This is, literally, my musical diary–notes fresh from my pen and recorded in a few hours. You can find my finished works elsewhere; here, it's all about capturing the moment!
Carlos and I being served drinks by a statue in Indianapolis.
Update 10/28/21: Sheet music for this piece can now be purchased at gregscheer.com.
My friend Carlos Colón directs worship at Baylor University. He recently asked if I had anything for string quintet that might work as an interlude for an upcoming Advent service. And he needed it quickly. I sent him a few ideas, including this fugal intro to the Advent hymn, “Savior of the Nations, Come.” I thought I was going to be able to simply adapt what I had written before, but once I got started it was clear that I needed to rewrite it from the ground up. Two days from inquiry to completed score. That’s how I roll.
Lately, a large part of my work for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has been translating and arranging Hispanic worship songs for the forthcoming bilingual (Spanish/English) hymnal. These songs have included everything from the smooth pop praise of Marcos Witt to the joyous coritos that travel from church to church in Latin America and the USA, often changing as they go. I’ve completed almost 50 songs and have at least another 25 to go before my work is done.
To give you a taste of the project, my boys and I recorded “Oh, Jerusalén, que bonita eres / Oh, Jerusalem, How You Shine with Beauty.” The MP3 is above. You’ll just have to wait until the hymnal is published to see the music!
The Scheer Boys: they’re not only your favorite boy band, they’re a biking team!
I’m just coming down from the mountaintop known as the annual Calvin Worship Symposium. Beyond the 4 sessions and 2 services I helped lead, I contributed an arrangement to the service led by Bruce Benedict and the Hope College worship team. At 18:15 in the video below you’ll hear my string arrangement of Bethany Brooks‘ “Sanctus.” Bethany wrote a fine song–simple and stately–and I knew the best thing I could do is simply stay out of they way.
Update 10/28/21: Sheet music for this song can now be purchased at gregscheer.com.
In a Goldilocks’ moment, my third and final porridge…er, song…is just right. This time, my theme song for the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council brings together the best of my earlier drafts.
My first attempt was too “slogan-y”. This version takes that slogan’s idea (“transformed and transforming; renewed and renewing”) and puts it in prayer form: “Renew us, O God.” This prayer serves as a refrain that can be sung joyfully, as on the recording, or introspectively, like a Taizé chorus.
My second attempt had a solid text, but stolid music. (Okay, “stolid” is probably too strong of a word–but it wasn’t festive enough for the occasion.) This third one recycles that same text, but matches it with more vibrant music. It is a lively 6/8 melody that could be accompanied in a variety of styles: hymn-like with organ accompaniment, in a liturgical folk style with piano, or with guitar and even full praise band.
I knew I was onto something when the song continued to come back to me throughout the week. It’s highly singable, but has enough Scheer™ twists and turns to keep it interesting. The first four chords, for example, are pretty far off the beaten track. The D (I) chord moves to an F#m (iii) chord, which should head to a Bm (vi), G (V), or even A (V). Instead, it goes to an Am (minor v), a surprising shift that doesn’t go off the rails because of the stable melody.
But enough harmonic geekery. Take a listen to the recording above.
My second attempt at a theme song for the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council was inspired by their meeting place: Leipzig. Leipzig, of course, is famous as the city in which Bach worked for almost three decades and the where he is laid to rest. My second draft, then, is an homage to Bach: a four-part chorale with as many Bach-isms as I could muster.
It is a sturdy tune with all the harmonic twists you’d expect of imitation Bach. The text was also a step in the right direction. Instead of getting at the theme, “Living God Renew and Transform Us,” in slogan form as I did in my first draft, this time I approached it in strophic form. The three verses address the three persons of the Trinity and explore the ways they lead us to renewal. Check it out: PDF.
In the end, though, it felt too backward-looking for this assembly. They have thousands of historic hymns to choose from when planning worship–including chorales by the actual Bach–and likely don’t need any historic sounding hymns in the mix. So I decided, once again, to move on.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Greg writes a theme song for the WCRC 2017 General Council!
Update 12/11/21: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.
I’ve been asked to write a song for use at the World Communion of Reformed Churches 2017 General Council.
The difficulty of this sort of assignment is that–with intuition rather than information–I have to project what might be needed and what the vibe of the gathering is likely to be. The theme of this global assembly is “Living God Renew and Transform Us.” This is both a prayer for the ongoing work of the Spirit and a tip of the hat to the 500th year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
You likely know the phrase “Semper reformanda: Reformed and always reforming” that captures the spirit of the modern Reformed Church. I began my composing with this as a starting point. I liked the way phrases such as, “Reformed and reforming; transformed and transforming; renewed and renewing, forgiven and forgiving” show both what we’ve received through faith and what we, in turn, offer the world. However, in song form, I felt the phrases were quickly turning into a laundry list, a lyrical dead end. (I often refer to this kind of song as a “contest hymn”; they use enough catch phrases to win a contest, but never really catch on in real-life congregations.)
While I like the Medieval music groove and believe it will be immensely singable with the right lyrics, I decided to pull the plug and move on. If you want to take a stab at writing new lyrics, please feel free to visit gregscheer.com to download the free pdf and get to work. Otherwise, stay tuned for WCRC Take 2.
My son, Theo, creates some pretty spectacular animations. He’ll disappear for a few hours and then come back with a stop motion mash up of drawings, cut paper, cellophane, and moving objects. “Flight” follows the adventures of a paper airplane. I finally got a chance this weekend to import the pictures into iMovie and put a soundtrack to it. Enjoy!
Colin Gordon-Farleigh is working on a new album and needed a Norah Jones style ballad to round out the project. He sent me the words to “Who Do You Dream Of?” with some basic melodic ideas. I added some special sauce and voila:MP3, PDF
Here’s a recording I made last year of my wife Amy reading her story, “And God Said, I’ll Go There Myself.” It sat in a lonely folder on my computer called “ideas_to_be_developed” until earlier this evening when she announced that she wanted to finish it for a Christmas day blogpost. I added an intro and outro from COS’s Lessons & Carols service, and voila! A Christmas story to listen to in the remaining hours of Christmas day: And God Said, I’ll Go There Myself, MP3
At some point last week, reality hit me and I cursed myself for agreeing to compose an infectious dance/pop song about the changing role of the deacon in the CRC. But nothing inspires like a deadline, and here I am today, October 1, with a sparkling new recording called “Everybody Get Diakonian!”
This song was written to publicize the “Diakonia Remixed” proposal of the Office of Deacon Task Force which will be considered at next summer’s General Synod. In a few days, we’ll release the song and the song files as part of a remix contest. For now, just listen, enjoy, and maybe even dance a bit: MP3.
1. Diakoniawhat’s that mean? You say, “it’s all Greek to me.” But when you hear it with new ears, maybe you’ll catch the Spirit. Cause it’s being Jesus’ hands and feet in a world so full of need. This world is groaning for release: open your ears. Jesus is calling you to hear.
2. Diakonia used to be a lonely band of deacons. But the way that they see it now, it is me, it is you, it is everybody working, helping our neighbor, doing good deeds, showing the love of Jesus. You don’t think you’re needed? Open your eyes: take a look around. Cause sometimes it seems that there’s no hope when everybody wants to break it down.
Well, it used to be, in the CRCNA, that deacons served and elders led the way. Are you ready for a brand new feelin? Everybody get DIAKONIAN!
Would you be freakin out if I told you you’re a deacon now? Let that spin your head til the room is reelin. Everybody get DIAKONIAN!
Serving God is everybody’s business. So get busy, get jumpin in it. Throw your hands up to the ceilin. Everybody get DIAKONIAN!
West coast, East coast, city, suburb, Young and old of every color, Indonesian, Friesian, Navajo, Korean: Everybody get DIAKONIAN!
Remix, rethink, redeem, reboot; remember that our God renews us all to a new way of bein. Everybody get DIAKONIAN!
By the way, I’m pretty darn proud of rhyming “Korean” with “Diakonian.”