Category: Congregational Songs

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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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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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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
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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 116: Be at Rest, Once More, O My Soul

For the record, I no longer equate lots of notes with good writing. There’s a time to explore the thresholds of complexity.* But there’s also a time to keep pruning until nothing remains but the simplest, most pure form of what you want to say. Nowadays I’m more concerned about pacing than showing off my chops. That is, does the music unfold at the right pace? Does each new moment seem simultaneously inevitable and refreshing? At the end, do you feel both satisfied and left wanting more?

This is one of those heavily pruned pieces. I have 3 or 4 completely different sketches for this one, and this version is the result of 3 or 4 rigorous pruning sessions. A song whose theme is “be at rest” needs to feel restful. But not boring. It’s a fine line.

Walk the line: PDF, MP3

*My first composition professor, Dr. Gibbs, used to get a delighted look on his face if I handed in a lot of music at my lesson. He would take out a pair of reading glasses, look over the music and say, “That’s what I like to see: lots of notes!”

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 116: The Land of the Living

My FAWM challenge continues. I’m writing a piece based on the Hallel Psalms (113-118). Nine days in and I’ve got four of the six Psalms done, with sketches for the fifth. Once that foundation is laid, I can begin writing Hallelujahs and interludes.

Psalm 116 is a study in the contrast between death and life. The Psalmist had just about slipped into the pit of death when God restored him to the land of the living. And what better way to portray the depths to which the Psalmist had sunk than an accompaniment of basses?

I took quite a loose approach to the lyrics on this one. As a matter of fact, my goal isn’t to be literal or complete on any of these Hallel settings. There are plenty of metrical settings out there for people who want to sing something that sticks close to the Psalm text. I’m writing these more as musical reflections, meditations or a distillations of the spirit of the text. Is it working?

PDF, MP3

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 115: Not to Us, O Lord

My head is in the Hallel Psalms (113-118), so this morning a little praise chorus just sort of began singing in my mind. I had to write it down.

Now, if this were the early 90s I would have a hit rocketing its way up the CCLI charts to shine like a star next to the songs of Graham Kendrick and Geoff Bullock. But this is not the 90s. And I’m still not sure if I’m going to include it in this project.

The trick is that the songs need to be sung reflections on the Psalms that can sit alongside complex instrumental interludes, something like Bach’s chorale preludes. So I don’t know if a sweet little bon bon of praise will be the right thing for this project. I’m happy to be convinced one way or the other. Take a listen and let me know if you think it’s a keeper: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 114: Tremble Before the Lord

A few years ago I wrote a setting of Psalm 114 called “The Hills and Mountains Tremble.” I liked it, especially compared to the settings of Psalm 114 that are available. (There aren’t many.) I didn’t want to use the same setting in my new Hallel Psalm music, but I also didn’t want to close that door entirely, so I wrote something in the same key and with lots of echoes to the previous song. Here is my Taizé-like refrain, a musical summary of the major theme of Psalm 114: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 113: From the Rising of the Sun

I finally decided to bite the bullet and do FAWM. What is FAWM, you ask? It stands for February Album Writing Month, and people who take part make it their goal to write 14 songs in 28 days. You can check out my page here: http://fawm.org/fawmers/gregscheer/.

For this year’s FAWM, I plan to write music around the “Hallel” Psalms (Psalms 113-118). For each Psalm there will be a song (that’s 6 songs), padded by instrumental interludes (7), and interjected Hallelujahs (5), for a total of 18 pieces of music. Part of the reason I decided to take the FAWM challenge this year is that I feel the need for a big project to keep me excited about life. It also coincides with a Cardiphonia project centered on the Hallel Psalms, due at the end of the month.

Now, on to the first post:

The first half of Psalm 113 is lots of beautiful creation imagery, but the second half contains some things that don’t fit as neatly into a modern worship song: God raises the needy from the garbage dump and places them among princes; he gives the barren woman children. I boiled this down to three themes in verse 2: God gives us a place at the table, a place in the kingdom of God, and a place in God’s family.

People at fawm.org get the MP3, but you, dear readers, get the PDF, too!

[Trivia for those who have too much time on their hands: this isn’t the first time I’ve set Psalm 113 to music. A few decades ago I wrote a whole cantata based on the Psalm for a church in Elterlein, East Germany.]