Categories
Church Congregational Songs Contests Hymn tunes

I Eat Rejection Like Pizza

Anybody for a slice of humble pie?

A few years ago FaithAlive asked composers to submit tunes for four texts slated for their forthcoming hymnal. The hymnal is no longer forthcoming. Lift Up Your Hearts was published this year, and as expected, all four of my submissions were rejected. Let us wallow, shall we?

Our first slice of humble pie is dished up courtesy of Timothy Dudley-Smith and his text “As in That Upper Room.” Richard VanOss was the winner with his tune UPPER ROOM (LUYH #156). We took very different approaches in our tunes, and I don’t feel bad conceding victory to Richard’s direct and singable solution:

VanOss versus Scheer / VanOss wins!

We go back for seconds with Brian Wren’s “We Are Your People.” SPIRIT-PRAYER by Larry E. Schultz won the right to accompany the text on page 248 of the hymnal. Larry’s spritely tune is likable, but flattens out the subtleties of the text’s rhythmic scheme. Having said that, mine is kind of odd. But it grows on you.

Schultz versus Scheer / The jury is still out.

I don’t want a third helping of humble pie, but Sylvia Dunstan has a fork poised at my pie-hole ready to force feed me with a crushing loss to David Landegent’s BETA, which appears with Dunstan’s text “Blest are the Innocents” (LUYH #108). She originally wrote the text to go with the tune of “Be Thou My Vision,” and I stuck close to that tune with a simple pentatonic folk tune. Dave, on the other hand, went with a jazz ballad style that, in my opinion, takes a poignant text on the Slaughter of the Innocents in an entirely wrong direction. The Fmaj13 chord at the end of the hymnal arrangement is the final nail in the aesthetic coffin.

Landegent versus Scheer / I was robbed!

Though I feel absolutely stuffed with humility, there is one more slice of humble pie waiting for me. In this case, my tune for Stephen Starke’s text, “Jesus, Greatest at the Table,” lost to no one. This is almost as humiliating as the time in high school I got third place in a composition contest–when there was no second or first place winner. (Who does that to a kid?) My only consolation is that I have company in my rejection. I feel your pain, Stephen. Really, I do.

Categories
Half the Man

New Year’s listening

Followers of this blog will have noticed a significant drop in posting frequency in the last few months. The sad truth is that I’ve been too busy to post much, or for that matter, write much. So while you’re waiting for me to regain my mojo, why don’t you spend a little time with my Half the Man CD?

You can hear it in a number of ways: 1. Buy the CD at my website. Hand-crafted in small batches, they’re so rare, that if CDs were animals, this one would be endangered. 2. Buy the MP3s (whole project or individual songs) at CDBaby or iTunes. 3. Listen on Spotify, eMusic, etc.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs

Prepare the Way, O Zion – two ways

Last year I was re-introduced to the Advent hymn “Prepare the Way, O Zion” (BEREDEN VÄG FÖR HERRAN) through the great recording Proclaim the Bridegroom Near by Chicago Metro Presbytery Music. (An unwieldy name, but one of my new favorite Christmas CDs.)

This year I decided to include the carol in Church of the Servant’s Lessons & Carols service. (It’s next Sunday at 6pm if you’re in Grand Rapids.) However, I knew I needed to make some adjustments to make it work for our musicians. What resulted was two arrangements: a fairly straight ahead 4-part version of the tune in its original 6/4 meter, and a 4/4 swing leadsheet for jazz combo.

I don’t have recordings yet, but wanted to make it available anyway, as some of you still might be able to use the music this year. For now, you’ll just have to enjoy Chicago Metro’s version.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=438264177 size=medium bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 t=3]

Categories
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?…

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Contests Finale demo

Lo, How a Loser, orchestra edition

Update: Sheet music for this arrangement is available at gregscheer.com.

I recently entered an orchestration of my choral anthem, “Lo, How a Rose” in a contest. I thought for sure I had this one in the bag. Alas, there was a hole in the bag.

Now I’ve got a jazz ballad arrangement of “Lo, How a Rose” for solo, SATB, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, strings, and piano, with an optional jazz rhythm section that’s looking for a home. I think it’s quite beautiful, but my opinion is hardly subjective. What I can say objectively is that the score is very flexible. It can be sung a cappella, SATB/piano, with or without jazz combo, etc.

Take a listen and head over to my website if you want the octavo and instrumental parts: MP3.

And if anyone has any ideas why Finale’s playback sounds so good and its exported audio sounds so bad, let me know.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

As The Deer (Augsburg Fortress)

I just got the Lent, Easter, Spring 2014 new music sampler from Augsburg Fortress, and my anthem “As the Deer” was first on the list. (The list is alphabetical, so it was simply fortuitous placement rather than them highlighting my octavo.)

You can listen to their demo, or even better, head on over to their website and buy a bunch of copies for your choir.

 

Categories
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.

Categories
Rock and/or Roll

Purgatorio

This is going to get weird.

“Purgatorio” started as a dream. I can’t remember the dream, but it must have been some kind of trippy, Bosch-esque thing, given all the hellish imagery that is in my rough draft. That draft lay dormant for a year or two before I decided that I needed to finish it, once and for all. The pressing opportunity was a concert I played with Erin De Young, warming up for Rachel Zylstra.

Indeed, here is a recording from said concert: MP3. It is not my finest moment as a performer, but cut me some slack, okay? The song is brand new and it’s not easy to keep that riff going while squishing words on top of it. At least Erin sounds great. If you can’t understand the words, you can read them below. (That’s not to say that you’ll understand them if you read them. I’m still trying to figure it out myself…)

1a. I lost my way on the road to hell.
My intentions were good, but it wasn’t marked very well.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh no.
I found myself in a life of ease.
My conscience was clear until I tried to sleep.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh no.

1b. In my dream there was a wishing well.
They tell me I jumped, but I say I fell.
I thought I’d never felt so low
Until the devil charged like a buffalo

C1. Well, I ran like hell, did a four minute mile
But as it turns out the devil can fly.
Stuck his fork into the meat of my thigh
Like a sausage in a pan over a fire.

2. One look around set my mind at ease.
I was surrounded by bigger sinners than me.
There were seven flavors of debauchery
All the heathens were dancing and the sinners were singing

C2. Look around and you’ll see more skin
Than a topless beach in the South of Spain
I could get used to this
If the lake weren’t fire and the sand weren’t burning.

3. The biggest surprise was the animals
That must have been a really bad dog.
They tightened up the collars and led us away
To the lake of fire where a ship was waiting.

C3. I’ve got no idea where we’ve been since then:
No port in the storm, no island on the horizon.
I’m losing my mind from the unnerving silence.
Losing track of time, but it seems unending.

Bridge
I’d give everything I had if I had anything to give
To turn back my life and live it again
How could I have known that this night would never end
Trapped in a dream from which there’s no waking?
And the only life left is reliving my mistakes, and
Wondering where grace is.
And why the light is fading.

Coda
So this is how it ends.
Staring at the ceiling.
It all begins again.
It’s quiet and cold
And sad and slow.

Categories
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.

Categories
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