Category: Contests

Robot Dance Music

For me, the Calvin Worship Symposium starts with a rehearsal Wednesday night and a worship service Thursday morning. The problem is that I’ve got everything ready to go and now have a full day stretching before me with none of the frantic preparations that have occupied the last month. Yes, there are lots of things I could–maybe even should–be doing. But I decided that it should be fun day. I was going to write a mass for the NPM mass contest, but the chances of me actually finishing that by Sunday are slim. So instead, I turned my attention to the FramesDirect.com Robot Dance Contest. I mean, being a fan of Kraftwerk, how could I resist?

Listen to an MP3 of my Robot Dance Music. I think you’ll agree that it’s chock full of vocoded goodness.

The employees of FramesDirect will make a video of themselves dancing to the winning entry. I’m about to post my entry to their FaceBook page. It would be great if you’d head over there and put in a kind word for my entry.

But wait. There’s more! I’ve decided to make a little contest of my own: The Greg Scheer Dance Like a Robot Video Contest. The rules are simple. You upload a link to a video of you (your family, your Legos, your pet cockroaches, etc) dancing to the above song. A panel of one (me) will judge the best video and send the winner a prize. For those of you who are serious about quality (and you’d better be if you want to make any headway in this contest) you can download an AIF file of the song.

Good luck to all. And may the best robot win!

Contests Rock and/or Roll

55 Feet, 3rd Place

In a past post you read the story and heard a solo version of my 1986 song “55 Feet.” I recently entered a fuller version of the song in the National Speleological Society Cave Ballad contest. (Yes, there is such a society, and such a contest.) I just got word that I won 3rd place. The judges felt it was “good but grimness detracts from appeal.” You can listen to it in all its grimness here.

I think of this as a work in progress. In this particular case, the progress started over 20 years ago. (Yikes. Am I really that old? No wonder I’m having a mid-life crisis.) This is just a rough mix. Stay tuned for a full CD of this and other musical tales of the depraved human nature–including my own.

By the way, special note to the judges and my wife–I know that one’s sweat can’t drop to the floor when one is 55 feet underwater. That’s because the narrator is no longer underwater when he’s telling the story. However, I don’t feel at liberty to say where the narrator is or what he’s about to do, because that would be far too grim.

Church Contests Psalms

People of the Lord

“People of the Lord” began it’s life in spring of 2006 when the CRCNA issued a call for songs to usher in its Sesquicentennial celebrations. I wrote a song for each of the three Psalms that shaped that event: “One Generation” (Psalm 145) got an honorable mention in that contest, and was recently included in Faith Alive’s Contemporary Songs for Worship. “Deeper than the Sea” (Psalm 36) was also included in Contemporary Songs for Worship and has recently been released as a choral anthem by GIA on their LeavenSong series (G-7309). “People of the Lord” (Psalm 78) was the runt of the litter. It’s easy to understand why it didn’t attract much attention: who wants to sing a Genevan-style metrical Psalm in 7/8 meter?

A year later a few friends tipped me off to a song contest that was being held by the Calvin09 organization. They were looking for a song fitting for Calvin’s 500th birthday. It needed to be something with a connection to Calvin’s worship practice that could be sung by modern reformed churches all over the world. I decided to dust off “People of the Lord” and give it one more chance. This time I added a keyboard accompaniment that gave a stronger backbone to the 7/8 rhythm.

I was shocked when I received an email telling me it had won the contest, and I continue to be amazed at the way the song is traveling throughout the world. It has been translated into a half dozen languages. I got an email from Argentina saying “This, we can sing!” A Dutch blogger has translated and promoted the hymn. It will be included in the worship journal of the Church of Scotland. I recently met a woman from Germany who told me her church had sung the song a week before, while a German man emailed some new musical settings of the text he had composed. This is the last song I would have expected to be my “big hit.”

Even though a hymn in 7/8 meter seems a bit esoteric, it is actually quite easy to sing. The rhythm remains consistent throughout, and the echo can be used as a way to teach the song quickly. The song can effectively be sung a cappella accompanied by light percussion (hand drum, tambourine, triangle) or with the keyboard accompaniment. I would jump at the opportunity to arrange it for woodwind quintet.

One of the things I worked the longest on was deciding what to call the hymn’s tune, and one of the things that didn’t occur to me at all until someone pointed it out is that I had just written a setting of Psalm 78 in 7/8 time. But that’s typical of life when you’re a composer–things take on a mysterious life of their own once they leave your pen.

Download the PDF of the song, check out the new organ-friendly version, listen to a recording of the COS choir singing it, or peruse a number of translations here.

Contests Demos

Money in the bank, part 2

In my ongoing attempt to win enough song contests to retire from my day job, I just completed a new song called “Christ Shall Reign.” This contest is sponsored by the National Federation of Catholic Youth Workers. If my song is chosen it will be the theme song of this year’s National Catholic Youth Conference. You can read the official contest rules if you’re interested. Hey, wait a minute. The rules don’t say anything about money. Drat! I guess this one will just have to be for the love of the game.

As I prepared this blog post I stumbled across another person who is entering a song into the contest. So now, my dear readers, you can judge for yourselves who should win this contest: the gentlemen at Oddwalk, or yours truly (MP3, PDF). May the best man win! (Feel free to inundate my competitor’s blog with smack talk comments.)

Choir Contests Live

Spring and Fall at the ICDA

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date November 18, 2007
No Comments on Spring and Fall at the ICDA

I just received a recording of my choral composition “Spring and Fall: to a young child” which was performed at the Iowa Choral Directors Association in July. It’s being performed again today in Bettendorf, Iowa by the Chamber Singers and University Chorale of St. Ambrose University under the direction of Keith Haan. So send out your good vibes to Maestro Haan and take a listen to the MP3 while reading the text below.

SPRING AND FALL:
to a young child

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Àh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

-Gerard Manley Hopkins

Contests Demos Finale demo

Mr. March

I’m sure most of you have read the press release by now, verifying yours truly as the award winning composer of the Illinois Central College’s fight song “We Are the Cougars.” This got me to thinking about other fight songs and marches I’ve written in the past. I don’t really think of myself as much of a march person, but the fact is that I’ve written a number of other songs in the style. One could categorize me as “nipping at Sousa’s heels.” Or maybe not…

In any case, let’s take a tour of songs leading up to “We Are the Cougars.” First came “Interesting Thing” (MP3, PDF) in 1995. It became somewhat of a theme song for the Rascals, Rogues & Rapscallions, and each year I added new verses based on presentations that had been given throughout the year. They will mean nothing to you if you weren’t there–perhaps even if you were. After that came “The Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club Fight Song” (MP3, PDF) composed at the request of Dan Morrision in 2000 to honor the rich history of The Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club. One could even argue that the 1st and 3rd movements of my Brass Quintet, written in 1987, were just elaborate deconstructions of marches. Or one could opine, with my wife Amy, that “all marches sound the same.” All I know is that I’m $1000 richer, and I can now fulfill a lifelong dream of adding “composer of a college fight song” to my resume.

Contests Live

5 for orchestra

About a year ago the Linn-Mar High School Chamber Orchestra premiered my string orchestra composition “5.” You can read a press release or listen to an MP3 of the recording of the concert. Or you can email me and tell me that you’d like to program it for your orchestra. That would make my day.

Contests Finale demo

Money in the bank

People do all sorts of things with their free time. Some play sudoku, some watch the Weather Channel; me, I enter song contests. My latest challenge has been to compose music for a college fight song and alma mater. The prize is $1500. ($1000 for the fight song and $500 for the alma mater.) Some people might see this as wasting time. Me, I see it as money in the bank.

Choir Contests

Spring and Fall

A few days ago, I finished a commissioned choral composition on a text by Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Spring and Fall: to a young child.” I couldn’t bear to post it here in its Finale playback form because it sounds so robotic, so you’ll just have to wait until the premiere at the Iowa Choral Directors Association conference July 23-26.

Just thought you’d want to know. I’ll post some more recordings later this week.

Contests Finale demo

Grace Through Every Generation

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date January 6, 2007
No Comments on Grace Through Every Generation

I’ve mentioned elsewhere about the CRC sesquicentennial (that’s 150, for those of you who are counting) hymn contest I entered a while back. I submitted three songs–one for each of the sesquicentennial theme scriptures–and got runner up for one of them. The winning hymn text was written by my CICW colleague Bert Polman. The text will be introduced to the denomination using the tune NETTLETON (“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”). That’s a good tune choice in that it’s familiar (and a great tune), but I felt like it needed something special, so I wrote one:
Grace Through Every Generation (mp3)
Grace Through Every Generation (printed music)