Category: Congregational Songs

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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.

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Congregational Songs

Odds and Ends, part 2

Scheer Doxology

A long time ago–1992 to be exact–I wrote a new setting of Thomas Ken’s Doxology. It was part of The Belliefield Liturgy, five songs for two-part choir that fit Bellefield Presbyterian’s (Pittsburgh) worship service. COS’s Guitarchestra is going to use this song in the near future, so I thought I’d revise it and make the piano accompaniment available to you, my loyal readers.

Finalified MP3, Greg and guitar MP3, Voice/Piano PDF, SATB/Piano PDF

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Arrangement Congregational Songs Psalms

Odds and Ends, part 1

I feel bad that I haven’t updated my blog in over a week. On the other hand, my last post was the day before Palm Sunday, and you can’t really blame a church musician for blogging less during Holy Week. Though I’m not working on any big projects, my production hasn’t completely stalled. Over the next few days I’ll post some odds and ends from the last week. Here’s the first:

String arrangement of Michael Joncas’ Psalm 118/This Is the Day. (MP3)

Every Easter the lectionary calls for Psalm 118 as the Psalm of the day. As always, I try to find just the right setting for the musicians I have. In the past I’ve done Psalm 118s by Taize (this year’s plan B), Patrick Geary (exciting, but I’ve done it too much recently), Lawler/Guiao (needs 2 trumpets; I had strings), and me (too hard). I came across Joncas’ bouncy “This Is the Day” and decided to give it a try. Since I had string ensemble available, I wrote a quick arrangement that had a number of options I could use on the fly. During the Easter rehearsal, we decided that recorder melody against pizzacato string accompaniment would make a great intro. The strings come back again on each congregational refrain with descant.

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Arrangement Congregational Songs Live

The God of Abraham, live at Calvin College

In a previous post, I tantalized you with the premiere date of The God of Abraham Praise. That date has come and gone, and now I’m pleased to present you with a recording from the event. Without further ado, I give you the Calvin College Orchestra playing The God of Abraham Praise.

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs

What Wondrous Love Is This

I’ve written before about my love of the hymn What Wondrous Love Is This. That previous post included a stripped down recording of me singing the song, accompanied by guitar. This time I’m posting a more complex arrangement for piano. We used it last Sunday at COS as an accompaniment for congregational singing. After seeing how hard my pianist had to work (and hearing how sick of hearing it his wife became) and experiencing the difficulty the congregation had finding their note into the last verse, I think I may recast this as an instrumental anthem for piano and treble instrument. But I’ll let you be the judge. The piano is quite light in the recording, so you may want to look at the PDF while listening to the MP3.

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Congregational Songs

Throughout These Lenten Days

Update: For sheet music or to adopt this tune, head over to gregscheer.com.

Have you ever tried to find a good Lent hymn? That is, a hymn about the season of Lent? There are not many, and they are not very good. My favorite is James Gertmenian’s text “Thoughout These Lenten Days,” which is paired with TALLIS CANON in Sing! A New Creation. I love the Tallis tune–I even was in a rock group named after it–but it felt too static for the movement that takes place in the six verses of Gertmenian’s text. So I wrote this sweeping melody that is reminescent of English cathedral melodies such as KING’S WESTON. One of my choir members liked the tune so much that he took to calling me “maestro” ever since he sang it. Because the tune earned me that title, I thought it would be an appropriate title for the tune as well. You can download a PDF of the tune MAESTRO at gregscheer.com or hear how we used the song in Sunday’s worship service at COS (MP3).