The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerA few years ago, I was asked to arrange Wendell Kimbrough’s song, “O Rejoice in All Your Works,” for wind ensemble for use at Calvin University’s commencement. It was used again this year, and the sound and videography are top-notch.
What’s that? You have a wind ensemble and would like to include the song in your university’s commencement service? Well, just saunter over to www.gregscheer.com, where you can download it for a mere $35!
It’s so much fun to work with friends! In this case, my friend Carlos Colón commissioned me to write an arrangement of “Mary’s Song,” a song written by another friend, Wendell Kimbrough. This beautiful performance was recorded at a rehearsal for a chapel service at Baylor University.
The Canticle of Mary (the Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55) is one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible. It has elements of meekness, joy, obedience, wonder, and even some revolutionary overtones. It is no surprise that every music setting brings out different aspects of the text.
This anonymous text and Scottish folk tune pair beautifully to show a young girl whose hope has been steeped in the prophecies long enough that she believes the angel’s surprising message.
This arrangement for voice, guitar, and strings was written for a service at Rosewood Church that focused on Mary. With a melody this lovely and honest, the best thing you can do is avoid gilding the lily. Hence, a simple arrangement that swells at each chorus and remains understated during the verses.
I will soon write a piano accompaniment and make it available at my website.
Just in time for Christmas 2025 is a brand new arrangement of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
First, a disclaimer: this recording is very rough, recorded live in worship after an hour-long rehearsal, direct from the soundboard.
Some songs are blank canvases on which one can paint their own personality. Not so, this carol. The melody dips in and out of a chromatic backdrop, establishing certain non-negotiables for the arranger. And yet, the song is marked by its quiet simplicity. I wanted to retain that serenity in my arrangement.
This arrangement was written for the All Saints Orchestra (guitar and string quintet), but I later added a piano part for churches with more standard instrumentation.
The final arrangement for the Holland Symphony Orchestra’s “Music Unites Us” concert with Grupo Super Nova was a ballad called “Inevitable Adiós.” It is gorgeous and heartbreaking.
When Christian, the songwriter, first sent me this, I responded, “I don’t understand half of the Spanish, and I was still getting choked up!” With a song like this, the best thing to do is just stay out of the way. Let the song speak for itself; simply support and enhance what is already in the music. I did that with lush lower strings, regal horns, soaring violin lines, harp, and lots of cymbal rolls.
Of course, I needed to let the orchestra come to the foreground at some point. I did this with an oboe solo, a flugelhorn solo, and a trumpet/trombone duet. Just enough of a break to leave us wanting more.
I’m usually not one for modulations. They are so often used as a cheap way of inflating energy back into a mediocre song that I normally stay clear of them. But I made an exception here. I let the song wind down as if it were ending, but instead of the quiet tag of “Inevitable adiós” that we expect–BAM!–a sudden modulation into a new key with full orchestra. It’s glorious, if I don’t say so myself.
Below is video of me accompanying Christian on guitar at the concert.
The next arrangement for Grupo Super Nova and the Holland Symphony Orchestra was “Escucha.” This song, too, is in an upbeat Cumbia dance style, but the lyrics are poignant: “Listen! I want you to pay attention, just in case today is our last day together: I love you like I have never loved before.”
This arrangement is further outside the box than the others. I ask the violins to strum their instruments like ukeleles and play a melody on one string with one finger (to match the portamento of the synth line). Later is a duet between electric guitar and electric violin. Then I ask the orchestra to sing background vocals. All of these stretch the musicians out of their comfort zones, but since we had worked together previously, I decided there was enough trust for them to try these unusual effects with a minimum of grumbling.
One of my favorite sections is when all the motion stops and Hector sings a quiet refrain in English. I didn’t want the English-speaking audience to miss the poignant message of the lyrics. Too, a short silence makes what follows sound even more energetic.
I should make a note about how I created these demos. I use Dorico for my notation software. To make a demo of the arrangement, I play Dorico through orchestral playback software called NotePerformer. NP is unique in that it interprets the score as orchestral musicians would play it, with articulations, blend, and reverb as they would happen in an actual performance. (Who says AI is bad?) From there, I load my orchestral arrangement and Grupo’s original recording into Logic Pro. After a bit of tempo matching and splicing I can produce a decent demo of how the final performance might sound. This is really important when trying to get buy in from both note-readers and ear-performers. It allowed everyone walk into rehearsal with a very good idea of how it would sound.
Below are a few snippets of video from the concert. There aren’t a lot of composers who can say people dance to their orchestrations!
I recently wrote three new arrangements for the Holland Symphony Orchestra’s “Music Unites Us” concert on August 9, 2025. In this outdoor concert, Grupo Super Nova, a Mexican Cumbia group from Holland, performed their original songs with the orchestra. My next three posts will be the arrangements from that concert.
The original “Lo mejor” (link below) keeps up a mid-tempo dance groove throughout. In each of these songs, I was looking for ways to create a dialogue between band and orchestra, rather than keeping the orchestra in a purely accompaniment role. So, on this song, I decided to begin with an extended, dramatic introduction before it kicked into its dance groove. Once the beat drops, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role, until…
Surprise! It’s a tuba solo. In the Mexican Banda style, tubas play a prominent role. I decided to tip my hat to that tradition by starting the mid-song breakdown with a tuba solo. Then comes a long build, beginning with the violin, moving through the strings, and then joined by all the bass instruments. After a quick recap of the chorus, the song concludes.
Sadly, I didn’t get a good video recording of the event. You will have to be satisfied with a demo of an early draft of the score. Email me if you’d like to take a look at the score.
From 2000 to 2005, I worked at Northwestern College in Iowa, teaching music and worship in the music department, and leading chapel worship and overseeing worship teams for campus ministries.
In my second year there, a new president was inaugurated, and I was commissioned to compose a piece for the ceremony. I hadn’t thought about it much in the few decades since, but I recently found a recording from the inauguration and decided to clean it up and post it here.
I had forgotten how much I like it!
The lyrics are adapted from Psalm 67–a perfect Psalm of thanksgiving for a fall worship ceremony in the heartland of America. The meter is 7/8 throughout. I never strayed from a 2+2+3 rhythm; still, the choir hated me for the odd meter! The rhythmic vitality really drives the piece; it feels exciting and exuberant. The harmonic style is–I don’t know what to call it–pan modal? But I like it. There is a lot of bite in the harmonies, but they’re not so complicated the choir can’t find their notes or it leaves the audience scratching their heads.
It feels like it was an important step forward in my composing.
Beer City Saxes and St. Sinner Orchestra joined forces for a Night of Sax & Violins on November 8, 2024 at The Stray. One of the songs we played together was a brand-new tune celebrating the magic of the holidays in the Mitten State: “Christmas in Michigan.”
On November 8, 2024, the St. Sinner Orchestra teamed up with Beer City Saxes for an Evening of Sax & Violins at The Stray. It was an amazing evening of traditional jazz, rock and roll, and a bunch of stuff in between. I want to call it a “historic” or “ground-breaking” collaboration, but I’ll settle for “unprecedented” or “highly unusual.” The 22 musicians involved played beautifully and went home content.
Here is one of the five songs we played together: “Broken,” from our 2024 release, Synonyms for Goodbye.