Category: Congregational Songs

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, Second Course

My second bid for rejection starts with a text by Brian Wren, “We Are Your People.” It’s dense enough of a text that something too groovy wouldn’t fit it comfortably. On the other hand, there’s always a need for tunes that bridge the gap between straight-laced hymn and rockin’ praise tune. What I came up with is chordal enough for a guitarist or even worship band to play, but also even enough that it could be led effectively at the organ. (“Gather Us In,” anyone?)

I like that the tune is more or less modal, yet keeps sliding out of the mode’s center. (You can cast your vote in the comment section as to what key you think the song is in.) What holds things together are the strong sequences that follow a subtle inner logic. They guide your voice to the next pitch even when you don’t understand why. Listen or look and let me know what you think.

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

A Gluttonous Feast of Rejection, First Course

Why am I like this? I’ve been rejected by Faith Alive more times than a bacon salesman at a vegetarian convention, but here I am submitting four more songs to them. It started with an email that read:

Calling all composers, Work continues on the upcoming hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs to be published by Faith Alive Christian Resources in 2013.  As we finish making our selections we noted a couple of texts that we would like to find new tunes for.

The first text listed is “As In that Upper Room You Left Your Seat” by Timothy Dudley-Smith. The meter is 10.10.10.10, which makes the poetic lines long enough that the syllabic stress can be all over the place. The trick is to write music that is fluid enough to accomodate changes in text stress between verses, but not so much that things turn to mush. So I wrote a melody that focuses on the arc of each phrase, and doesn’t worry too much about meter. In fact, I don’t show any time signatures and I’m thinking very seriously about taking out the bar lines.

Take a look (PDF) or listen (MP3), then give the folks at Faith Alive a call and tell them that their hymnal will be nothing without this tune. But still, I fully expect it to be rejected.

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Congregational Songs Contests

Without Love

Last, but not least, is submission #4, in which Greg gets down with his bad self.

Here’s what Faith Alive was looking for:

1 Corinthians 13: 1-4  and 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 : The memory work from 1 Corinthians appears in two successive units.  I’m kind of thinking rap for this.  Could be cool—and it needs to speak to 4th and 5th graders (the new young teens!)

Here’s the move I busted: MP3, PDF

This is just a demo to get the idea across, but I plan to make the final recording sound a bit like Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” (minus the cursing and violence). I’m guessing Eminem and Rihanna aren’t going to put out a scripture song album any time soon, so if anyone knows Toby Mac’s or KJ-52’s people, let me know. I think this could work for one of them.

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Congregational Songs Contests

Don’t Be Afraid

What would a set of children’s songs be without a round? Submission #3 keeps things from getting square.

Here’s what they asked for:

Mark 5: 36b: This is a very short verse.  Need a catchy chorus-feel that will work well with kindergarten and grade 1

Here’s what I wrote: MP3, PDF

Like “The Colors of the Covenant,” the first half of this is scripture and the second half is application–but this one is in super compact form. My hope is that this song will roll around in kids’ heads when they’re feeling scared. Kind of like “God is Bigger than the Boogie Man,” but without the talking vegetables.

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Congregational Songs Contests

It Was Very Good!

In day two of my Faith Alive scripture song submissions, I get a little whimsical.

Here’s what they wanted:

Genesis 1: 1,31: We need a catchy version of these two verses for K-1.  Could include animals, animal sounds, etc.  Maybe an island feel.

Here’s what I came up with: MP3, PDF

I could extol the virtues of a singable melody, an upbeat acoustic reggae style (watch your back Bruno Mars), and a simple call-and-response form that will let non-readers sing along. But all I need to say is beluga, arugula.

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Congregational Songs Contests

The Colors of the Covenant

A few weeks back Faith Alive put out a call for scripture songs for children and tweens. The email listed four scriptures in their Sunday school curriculum for which they need songs. There’s nothing that motivates me more than this kind of scripture song challenge. (I can’t wait until their Sunday School curriculum moves into Leviticus!) For the next four days I’ll post a new one each day.

Here’s what they wanted:

Genesis 9: 12-13: Something appropriate for 2nd and 3rd graders. Could use the line “This is a sign of the covenant as a chorus”? This one will be a challenge!

Here’s what I gave them: MP3, PDF

I especially like the words on this one. The alliteration in the title gets things started. The first verse succinctly tells the story of Noah, culminating in the rainbow of the chorus. (Not as easy as it seems, by the way.) The second verse applies the story of the rain, rainbow, and the covenant to those of us who are singing the song. Of course, this is a lot of words for 2nd and 3rd graders to sing. It wasn’t clear whether the song is intended for listening or singing, so we’ll see whether it’s accepted or not.

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Congregational Songs Retuned hymn

A Cardiphonia Pentecost

I’m proud to have two of my songs included in the new Cardiphonia project Pentecost Songs. This is the second of Bruce Benedict’s “flash mob” song collections, in which he gathers songwriters from around the country to write new songs on a particular theme.

The first of my tracks is named “Glossolalia,” and is not a song so much as a sound collage. It is inspired by one of my favorite memories from my Pentecostal upbringing: singing in the Spirit. Have you ever heard this? A congregation quietly sings in tongues or improvises on phrases like “Hallelujah, Lord Jesus.” It’s like the Holy Spirit is playing the congregation like a large harp.

The second is called “O Holy Spirit, Come!” The verse is based on “Veni Creator Spiritus,” a chant from the 10th century whose authorship has never been verified. I retained the chant melody and wrote a new translation of the 7 verse Latin text. I also added chords that would allow it to be led by a band; it was no easy task to squeeze the fluid chant melody into a form that made sense with a rhythm section. Finally, I added a refrain. In the end, the song spans some 11 centuries of of singing to the Holy Spirit.

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for “O Holy Spirit, Come” can be downloaded here.

But to tell you the truth, my two contributions are hardly the stand outs of the collection. You really need to listen and download the whole project: Cardiphonia’s Pentecost Songs.

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Retuned hymn

Veni Creator Spiritus

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for the final version of this song can be downloaded here.

Bruce Benedict is at it again. Last time it was a collection of songs based on the Apostles’ Creed. This time he’s assembling a group of musicians to compose and record songs for Pentecost. I have a real affinity for the Gregorian chant Veni Creator Spiritus, so I chose to contribute an updated version of this hymn to the project. Wikipedia has a good overview that includes the Latin, chant notation, an English translation, and an audio sample. CHeck out the original, then take a look at my first draft PDF or listen to an MP3 of me singing it directly into my laptop. As you can see, my version keeps the original chant melody intact, provides a new English translation from the Latin, and adds a refrain–“O Holy Spirit, come!”

Now I need your help before I begin recording. One of the difficulties I had was trying to wrangle the flowing, asymmetrical rhythms of the chant into a regular metered pattern. I chose 3/8 to give me the most flexibility of phrasing, but am still not entirely satisfied with how that plays out in measure 6 and 16. Is the tied pick up too fussy? How about the key signature? I’ve put it in E, but it really works better with an A drone. Should I put it in A? I sort of like the way it floats between the keys of A and E–it feels more chant-like to me–but maybe I’m just being stupid. And the translation? Anything you’d change? I like how each verse gives a name for the Spirit at the beginning, and am generally pleased with the rest of the text, but would appreciate any feedback you have on it.

Let’s make this better and then I’ll get to work on the final recording!

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Church Congregational Songs Psalms

SINKING SHIPS 8.7.8.7 D

Update: Sheet music for this tune (still waiting for a text to call its own)
is now available at gregscheer.com.

Last night I had a rehearsal/recording session with The Choral Scholars as part of our upcoming Psalm CD. The recording is in conjunction with a forthcoming print publication from the CICW and Faith Alive that will feature multiple settings of all 150 Psalms. We’re reading through 20 or 30 Psalm settings each rehearsal; the “fair use” clips will go on the web, and we’ll polish up a few dozen songs for the CD.

As I was preparing for the session, I came across a great metrical setting of Psalm 12 by Adam Tice–and it’s not easy to write a great metrical setting of Psalm 12–that included a hand-written note “need another sturdy tune like Latvian hymn.” To a person who has OCD (obsessive compositional disorder), the words “need another tune” read as “Greg, write a new tune in the remaining 1/2 hour before rehearsal starts.” Which is exactly what I did.

Listen to an MP3 of TCS singing the song. If you like what you hear (and it’s hard to dislike anything TCS sings), head over to my website to download the PDF of the tune. I don’t have permission to use Adam’s text, so I’ve left the score blank. But that’s a great opportunity for you to write your own text in 8787D meter.

By the way, are you wondering why I named the tune SINKING SHIPS? What better tune name to go with a text entitled “Lying Lips”?

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Odds and Ends, part 4

From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up (Solo, SATB Choir and Piano)

I posted a song at the beginning of Lent called From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up, with verses taken from Psalm 103. Here it is again, this time arranged as a choral anthem: MP3, PDF.