re in business!

Listen to the MP3 from Sunday, or visit the karaoke version of the score on YouTube.

 

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Finale demo Retuned hymn

I Place Myself in Jesus’ Hands

Last summer, an email arrived at Hymnary.org from Germany. A woman there was working on a translation project and was looking for an English translation of “Ich steh in meines Herren Hand” by Philipp Spitta. Interestingly, she was translating the diaries of a German woman at the request of her grandson. The grandson had moved with his parents to America, and shortly after their arrival both parents died. The newly orphaned boy was raised by an American family and soon forgot how to speak German. Now he is learning about his family’s history through the diaries he inherited from his grandmother.

Spitta’s hymn was especially meaningful to his grandmother during the turbulence of the war, and through the process of researching the hymn, I’ve fallen in love with it, too. Here is my new tune for Richard Massie’s English translation, “I Place Myself in Jesus’ Hand“: MP3, PDF.