Category: Congregational Songs

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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.)

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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.

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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

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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.

 

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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!

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Congregational Songs Quirky

Again I Say Rejoice Again

I learned about Vine six second videos yesterday, and today started thinking about all the cool musical things that could be done with them. Problem: no iPhone. But on the way to Guitarchestra rehearsal this evening I began writing a 6 second worship song in my head in the hopes one of the players would have one. Sure enough, Jim Zoeteway is enough of a techie to have brought his. He downloaded the app during rehearsal and we learned and filmed the song at the end of the night. (“This kind of quality in that little time?” you say. Oh yes.)

Without further ado, I present to you the world’s first 6 second, infinitely repeatable worship song, played by the Church of the Servant Guitarchestra–sideways–and documented in a Vine video: https://vine.co/v/bPEaJTtH5hQ.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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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?…”)