Category: Church

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Art Music Church Finale demo Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post Rest

I know it’s Holy Week, but that doesn’t mean I can’t post to my blog, right? Actually, the week before Easter is usually pretty relaxed at church because the bulk of the planning and preparation is already done. So I take the opportunity to catch up on projects I’ve been putting off.

Here is the second to last movement of my slowly emerging Hallel Psalm cycle. Well, second to last to be written. It’s actually the 8th movement, coming after the song “Be At Rest” (Psalm 116) and before “All You Nations” (Psalm 117).

I gotta admit that I’m fond of this one: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos Psalms

Creation’s Chorus (Psalm 148)

Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

I’ve had this song hanging around for over a decade, and due to a contest sponsored by Fuller Seminary (Brehm Center/Fred Bock Inst. of Music) finally decided to polish it up and send it out the door.

Psalm 148 is a call to praise three parts, starting with the heavenly realms, moving to the creatures of the earth, and finally calling all people on earth to praise the Lord. I’m not the first to write a three verse setting of this Psalm, but I’m probably the first to use a hip hop/black gospel style and an alternate third verse that modernizes the kings, princes, young and old of the original Psalm to scientists, theologians, bards and politicians!

This is a one-hour demo (that is, a 2.5 minute demo that took me about an hour to record), so try to be forgiving: MP3. (I know what you’re thinking: “couldn’t you have spent a few more of those 60 minutes tuning your guitar?…”)

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Art Music Church Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post-Nations

“What’s up with the goofy name–“Hallel Post-Nations?” you say. Indeed.

As promised, I continue to chip away at my multi-movement work based on the Hallel Psalms. All the Psalm songs are done, and now I just have a few instrumental movements to finish before bringing the composition to completion and setting a date for a premiere. This movement comes right after the Psalm 117 song, “All You Nations,” hence “post-nations.” (Now that I hear the title by itself, it sure sounds apocalyptic. No matter, I’ll change the title in the end.)

Astute listeners will hear that this movement is a fugue. Or as one person put it, I’m “channeling my inner Bach.” The big difference being that Bach improvised fugues, whereas this took me many hours. One of the fun things about this movement is that it combines the folk style of the songs with the classical style of the instrumental interludes. That is, this fugue will segue directly from “All You Nations” and the guitar and bass will continue to lay down a folkish boom/chunk-a-chunk groove throughout the fugue.

You won’t hear that very well on this mock up MP3, but you’ll see it in the PDF score.

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Tremble Before the Lord (sleep deprivation remix)

A few weeks ago I posted a refrain based on Psalm 114. On February 28 I had a deadline for turning in a recording of said Psalm. I completed the recording at 5:30am that morning. Now my sleepless night can be enjoyed in a compact musical form on the new Cardiphonia compilation, Hallel Psalms.

My promise to Bruce Benedict, the wizard behind the Cardiphonia curtain who asked me to contribute to his project, was that it would be “Philip Glass meets Brother Roger, performed by Mike Oldfield.” There might be a bit of Tom Waits and Monks of Solesmes in there as well. Decide for yourself. Better yet, listen to the whole Hallel Psalms CD. It’s great.

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Church Congregational Songs Retuned hymn

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

Six years ago I was standing in the parking lot of a hotel in Uganda, waiting for the group to gather. It was a beautiful East African morning–the kind that is going to burn like a furnace at mid-day, but is dawn-of-creation perfect until 10am–and I began to fiddle around with a little idea on the guitar. Somehow that riff paired up with the text “There’s a Wideness” in my head, and I’ve been trying consummate the union ever since.

Many songs I write come out fully formed, whether because I tapped into some well-spring of creativity or because a pressing deadline forces quick completion. But this one just wouldn’t settle down. I have a theory that things are harder to articulate the more they mean to you, so maybe it was the combination of beautiful hymn text, fond African memories, and can’t-get-it-out-of-my-mind melody that was tripping me up. In any case, I was definitely breaking my Write Once/Edit Twice rule of composing.

We’re singing various settings of “There’s a Wideness” at Church of the Servant during Lent, so I said, “Enough’s enough. I need to finish this thing!” Instead of continuing to hem and haw about minute changes that could be made, I decided to trust my instincts and bring my editing to a close. Here are three ways/places the song has been sung in the last two weeks:

COS Guitarchestra: MP3, PDF

COS choir: MP3, PDF

Calvin LOFT, via COS intern Laura de Jong. (Thanks Laura, Paul, and the LOFT team!) Go to minute 29:10 of the video.

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 118: Everlasting to Everlasting

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

This is it, people. This is the last of the Hallel Psalms; that is, 118 of 113-118. Now that all the songs are completed, I still need to write two more instrumental sections to complete the whole cantata thingy I’ve been working on.

A word on Psalm 118. When you’re turning a Psalm into a song, there are a million ways you could go. In the case of Psalm 118, it is all over the place thematically, ranging from “this is the day the Lord has made” to “open the gates of righteousness” to “I will exult over my enemies.” Really, the Psalm deserves a rhapsodic composition rather than a simple song. Which is exactly what I did a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKXjkRaEZ8M.

But this time I wanted something more congregational. I pulled two major themes from the Psalm: death/imprisonment versus life/freedom, and the eternal nature of God versus the fleeting nature of human power. It still makes for somewhat of a sprawling song, but manageable by a cantor and congregation.

MP3 (By the way, Psalm 118 is the lectionary Psalm for Palm Sunday and Easter. Hint, hint…)

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Art Music Church Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post-Glory

I spent the day writing just as fast as I could and spent the evening doing a read-through of my Hallel Psalms with some friends. Here is part of the fruit of our labors. Once again, I’ll come up with a better title for the piece at some point in the future. For now, the name “Hallel Post-Glory” identifies it as the movement in the larger Hallel piece that comes after the song “For the Glory of Your Name.”

It’s always fun to hear a composition played by real musicians (as opposed to Finale’s robotic playback) for the first time. That just never gets old.

Listen and look.

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 115: For the Glory of Your Name

This is my second attempt at Psalm 115. (The first is here.) It’s interesting to see the two different directions one Psalm can go musically. The first version was prettier and more compact, but I like the earthiness of this one better and it will fit into my Hallel Psalm collection better. All that’s left from my Hallel project is a song for Psalm 118 and some instrumental connective tissue!

MP3, PDF

 

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Art Music Church Hallel Psalms Psalms

Hallel Prelude

Now that I’ve got most of the Hallel Psalm songs done, I can begin working on the instrumental parts of the piece. This “Hallel Prelude” (also known as “Hallel? Ooh Yah!”) is the lead off piece and will segue directly into the previously written “From the Rising of the Sun.”

All of the instrumental movements will be played by friends: alto recorder, flute, 2 violins, and a continuo of guitar/bass. The ensemble’s name is tentatively “The Grand Rapids Greg Scheer Consort of Old-Sounding New Music.” I’m open to other suggestions, though…

Sorry about the MP3 demo. I’m using Finale’s “Export to Audio File…” feature, and there’s something funky going on with it. Usually it just sounds robotic. This time it sounds robotic and distorted.

MP3, PDF

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 117: All You Nations

This, the shortest of Psalms, is made up of two, diminutive sections. The first is a call to all people of the world to praise God, the second gives the reason for praise: God’s steadfast love. In a process very unlike rocket science, I have dedicated a verse to each of those themes. I was pleased that I was able to get all the lines of the first verse to begin with the word “all” and the second with “great.” It’s not a big deal, but little touches like this help tighten up a song.

 MP3, PDF