The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer
In Bertolt Brecht’s Trommeln in der Nacht, there’s a touching scene in which a returning soldier’s wife explains why she eventually gave up hoping he was still alive. I decided that I needed to set it to music, and friends Karen Hopkins and Kathryn Chester were kind enough to sing and play it: MP3.
Back in the day (in this case, grad school at Pitt in the 90s), people had physical answering machines sitting next to their phones. This was one of the many inconveniences of living in pre-digital times. On the other hand, one could have lots of fun recording creative phone messages. Here’s one of me playing harmonics on the bass and speaking in my mellowest phone message voice: MP3
There’s a song on my 1993 release From the Hand of… called “A Number of Girls.” It’s got a smoking violin riff that you will eventually hear when I digitize it and upload to the blogoscheer. A few days ago, I came across this short excerpt of the riff that I recorded on multiple tracks of bass guitar: MP3
Today we commence what has become an annual event at Greg’s music blog: spring cleaning. Usually I post music I’m currently working on, but for the next week or so I’ll be posting rediscovered treasures from the vaults.
We begin with a quirky little number I wrote for Amy. When we first got married, she used a fancy facial cleaner (what a man would call a bar of soap) religiously. She’d get all out of whack if she didn’t wash her face with it, because she was sure that she would break out with pimples, warts, and all manner of blemishes. She dubbed this magical beauty elixir Special Soap.
So I wrote and recorded an old school jingle for this much-loved beauty bar: MP3
Update: For sheet music or to adopt this orphan tune, head over to gregscheer.com.
In our third installment of hymn tunes for Isaac Watts texts, we encounter a 6.6.8.D text based on Psalm 93. The text implied to me music that was somewhere between regal and rustic–something that would be at home in a cathedral or a Sacred Harp sing.
Here’s what I wrote: MP3
This is an unusual hymn tune that is a little more difficult than most, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite. I love how the melody slides from an E minor/pentatonic into a G minor/pentatonic scale in the second phrase. The harmonies, too, sneak off half way through, sprint in all directions, then slip back home in the last two measures. All this crazy stuff is going on, but the song is surprisingly singable–both the melody and the inner voices.
Update: For sheet music or to adopt this tune, head over to gregscheer.com.
This second tune was written for a setting of Psalm 147 in long meter (L.M. or 8.8.8.8). The trick with this one is that there are multiple and/or shifting places of stress within each line of the text. Inner rhythms are great for poetry, but difficult for hymn tunes: if you create a tune with too strong of a rhythm, the words will be mis-stressed (distressed?); if you write something amorphous to accomodate all the subtleties of the text’s rhythm, you’ll end up with musical oatmeal. So I wrote lines that have a strong sense of flow and forward movement without a lot of angular rhythms.
You may be wondering, “Greg, how do you come up with your tune names?” Good question. Most people name their tunes for the place it was composed, a church, or a person. I prefer to name my tunes:
In this case, I couldn’t remember why I called this tune INDY. Was it because it reminded me of a tune by some indie band? Indianapolis, Indiana? Ah, now I remember: it’s in D.
Update: For sheet music or to adopt this orphan tune, head over to gregscheer.com.
A call went out recently for new hymn tunes to go with a forthcoming collection of updated Isaac Watts texts.
Can I resist? No, I cannot.
Over the next three days I’ll post what I came up with. The first is a rousing tune in common meter (C.M or 8.6.8.6). The text, “The Islands of the Northern Sea Rejoice!” is a real foot stomper with valleys rising and mountains melting to plains. I knew the tune needed to be strong and solid, with a hint of sea chanty. My first draft sounded suspiciously like the theme from Gilligan’s Island (sea chanty indeed!). I re-wrote the offending “sit right back and you’ll hear a tale” section of the tune, but decided to commemorate my near plagiarism by naming the tune GILLIGAN: MP3.
Last night I headed to Calvin College’s art gallery to record a quartet of high schoolers playing Ravel’s string quartet in F. It was truly amazing what these kids could do. At the end of the recording session I asked if they’d be willing to read through a little something I wrote. They were good sports and good readers.
Take a listen/look to/at “Idiot.”
And no, I’m not sure where ideas like this come from. One minute I’m going about my business and the next I’m singing a little tune that implicates all of humanity in a conspiracy of idiocy. The real sick part of it is when I sit down and arrange it for string quartet…
I’m very pleased to have Brooks Ritter sing my song “Lord God, Now Let Your Servants Depart in Peace” on The Gospel Coalition’s new CD, Songs for the Book of Luke. The whole project is great.
What are you waiting for? Get out your credit card and go buy it!
Also, I just added a new page for the song at my website, where you can download a leadsheet and SATB/piano accompaniment, and hear the demo I made a few years ago.
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.