The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerI’m just coming down from the mountaintop known as the annual Calvin Worship Symposium. Beyond the 4 sessions and 2 services I helped lead, I contributed an arrangement to the service led by Bruce Benedict and the Hope College worship team. At 18:15 in the video below you’ll hear my string arrangement of Bethany Brooks‘ “Sanctus.” Bethany wrote a fine song–simple and stately–and I knew the best thing I could do is simply stay out of they way.
While tracking down recordings of my arrangements from this year’s Calvin College Lessons and Carols service, I was also able to locate a recording of “Pentecostal Splendor” from the service in 2014. The vivid imagery of the text by John E. Speares and the rugged melody by Dale Wood gave me plenty of material to work with. It sounded splendid with a huge choir, pipe organ*, and brass quintet. You can email me for a score or read the full program here: http://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/a-pentecostal-christmas
*I should mention that the organ sounds splendid in part because of how well Norma Malefyt played it, but also because she spent a good deal of time with me working on how to write well for the instrument.
The second piece I was asked to arrange for Calvin College’s 2016 Lessons and Carols service was “What Adam’s Disobedience Cost.” This hymn text by Fred Pratt Green (V5 Carol Bechtel) is not all that well known, but it fills an important niche in the church year, matching the reading about the fall of humanity in Genesis 3.
It is also a wonderful tune, DETROIT, which I fist learned from the amazing early American hymnal The Southern Harmony, 1835. Part of the difficulty with arranging this tune is that I had already arranged it once before in a very different context. In the end, I was able to conjure up an entirely different approach which fit the choir, organ, and reverberant LaGrave sanctuary well.
You can see the whole program here or email me to see the score.
This Christmas I had the honor of contributing to Calvin College’s Lessons and Carols service. They commissioned two pieces. The first was a musical collage paired with the scripture about Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven. I was asked to set the Negro Spiritual “Jacob’s Ladder” with numerous Glorias: Taizé’s, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and Pablo Sosa’s. For three choirs and organ. That was not enough of a challenge, so I threw in the verse about Jacob’s ladder from “Nearer My God to Thee.”
You can see the whole program here or email me to see the score.
Update 10/28/21: Sheet music for this song can now be purchased at gregscheer.com.
For a long time now, people* have been clamoring for the Scheer men to form a band. Indeed, we are the ultimate boy band: tall and lanky Simon–the funny one–with his hair piled high, Theo–the cute one–with his blonde mop top, and Greg–the mature older brother† with his hipster beard. Heck, we even have a diabetic member like the Jonas Brothers!
But I digress. The point is that this marks the first time that the Scheers have recorded a song together: I’m on guitar and vocals, Simon’s on bass, and Theo’s on cello.
And what a song it is! I was introduced to “Oče naš” by a woman who was taking ESL classes at Church of the Servant. She helped me find a recording of the song (below), gave me the meaning of each word of the original text, and even guided me through the Croatian pronunciation phonetically. I created a singing translation in English and arranged it for piano.
It’s a simple and haunting song that I hope will find its way into many congregations. For now, you will have to satisfy yourself with the Scheer Men’s rendition.
*By “a long time” and “people” I mean, of course, “one person” and “once.”
†By “mature older brother” I mean, of course, wishful thinking.
Update 11/4/21: Sheet music for this song can now be downloaded at gregscheer.com.
A few months ago, I was asked to compose a theme song for the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ 2017 General Council meeting in Leipzig, Germany. After three tries I got it right. One of the out-takes from that process was a hymn tune in a distinctly Bach style. I was really pleased to hear from the event organizers that they not only liked the song I submitted, but they liked the Bach-style hymn, as well. They asked if I’d be willing to write a new text for that tune; a text focusing on the suffering of the world.
After a week of drafting, crumpling, re-drafting, and editing, I’m done. “Ever-Tender Shepherd” is a musical “collect prayer”–a prayer which petitions God based on God’s attributes. In this case, attributes of Jesus are connected to the needs of the world. We ask Christ, the Shepherd, to gather scattered refugees, for example. This seemed a good way to address the needs of the world without taking sides or naming issues so specifically that the song would be obsolete by the time it was used. I’m especially fond of the third verse. But who am I to play favorites?
1. Ever-tender Shepherd,
hear your people’s moans
as they sift through rubble
that was once their homes.
See your children scatter
as cities burn to ash.
Be for them a refuge;
Be for them a rest.
2. Ever-blessing Brother,
grant again your peace.
Breathe on us your Spirit,
that our wars may cease.
Stanch the endless bleeding
of self-inflicted wounds.
May your blood be healing
and your cross our truce.
3. Ever-wounded Healer,
feel your planet’s pain.
Fever wracks its body;
poison fills its veins.
Hear creation’s groaning,
its sighs too deep for words.
Be the re-creation
of all things on earth.
4. Ever-reigning Victor,
ever-loving Lord,
ever intercede for
us, your weak and poor.
May we ever follow
your perfect sacrifice,
offering lives of mercy,
ever-living Christ.
Update 10/28/21: Sheet music for this song can now be purchased at gregscheer.com.
In a Goldilocks’ moment, my third and final porridge…er, song…is just right. This time, my theme song for the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council brings together the best of my earlier drafts.
My first attempt was too “slogan-y”. This version takes that slogan’s idea (“transformed and transforming; renewed and renewing”) and puts it in prayer form: “Renew us, O God.” This prayer serves as a refrain that can be sung joyfully, as on the recording, or introspectively, like a Taizé chorus.
My second attempt had a solid text, but stolid music. (Okay, “stolid” is probably too strong of a word–but it wasn’t festive enough for the occasion.) This third one recycles that same text, but matches it with more vibrant music. It is a lively 6/8 melody that could be accompanied in a variety of styles: hymn-like with organ accompaniment, in a liturgical folk style with piano, or with guitar and even full praise band.
I knew I was onto something when the song continued to come back to me throughout the week. It’s highly singable, but has enough Scheer™ twists and turns to keep it interesting. The first four chords, for example, are pretty far off the beaten track. The D (I) chord moves to an F#m (iii) chord, which should head to a Bm (vi), G (V), or even A (V). Instead, it goes to an Am (minor v), a surprising shift that doesn’t go off the rails because of the stable melody.
But enough harmonic geekery. Take a listen to the recording above.
My second attempt at a theme song for the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council was inspired by their meeting place: Leipzig. Leipzig, of course, is famous as the city in which Bach worked for almost three decades and the where he is laid to rest. My second draft, then, is an homage to Bach: a four-part chorale with as many Bach-isms as I could muster.
It is a sturdy tune with all the harmonic twists you’d expect of imitation Bach. The text was also a step in the right direction. Instead of getting at the theme, “Living God Renew and Transform Us,” in slogan form as I did in my first draft, this time I approached it in strophic form. The three verses address the three persons of the Trinity and explore the ways they lead us to renewal. Check it out: PDF.
In the end, though, it felt too backward-looking for this assembly. They have thousands of historic hymns to choose from when planning worship–including chorales by the actual Bach–and likely don’t need any historic sounding hymns in the mix. So I decided, once again, to move on.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Greg writes a theme song for the WCRC 2017 General Council!
Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
I’ve been asked to write a song for use at the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council.
The difficulty of this sort of assignment is that–with intuition rather than information–I have to project what might be needed and what the vibe of the gathering is likely to be. The theme of this global assembly is “Living God Renew and Transform Us.” This is both a prayer for the ongoing work of the Spirit and a tip of the hat to the 500th year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
You likely know the phrase “Semper reformanda: Reformed and always reforming” that captures the spirit of the modern Reformed Church. I began my composing with this as a starting point. I liked the way phrases such as, “Reformed and reforming; transformed and transforming; renewed and renewing, forgiven and forgiving” show both what we’ve received through faith and what we, in turn, offer the world. However, in song form, I felt the phrases were quickly turning into a laundry list, a lyrical dead end. (I often refer to this kind of song as a “contest hymn”; they use enough catch phrases to win a contest, but never really catch on in real-life congregations.)
While I like the Medieval music groove and believe it will be immensely singable with the right lyrics, I decided to pull the plug and move on. If you want to take a stab at writing new lyrics, please feel free to visit gregscheer.com to download the free pdf and get to work. Otherwise, stay tuned for WCRC Take 2.
Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
As you know, my dear listeners, I scour the globe for songs that might find a home in your congregation. Sometimes they come from the globe that is my head. Other times they come from far-flung lands on the globe underneath my feet. In the case of this setting of Psalm 121, it hails from Korea.
I learned this song from two Korean friends who were studying at Calvin Seminary. This is the second in a big pile of lovely songs that we sang through a few years back. What I love about these songs is that they are simple, heartfelt, and based on scripture. It fits well with a Korean spirituality that is so full of prayer and devotion. The song is by Seong Sil Chung. (If you know him, please introduce me!) I translated the text using the videos below, notes from friends, and Psalm 121 itself. There are two arrangements: the first is a piano accompaniment with guitar chords (capo 4), the second is a simple four part arrangement like you’d find in hymnals.