Category: Hallel Psalms

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Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms Uncategorized

Eagle Creek, Tremble Before the Lord


Eagle Creek: Eight Days ~ Moments in Time ~ Two Scenes from JMM on Vimeo.

Every once in a while I receive a note letting me know that someone has sung one of my songs in their church, or asking if a song could be included on a recording project. Last week, though, I opened my email to an unusual gift: someone had used my song “Tremble Before the Lord” (from Psalm 114) as the soundtrack to a stop-time video shot in Eagle Creek, New Mexico. Justin Medlock heard the song on the Cardiphonia Hallel Psalms track I recorded a few years ago. Besides fitting the tempo and length of his video, Justin has some interesting observation on how Psalm 114, my song, and his video went together:

The message of Psalm 114 is beautiful, especially how the Lord cares and provides for his people.  But I liked how your song emphasized creation trembling / falling down before the Lord with a strong but simple sense of worship. Joining the music with the timelapse brought it all together: the snow weighs down the pine tree boughs as if they are bowing before the Lord, the trees seem to dance to their King through shadows, the falling snow, the fleeting snow, and so forth.  (I understand that the word “tremble” might also be translated “dance”.)

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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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Art Music Church Finale demo Hallel Psalms

Hallel Postlude

With a Hallel rehearsal looming in my near future, it’s about time I wrapped this thing up. And nothing wraps up a piece of music like a postlude, eh?

MP3, PDF

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Art Music Church Finale demo Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post Rest

I know it’s Holy Week, but that doesn’t mean I can’t post to my blog, right? Actually, the week before Easter is usually pretty relaxed at church because the bulk of the planning and preparation is already done. So I take the opportunity to catch up on projects I’ve been putting off.

Here is the second to last movement of my slowly emerging Hallel Psalm cycle. Well, second to last to be written. It’s actually the 8th movement, coming after the song “Be At Rest” (Psalm 116) and before “All You Nations” (Psalm 117).

I gotta admit that I’m fond of this one: MP3, PDF.

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Art Music Church Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post-Nations

“What’s up with the goofy name–“Hallel Post-Nations?” you say. Indeed.

As promised, I continue to chip away at my multi-movement work based on the Hallel Psalms. All the Psalm songs are done, and now I just have a few instrumental movements to finish before bringing the composition to completion and setting a date for a premiere. This movement comes right after the Psalm 117 song, “All You Nations,” hence “post-nations.” (Now that I hear the title by itself, it sure sounds apocalyptic. No matter, I’ll change the title in the end.)

Astute listeners will hear that this movement is a fugue. Or as one person put it, I’m “channeling my inner Bach.” The big difference being that Bach improvised fugues, whereas this took me many hours. One of the fun things about this movement is that it combines the folk style of the songs with the classical style of the instrumental interludes. That is, this fugue will segue directly from “All You Nations” and the guitar and bass will continue to lay down a folkish boom/chunk-a-chunk groove throughout the fugue.

You won’t hear that very well on this mock up MP3, but you’ll see it in the PDF score.

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Tremble Before the Lord (sleep deprivation remix)

A few weeks ago I posted a refrain based on Psalm 114. On February 28 I had a deadline for turning in a recording of said Psalm. I completed the recording at 5:30am that morning. Now my sleepless night can be enjoyed in a compact musical form on the new Cardiphonia compilation, Hallel Psalms.

My promise to Bruce Benedict, the wizard behind the Cardiphonia curtain who asked me to contribute to his project, was that it would be “Philip Glass meets Brother Roger, performed by Mike Oldfield.” There might be a bit of Tom Waits and Monks of Solesmes in there as well. Decide for yourself. Better yet, listen to the whole Hallel Psalms CD. It’s great.

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 118: Everlasting to Everlasting

Update 3/12/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

This is it, people. This is the last of the Hallel Psalms; that is, 118 of 113-118. Now that all the songs are completed, I still need to write two more instrumental sections to complete the whole cantata thingy I’ve been working on.

A word on Psalm 118. When you’re turning a Psalm into a song, there are a million ways you could go. In the case of Psalm 118, it is all over the place thematically, ranging from “this is the day the Lord has made” to “open the gates of righteousness” to “I will exult over my enemies.” Really, the Psalm deserves a rhapsodic composition rather than a simple song. Which is exactly what I did a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKXjkRaEZ8M.

But this time I wanted something more congregational. I pulled two major themes from the Psalm: death/imprisonment versus life/freedom, and the eternal nature of God versus the fleeting nature of human power. It still makes for somewhat of a sprawling song, but manageable by a cantor and congregation.

MP3 (By the way, Psalm 118 is the lectionary Psalm for Palm Sunday and Easter. Hint, hint…)

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Art Music Church Hallel Psalms

Hallel Post-Glory

I spent the day writing just as fast as I could and spent the evening doing a read-through of my Hallel Psalms with some friends. Here is part of the fruit of our labors. Once again, I’ll come up with a better title for the piece at some point in the future. For now, the name “Hallel Post-Glory” identifies it as the movement in the larger Hallel piece that comes after the song “For the Glory of Your Name.”

It’s always fun to hear a composition played by real musicians (as opposed to Finale’s robotic playback) for the first time. That just never gets old.

Listen and look.

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Hallel Psalms Psalms

Hallel Post Sunrise

For those of you just tuning in, my FAWM project is a cantata of sorts. I’m writing a congregation-friendly song for each of the Hallel Psalms (113-118) and filling it out with instrumental interludes and hallelujahs. This is one of those interludes, written for alto recorder, flute, two violins and a continuo of bass and guitar.

Why the title “Post Sunrise”? It is the interlude that comes after (“post”) Psalm 113: From the Rising of the Sun.  This is just a working title. Once the whole cantata is assembled I’ll give each movement a proper name.

Hear Finale play the score (MP3) and follow along with the ears of your eyeballs (PDF). (It comes just before Tremble before the Lord if you’d like to hear it in sequence.)

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 115: For the Glory of Your Name

This is my second attempt at Psalm 115. (The first is here.) It’s interesting to see the two different directions one Psalm can go musically. The first version was prettier and more compact, but I like the earthiness of this one better and it will fit into my Hallel Psalm collection better. All that’s left from my Hallel project is a song for Psalm 118 and some instrumental connective tissue!

MP3, PDF