The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer
So how does a young man from Narragansett, Rhode Island have a cantata premiered in East Germany?
First, he spends a year studying in Salzburg, Austria. No. Wait. First, he meets an au pair in Narragansett who is kind of enough to help him practice his German and dumb enough to say “If you ever get to Austria, I’d love to see you.”
The next 8 posts are movements from a cantata based on Psalm 113 that premiered at the 100 year anniversary of the Hermsdorfer Kirche in the former East Germany. To make sure you don’t lose interest, I’ll tell a little bit of the the story with each post.
I’m always surprised at how well things can turn out sometimes when you have no idea what you’re doing. This setting of Psalm 100 was really a matter of me reading the Psalm and thinking, “Hmm… It sounds like this one could use some music.” Out came “Shout for Joy.” It turned out pretty well, and I’ve even returned to it a few times since then, updating it and creating an arrangement for piano and choir.
One of my favorite memories of this piece is when I lived in Salzburg in 1988/89, I attended a big Christian youth conference in Aachen, Germany. It turns out their praise band needed a bass player, so I volunteered. A few days into it I showed a few people this song, and they asked me to sing it during worship. I wrote an incredibly hard violin solo which I gave to an incredibly good violinist, and we sang the piece in front of a few thousand people that night.
This Ostertreff gathering, by the way, was a real turning point for me, faith-wise. Kind of an adult conversion. I went from being a temporary agnostic who hung out with Christians because that’s who was friendly to me, to becoming a Christian. It was a good Easter.
One of my early church compositions, we also used “The Lord Bless You” at Pitt Men’s Glee Club concerts. Both this two-part choir and a leadsheet version are available. It’s a perky little thang, ain’t it?
When I directed the music at Bellefield Presbyterian, the choir would recess down the middle aisle each week and stand in the back until the benediction, at which point we’d sing an Amen.
You know me. It wasn’t too long before I was writing new ones. Specifically, I wrote a series of rounds. This one I actually notated on a circular staff. (I let the choir sing it from a normal score, though, because I thought it would be unwieldy to sing while spinning your music in circles…) Amen #1.
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
A while back, I was looking for a musical setting of Psalm 125 to fit with our church’s series on the Psalms of Ascent. Like any good researcher, I went to YouTube. There, I found a video of two Brazilians playing a song called Proteção. I had no context for the music, but I couldn’t get the song out of my mind.
A little poking around brought me to a treasure trove of newly composed songs in Portuguese, written primarily by Rubem Amorese, but often co-written with others, most notably the other man in the video, Toninho Zemuner. Toninho has also recorded many of these songs. The man has golden ears and works with extremely talented musicians! You can hear the studio recording of Proteção at Amorese’s website or at their church’s website.
I wasn’t able to finish a translation in time for the sermon series that first led me to the song, but recently returned to it. A few days ago I completed a translation and piano score, and yesterday recorded a demo.
I hope to work with more of these songs in the future, and have been dropping hints at the CICW that a trip to Brazil would be an appropriate–no, necessary–part of my work. For now I’ll have to settle for this being a long distance collaboration, bringing more of Rubem’s songs to English speakers and making my presence in Brazil felt only through “Povo do senhor,” the Portuguese translation of my song “People of the Lord.”
I usually reserve this blog for premieres, but as you know, a composition’s success is measured by repeat performances. In the case of a congregational song, there’s a big difference between what’s on the page, how it sounds when a congregation sings it, and how well it settles in after repeated singing.
So here are two songs that Church of the Servant has sung a few times each. Deeper than the Sea is published as a choral anthem, but that doesn’t mean that it sings well when given to a congregation. In this recording, it’s led by the Guitarchestra. From the Dust was rejected by the same publisher, but once again, that doesn’t mean much in terms of its worth as a congregational song. In this particular case, the COS choir sings the choral anthem version of the song, but the congregation is invited to join in on the refrains.
What do you think? Do these two have that undefinable it that makes a great congregational song? If there were a musical cage fight between the two songs, which one would win?
I’ve loved the folk tune WALY WALY for years. I used to sing “The Water Is Wide” with guitar and violin back in my coffeehouse days. I’ve annoyed congregation members by using the tune with the text “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” (It’s a better pairing, but people don’t seem to care about the facts when it comes to church music.) More recently I arranged the tune for piano and used it with the text “As Moses Raised the Serpent Up.”
But my favorite so far is Susa Palo Cherwein’s text “O Blessed Spring.” The wistfulness of WALY WALY brings out the seasons-of-life theme of Cherwein’s text beautifully. The added strings and Erin De Young’s solo are icing on the cake. If you can listen to it without crying, you need a heart transplant.
This Lent, Church of the Servant is using a different version of Isaac Watts’ text “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed” each Sunday. Kauflin, Benedict, Governor–we’re doing them all. My own humble contribution to the collection is an arrangement of the traditional tune MARTYRDOM. Check it out.
What’s with all the songs in D minor?
I’m still stuck on the tune SALVATION. It’s a Kentucky Harmony tune that’s not used nearly as much as some other early American tunes. And that’s a shame. I am trying to single-handedly right this imbalance by using it every other week at my church. This time it’s paired with the Herman Stuempfle text “You Strode into the Temple, Lord,” and accompanied by the COS Guitarchestra. Take a listen to the MP3. Of course, the problem is that I’ve used the tune so much that now people in my church are beginning to ask,
“What’s with all the songs in D minor?”