Category: Congregational Songs

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.

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.

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.]