Category: Live

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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

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Church Congregational Songs Global Live

At the Throne of Our God

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:

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Art Music Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Live Psalms

Everlasting to Everlasting premiere

trinity_hallelOn Saturday night, an encouraging number of people showed up to play, hear and sing my new cantata, Everlasting to Everlasting. Thanks to everyone who came out, but especially to The Choral Scholars, who sounded brilliant as always, and the hastily named Grand Rapids Hallel Ensemble, who walked my musical tightrope with style and grace.

We’ll perform the cantata again in its entirety at the Calvin Worship Symposium (Jan 30-Feb 1, 2014) as part of the Vesper services on Thursday and Friday night. After that, we will be accepting invitations to exotic locales for further performances. Book it now. Seriously.

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt: MP3. Movement 9, “All You Nations” (Psalm 117), dovetails with the instrumental “All Nations Hallel.”

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

One Generation in Vancouver

My friend Herbert Tsang and the stellar folks at Church Music Ministry of Canada held a Psalmfest in Vancouver late last year which included the orchestrated version of “One Generation Calls to the Next.”

Lucky for us, he recorded it. Check it out: MP3

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Art Music Choir Church Live Psalms

2013 Spring Cleaning: Open for Me the Gates of Righteousness

Before I became the music director at Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, I was just a lowly grad student in the composition program at Pitt. But the people of Bellefield were took pity and asked me to compose a choral anthem for a sanctuary rededication. I chose Psalm 118:19 as my text and wrote an extremely difficult anthem. Bellefielders must also be long-suffering folks; if I were the choir director, I would have pulled the plug on this after one read-through. I’m glad they didn’t, though, because it ended up sounding pretty good: MP3

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Art Music Live

2013 Spring Cleaning: Elegie, for bass and piano

Speaking of spring cleaning, you’ll need to spring clean your ears after you’re done listening to this one. No, actually, I quite like this one; but it certainly isn’t easy listening music. I wrote it toward the end of my undergrad days. The second recording is of me on bass and my friend Jim DeFrancesco playing it at my senior recital. At one of our rehearsals my father said it sounded like it was composed by Palestrina’s demented younger brother. The first recording is performed by Andy Kohn, a guy who can actually play all the notes at tempo and on pitch. (Thank you, Andy!)

Astute listeners will recognize a quote from Bach’s chorale “Ach Wie Flüchtig” at the end of the piece. In fact, the whole piece distills the biting dissonance of that chorale, but whereas Bach resolved the tensions, I leave them hanging. If you know much about string bass solo literature, you’ll know that it’s mostly frothy show off stuff. I like that “Elegie” uses the entire range and playing techniques of the instrument while not losing focus on the music. Ironically, when I played it at a bass master class for a prominent bassist, he didn’t know what to say about it. There was a moment of awkward silence as he tried to think of something nice to say about the piece or my playing, and then he quickly moved on to more frothy show off stuff.

MP3 (Andy Kohn)

MP3 (Greg)

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Choir Church Congregational Songs Contests Live

We Are the Children of God, new recording

As I announced previously, I lost the Grandfather Home for Children song contest, even though my song was the best. (A fact that was lost on the judges.) But the kind subscriber who alerted me to the contest liked my song enough to include it in his own church’s worship. Here is Dean and his crew at Erwin Presbyterian Church, TN, singing “We Are the Children of God.”

It does my heart good to know the song has found a loving home. As a matter of fact, I’m glad to hear from anyone who uses my music. Feel free to let me know you’re using a song or send me a recording. That’s what this blog is all about!

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Art Music Choir Church Congregational Songs Live Psalms

Psalm 118: This Is the Day! (Easter 2013)

Easter is always a big day for church music, and this year was no exception. What was an exception was the difficulty level of the piece I wrote for the day’s Psalm. I actually wrote this setting of Psalm 118 a few years ago, but this time around I got a good recording of it.

Psalm 118 is a sprawling, rhapsodic Psalm of emotional valleys and mountains. I wanted the composition to reflect that, but I also wanted to make it accessible to the congregation. What I came up with is a short, tuneful refrain that the congregation sings repeatedly throughout the piece. The choir, on the other hand, is given a number of episodes, each mirroring the feelings of the different parts of the Psalm. Put Laura de Jong on soprano, support her with strings, and throw in a timpani–and you’re in business!

Listen to the MP3 from Sunday, or visit the karaoke version of the score on YouTube.