The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerUpdate 1/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
A while back I discovered the Brazilian congregational song writing duo of Rubem Amorese and Toninho Zemuner. They produce an astounding number of songs, all of them good. When they found out I had translated “Adoracão” into English, they were kind enough to ask that I sing the English over their instrumental tracks. It is nowhere near as good as the original, but I gave it my best.
One of the great things about my church is that we have a constant stream of interesting people joining us from all around the world. One of them is Eric Sarwar, a musician from Pakistan. Eric and I have collaborated before. This time we worked on a song of invocation, “O Come, Holy Spirit.”
As with many of Eric’s songs, they look simple on the page, but take on a life of their own in worship. We began our service today with a quiet tanpura drone and improvisation on the song’s raga (mode). Once the tone was set, the whole Guitarchestra came in and the congregation joined us: PDF, MP3
Later in the service the communion music began with another Sarwar/Scheer collaboration, “O Lord, May Your Kingdom Come.” That led into a set of songs that flowed so well that I include it here in its entirety. Be forewarned: the MP3 is 22 minutes long (31MB). If you have the time, though, it gives you an idea of how the communion section of a Church of the Servant service runs: COS communion 6/21/15.
Update: This song is now available at gregscheer.com.
“By the Babylonian Rivers” is one of my favorite songs from Global Songs for Worship and one of my favorite Psalm settings in general. We used it at COS last week and I decided that the line “Lord God, hear your lonely band” fairly demanded an instrumental interlude. I wrote one, and Kurt (accordion) and Emily (violin) took it home: MP3.
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
Sunday evening was Church of the Servant’s Lessons & Carols service. In it we sang a new song based on Isaiah 11: the peaceable Kingdom. The song was an East/West collaboration between Pakistani Eric Sarwar and me. He wrote the music based on the shiv ranjni raga and I wrote the text and arranged it for the instruments we had at our church. We called it “our experiment,” as we navigated between our music cultures. We decided after the service that the experiment was successful. It was a beautiful statement of longing for God’s promised Kingdom, which at times we can almost taste and other times seems very far off.
Very far off indeed. Today on my way to work I heard reports of a Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan that left 141 children dead.
It seems appropriate to post this song on a day that we pray, “The babe in arms shall fear no harm from the snake or the adder. O Lord, may your Kingdom come.”
Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song is available here.
There’s a wonderful little song called “Somos uno en Cristo” that is making its way into a number of recent hymnals. Unfortunately, the arrangement that invariably appears with the song doesn’t bring out the best in it. I decided to write an accompaniment that allowed the melody to flow more freely, that included the characteristic V7 chord lifting into the B section, and that added a little tag at the end where people could catch their breath before singing the next verse. Nothing fancy, but it helps: MP3, (see link above for PDF)
Now someone needs to work on the translation…
A few days ago, a friend of mine, Wendell Kimbrough, asked about a Nigerian song he had heard. I checked it out and was immediately smitten. It has everything you’d want in an African praise chorus: it’s immediately singable, thematically focused, and it leaves plenty of room for ad lib verses. Oh, and one more trait of African praise choruses: everyone sings it slightly differently. Below are a few versions to give you an idea of the variety of styles.
I decided I needed to commit the song to notation, but that meant I needed to synthesize all the different renditions and make some comprises for Western musicians and notation. First, I bumped the key up to G. No biggy; it just felt more congregation-friendly. Next, I standardized the syncopation–“of the Lord” is always syncopated the same way. This is fairly consistent in all the recordings, so I felt it was the right thing to do. My transcription keeps the spirit of the original rhythm, and also gives newcomers only one rhythm to learn. On the same subject, “from heaven come down” is usually syncopated in the source recordings, but I decided to go with the straightest version of them–no point in giving Western congregations the “right” rhythm which they’ll never get right. Finally, I wrote it in four-part harmony. Since an SATB version doesn’t exist in any of the original performances, I had to create one from what those performances imply.
Consider the above paragraph “truth in advertising.” There are some Western arrangers (some of whom may hail from Scotland) who give the impression that their versions of songs are definitive. I want to document what recordings I was working from and what decisions I made. You are free to make your own arrangement or adapt to your context. That is especially true for an “off the page” song like this. For example, I must say that I really like Wendell’s rendition below. It’s completely different, yet entirely faithful to the original.
If anyone has any background information on the song, I’m all ears.
It’s very satisfying to know that half a world away, the Kampong Kapor Methodist Church of Singapore sang my song as part of their 120th year anniversary celebrations!
Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
MP3: All Those Who Trust (Psalm 125)
Last year I told the story of how I stumbled upon Rubem Amorese’s music. I’ve been following him and Toninho Zemuner ever since, starting with a translation of “Proteção” and following it up with “Adoração.”
I’ve been looking for a place to use Proteção (Psalm 125: All Those Who Trust) for a year, and I was finally able to schedule it in last week’s service. The sermon theme was the church under attack, and I thought that Psalm 125’s focus on God’s protection of his people would complement that nicely. And since the choir was singing, I arranged it for them. In many ways the choir arrangement is a different animal than what I heard in that YouTube video of Rubem and Toninho a year ago, but I think the song remains beautiful and continues to speak clearly in this new cultural context.
Update: Sheet music for this song is available at gregscheer.com.
A few weeks ago, I posted a Korean song I translated into English with the help of some friends. This week, I revisited the song, adding a piano accompaniment, instrumental parts, and a smooth-as-butter descant for strings and flute. Love it.
As you know, I consider myself a song maven, scouring the world for songs, employing my impeccable taste to discern the cream, and then showering the best of the best on the eager masses. This, at least, is how I like to picture the situation.
My latest discovery comes from Korea. 우리 보좌앞에 모였네 (Vision) is a praise song by Hyung-won Koh based on Revelation 7:9-10. It’s a lovely song, and representative of the tuneful, heartfelt worship songs that the Korean church sings. With the help of James Ju and Paul Han, I translated it into English and introduced it to the congregation this Sunday with the help of the Guitarchestra: MP3.
Wondering if the Guitarchestra looks as good as they sound? Wonder no more: