Category: Live

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live

Mary’s Song/Our King of Peace (Kimbrough)

Mary+of+the+Annunciation+detail+face+of+Mary-1600x1200-514Update: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

When Cardiphonia released its new Songs for the Incarnation, I eagerly listened through the 23 song collection multiple times. (If you haven’t heard it yet, do yourself a favor and make it the soundtrack to your Christmas festivities.) One of the stand out tracks is Wendell Kimbrough’s “Mary’s Song.” Right away I knew I had to include this thoughtful rendering of the Magnificat in my church’s worship this year.

For my context, though, I needed a written piano accompaniment. And heck, if I’ve got strings and choir available, why not use them? So I wrote this arrangement. Follow the link above for the following:

leadsheet
choral anthem with piano
orchestration with choir and strings

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Global Live

O Lord May Your Kingdom Come (Isaiah 11)

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.”

MP3

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Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 47: Clap Your Hands, for cantor, choir, flute, and percussion

When I was working on Global Songs for Worship, I found a Yoruban song in the collection Ẹ Kọrin S’Oluwa, edited by Godwin Sadoh. It was published as “Psalm 47: Clap Your Hands” in both Global Songs for Worship and Psalms for All Seasons, as well being recorded on the GSfW CD.

I’m pleased to say that as of Sunday morning, it is now also an anthem for cantor, choir, flute and percussion. Take a listen to the COS choir leading it: MP3. It is surprisingly simple to sing, which isn’t always the case with African songs and arrangements. In fact, because the congregation had already sung the song on a number of occasions, I had them join the choir on verses 2-4.

 

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Choir Church Live Psalms

Deeper than the Sea in Canada

The Rosthern Junior College Choir in Saskatchewan, Canada did a bang up job of singing “Deeper than the Sea” (Psalm 36):

What are you waiting for? Get your sorry self over to GIA and buy a few dozen copies for your choir!

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Retuned hymn

Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory (SATB/Piano)

Update 2/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory, SATB/Piano: MP3

A new setting of the 1839 text, “Jesus, Lord of Life and Glory” was born a little over 24 hours ago. This beautiful hymn by James John Cummins had fallen into disuse until fairly recently, when Greg Thompson’s “By Thy Mercy” appeared on the Indelible Grace CD By Thy Mercy and High Street Hymn’s self-titled CD.

I wrote my own setting in 2012 and decided to bring it back again this Lent in an arrangement for SATB choir and piano. I’ve got to admit that I was pleased with how it turned out. The tune sings well, as you can hear by the way the congregation owns it when they join the choir in verse 4; the choral texture adds richness; and the piano provides a certain gravitas to the song’s theme.

We sang it Sunday morning in worship and then again that afternoon at the home of one of church friends who is terminally ill. It gave poignancy to the line “when we feel our mortal weakness, when all human help is vain.” Something else I observed during that visit is that Margaret requested a lot of upbeat hymns–not insubstantial, but also not morose. It made me wonder if that’s one of the roles music plays in faith: it reminds those who are likely far from death that there will one day be, in the words of verse 6, a “solemn hour of dying”; and it gives those close to death a hope of joy as fresh as the songs of their youth.

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Choir Church Live

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

Charles Wesley’s hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul”  is a timeless text that has been forever in search of a timeless tune. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting that my new music for the text is the apex of three centuries of “Jesus, Lover” tunes. Just a humble contribution to the fray.

I’ve had a draft of this sitting in my idea folder for a few years now. But a good idea is just a lot of wasted potential until combined with a deadline. In this case, the deadline was a Lent hymn series that will explore a different musical setting of “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” every week. You can read about there series in this Liturgy Lesson while you listen to the MP3 from this week’s service. Email me if you want to see the music.

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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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Arrangement Choir Church Global Live

Psalm 125: All Those Who Trust (choral arrangement)

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.

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Global Live

At the Throne of Our God, orchestra

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.

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live

DIX Intro (For the Beauty)

Update 1/20/22: Sheet music for this arrangement is now available at gregscheer.com.

When the Joyful Noise Orchestra leads worship at Church of the Servant, I try to give them a little something to sink their teeth into. Yesterday, it was a short little introduction I wrote for the tune DIX. This tune is usually associated with the text “For the Beauty of the Earth,” but yesterday we sang it with a version of Psalm 67, “God of Mercy, God of Grace.”

I feel like I was just beginning to explore this tune’s possibilities, so hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to work it into a bona fide orchestral arrangement at some point in the future.

MP3