Category: Hymn tunes

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Three for Emily Brink: What Wondrous Joy

emily_brink

Update 3/12/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

The grande dame of congregational song, Emily Brink, recently retired. I was asked to provide some music for a book celebrating her career: “One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: A Scrapbook of Worship Resources for the Worldwide Church.” Of course, I was happy to add to the collection, and only wish I could have been at her retirement party to celebrate with her and sing some of the songs from the book.

The first song is a setting of Psalm 133 by Michael Morgan for which I wrote a new tune: MP3.

Why the tune name MY IMAGINARY FRIEND, you ask? Well, Maria Poppen told me that her daughter Rebekah has an imaginary friend, and somehow she decided to name her Emily Brink! How cute is that?

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Hymn tunes

The World Lay Languishing in Pain

I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any m…DRAT!

I entered another contest.

PDF, MP3 (with the W82 Singers)

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Hymn tunes

I Eat Rejection Like Pizza

Anybody for a slice of humble pie?

A few years ago FaithAlive asked composers to submit tunes for four texts slated for their forthcoming hymnal. The hymnal is no longer forthcoming. Lift Up Your Hearts was published this year, and as expected, all four of my submissions were rejected. Let us wallow, shall we?

Our first slice of humble pie is dished up courtesy of Timothy Dudley-Smith and his text “As in That Upper Room.” Richard VanOss was the winner with his tune UPPER ROOM (LUYH #156). We took very different approaches in our tunes, and I don’t feel bad conceding victory to Richard’s direct and singable solution:

VanOss versus Scheer / VanOss wins!

We go back for seconds with Brian Wren’s “We Are Your People.” SPIRIT-PRAYER by Larry E. Schultz won the right to accompany the text on page 248 of the hymnal. Larry’s spritely tune is likable, but flattens out the subtleties of the text’s rhythmic scheme. Having said that, mine is kind of odd. But it grows on you.

Schultz versus Scheer / The jury is still out.

I don’t want a third helping of humble pie, but Sylvia Dunstan has a fork poised at my pie-hole ready to force feed me with a crushing loss to David Landegent’s BETA, which appears with Dunstan’s text “Blest are the Innocents” (LUYH #108). She originally wrote the text to go with the tune of “Be Thou My Vision,” and I stuck close to that tune with a simple pentatonic folk tune. Dave, on the other hand, went with a jazz ballad style that, in my opinion, takes a poignant text on the Slaughter of the Innocents in an entirely wrong direction. The Fmaj13 chord at the end of the hymnal arrangement is the final nail in the aesthetic coffin.

Landegent versus Scheer / I was robbed!

Though I feel absolutely stuffed with humility, there is one more slice of humble pie waiting for me. In this case, my tune for Stephen Starke’s text, “Jesus, Greatest at the Table,” lost to no one. This is almost as humiliating as the time in high school I got third place in a composition contest–when there was no second or first place winner. (Who does that to a kid?) My only consolation is that I have company in my rejection. I feel your pain, Stephen. Really, I do.

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Church Congregational Songs Hymn tunes Live Quirky Retuned hymn

Blest Is the Man Whose Bowels Move

What this world needs is more hymns about digestive regularity, don’t you agree? Well, wait no longer, world, because Isaac Watts and Greg have you covered.

Two decades ago, a friend of mine showed me the Isaac Watts’ text “Blest Is the Man Whose Bowels Move.” We had a good laugh over it. Then, two summers ago the folks at Hymnary.org and I led a “Weird Hymn Sing” featuring many of the quirky jewels we found as we added historic hymnals to our database. I seized the opportunity to write a new tune for this timeless Watts’ text. I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of this musical accomplishment.

Last week I had the chance to lead it again, and this time it was captured on a recording. You may want to read the music while listening to the MP3, because it all breaks down into laughter in the second verse. It’s also worth taking a look at the music because there are abundant humorous scatological references throughout.

If you’re interested in hearing the whole program, “Hymns that Time Forgot,” you can check out the MP3 (it’s large) and the program. Maybe you want to bring the quirkiest hymn sing on the planet to your town?…

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Hymn tunes

DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING (3 tunes for Isaac Watts, part 3)

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

In our third installment of hymn tunes for Isaac Watts texts, we encounter a 6.6.8.D text based on Psalm 93. The text implied to me music that was somewhere between regal and rustic–something that would be at home in a cathedral or a Sacred Harp sing.

Here’s what I wrote: MP3

This is an unusual hymn tune that is a little more difficult than most, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite. I love how the melody slides from an E minor/pentatonic into a G minor/pentatonic scale in the second phrase. The harmonies, too, sneak off half way through, sprint in all directions, then slip back home in the last two measures. All this crazy stuff is going on, but the song is surprisingly singable–both the melody and the inner voices.

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Hymn tunes

INDY (3 tunes for Isaac Watts, part 2)

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

This second tune was written for a setting of Psalm 147 in long meter (L.M. or 8.8.8.8). The trick with this one is that there are multiple and/or shifting places of stress within each line of the text. Inner rhythms are great for poetry, but difficult for hymn tunes: if you create a tune with too strong of a rhythm, the words will be mis-stressed (distressed?); if you write something amorphous to accomodate all the subtleties of the text’s rhythm, you’ll end up with musical oatmeal. So I wrote lines that have a strong sense of flow and forward movement without a lot of angular rhythms.

You may be wondering, “Greg, how do you come up with your tune names?” Good question. Most people name their tunes for the place it was composed, a church, or a person. I prefer to name my tunes:

  • A. something ridiculous, and/or
  • B. something that will jog my memory about which tune it is.

In this case, I couldn’t remember why I called this tune INDY. Was it because it reminded me of a tune by some indie band? Indianapolis, Indiana? Ah, now I remember: it’s in D.

MP3

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Hymn tunes

GILLIGAN (3 tunes for Isaac Watts, part 1)

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

A call went out recently for new hymn tunes to go with a forthcoming collection of updated Isaac Watts texts.

Can I resist? No, I cannot.

Over the next three days I’ll post what I came up with. The first is a rousing tune in common meter (C.M or 8.6.8.6). The text, “The Islands of the Northern Sea Rejoice!” is a real foot stomper with valleys rising and mountains melting to plains. I knew the tune needed to be strong and solid, with a hint of sea chanty. My first draft sounded suspiciously like the theme from Gilligan’s Island (sea chanty indeed!). I re-wrote the offending “sit right back and you’ll hear a tale” section of the tune, but decided to commemorate my near plagiarism by naming the tune GILLIGAN: MP3.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hymn tunes Retuned hymn

Long-weary Earth

I don’t know who Alexandra Fisher Willis is, but she’s written a beautiful Advent text, “Long-weary Earth in Darkness Groans.” From what I gather, she’s in Lester Ruth’s Theology of Songwriting at Duke Divinity, and she wrote this as one of her assignments. Dr. Ruth, give this woman an A+!

Alexandra wrote this text to the tune LASST UNS ERFREUEN (“All Creatures of Our God and King,” etc). This is a perfectly good choice. It is a tune that the Church has sung and cherished for many years–388 to be exact–but somehow I don’t feel the weight of history like perhaps I should.

I wrote a new one: MP3.

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Church Congregational Songs Hymn tunes Retuned hymn

Filled with the Spirit’s Power

Just trying to catch up on recent compositions:

During Pentecost, John Phiri from Sierra Leone preached at COS. The text “Filled with the Spirit’s Power” (Psalter Hymnal #417) fit well with his sermon thematically, but musically it left something to be desired. (Sorry Henry Lawes.) So I wrote a new tune. Check out the PDF or the MP3.

If you’re looking for a 10.10.10.10 tune, give this a try.