In a previous post, I tantalized you with the premiere date of The God of Abraham Praise. That date has come and gone, and now I’m pleased to present you with a recording from the event. Without further ado, I give you the Calvin College Orchestra playing The God of Abraham Praise.
Category: Live
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A few videos
Just a few quick links to some videos. The first is a small group of Brazilian pastors teaching “Povo do senhor,” which, for those of you who don’t speak Portuguese is a translation of my song “People of the Lord.” The second is the same song sung by the good people of the Catedral Evangélica de São Paulo. And finally, the fugato that I told you about a few weeks ago is now online. Visit the WCRC Vimeo site, and at 2:30 into the June 23 morning worship service video , you’ll hear the strings playing my fugal introduction to the tune “Shout to the North.”
My friend Paul Ryan asked me to lead one of the “Sing a New Song” chapels at Calvin College this Fall. I had originally thought I’d introduce one of the songs from the “Global Songs for Worship” collection I’m editing, but as the date got closer I decided to teach my song based on Psalm 127–“Rest in the Lord, My Soul.” This decision wasn’t based (solely) on shameless self-promotion. It’s just that I realized it would be a good opportunity to lead a group of non-musicians through the process of transplanting a Psalm into a particular musical context. In the allotted 25 minutes we talked about the themes and difficulties of the original text, Michael Morgan’s metrical version of the Psalm, and my musical setting of Morgan’s text.
Don’t believe me? Then watch the video! Go to the Calvin Chapel web page, then choose the November 9, 2009 chapel in the scroll bar on the right. At about 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the video I begin my talk.
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The King Shall Come
Last week at gregscheer.com I introduced the Advent song “The King Shall Come.” Actually, it was a reintroduction, as the song has been available at my site for a few years, but I recently made substantial changes to the lyrics (what we call improvements in the business) and wrote a piano accompaniment. Of course, the whole thing is based on a hymn by John Brownlie written in 1907, making it a re-reintroduction. (And Brownlie is said to have based it on a Greek Orthodox hymn, which would make it a re-re-reintroduction, but I digress…)
Hurry! There are only two more weeks in Advent to enjoy The King Shall Come.
This Sunday at Church of the Servant we sang a brand new song of mine, Psalm 114. I was really pleased with the way it turned out, especially in light of the fact that I had studied the Psalm for quite a while before I really connected with it.
The Psalm tells the story of the exodus in poetic form. Once I latched onto the idea that Israel’s history is not just the events of a long ago people but part of the living story of all of God’s people, I quickly arrived at a way to represent this musically: the first half of each verse tells Israel’s story as it appears in Psalm 114, the second half of each verse reflects on ways in which God continues to work in similar ways today, and the refrain answers with overarching them of the Psalm: “The hills and mountains tremble, the rivers stand in awe, for in this pilgrim people is the presence of the Lord.”
Listen to the recording of the service or email me for the score.
Here’s a recording of “Creator of the Stars of Night” from last year’s Lessons and Carols service at Church of the Servant. The choir processed from the back of the sanctuary singing this beautiful 9th century chant, while the strings interjected tropes that I had composed a few weeks before. Now that’s ancient/future!
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55 Feet
I just finished converting my Live and Thinking cassette of 1986 (ish) to digital format. Much of it you will never be allowed to hear, but one song still holds up fairly well. “55 Feet” was born from a convergence of two fears: a fear of heights and fear of drowning. Here’s how the two came together. I was offered a job painting houses with a guy from my brother’s church. He made it clear from the start of the day that he was…unstable. For one thing, he forced us to listen to Christian radio the whole day. But that’s not all. He also never offered my coworker and me a break, even though we were climbing up and down rickety ladders from 8am until well past noon. As I stood up on the ladder painting, I thought of how quickly I would die if I fainted and fell off the ladder. With that thought, my mind turned to other gruesome deaths, specifically a story I had heard about two divers losing their way in the immense network of underground rivers that run below the ground in northern Florida. In my song, the story is told from the point of view of the rescue diver who found their bodies. He is so jolted by what he finds that he loses all hope in humanity, and is standing at a precipice preparing to jump to his death.
Gruesome? Yes. But it makes for a riveting story. Take a listen to “55 Feet.”
By the way, the day ended with crazy Mr. Painter guy asking if we could take a “quick stop” at his house on the way home. He proceeded to take a shower and get ready for a date. I sat in his house for about an hour with nothing to do, exhausted from my near-death painting experience, waiting to finally get home. I declined the next time he offered me a job…
In 1987, when I was just a fresh-faced lad attending the University of Rhode Island, I wrote a piano piece called “River.” I had the good fortune of living in a very small state, so it was chosen to be performed the following year at the Rhode Island Composers Festival at URI and Brown. The main thing I remember about the performance is that I was very excited and felt a bit like a real composer. I also remember that in one of the performances the page-turner turned a page too early, but the pianist Arlene Cole flipped it back without missing a note. I thought that was pretty impressive.
So here on its 20 year anniversary is a recording of River.
I just received a recording of my choral composition “Spring and Fall: to a young child” which was performed at the Iowa Choral Directors Association in July. It’s being performed again today in Bettendorf, Iowa by the Chamber Singers and University Chorale of St. Ambrose University under the direction of Keith Haan. So send out your good vibes to Maestro Haan and take a listen to the MP3 while reading the text below.
SPRING AND FALL:
to a young child
Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Àh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins
As I finally get serious about putting together Christmas music at the church, I came across a recording from Christmas past. On this recording Charlotte Kerce and the men from the Wildwood church choir sing “Peace in the Valley.” It’s a beautiful song that fits perfectly with the traditional Lessons and Carols reading from Isaiah 11:1-9. Charlotte is not only unique in her ability to wrap her rich alto voice around this lovely melody, but also bears the distinction of being the only person I know who has run over her own foot with her car.