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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 116: Be at Rest, Once More, O My Soul

For the record, I no longer equate lots of notes with good writing. There’s a time to explore the thresholds of complexity.* But there’s also a time to keep pruning until nothing remains but the simplest, most pure form of what you want to say. Nowadays I’m more concerned about pacing than showing off my chops. That is, does the music unfold at the right pace? Does each new moment seem simultaneously inevitable and refreshing? At the end, do you feel both satisfied and left wanting more?

This is one of those heavily pruned pieces. I have 3 or 4 completely different sketches for this one, and this version is the result of 3 or 4 rigorous pruning sessions. A song whose theme is “be at rest” needs to feel restful. But not boring. It’s a fine line.

Walk the line: PDF, MP3

*My first composition professor, Dr. Gibbs, used to get a delighted look on his face if I handed in a lot of music at my lesson. He would take out a pair of reading glasses, look over the music and say, “That’s what I like to see: lots of notes!”

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Church Congregational Songs Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 116: The Land of the Living

My FAWM challenge continues. I’m writing a piece based on the Hallel Psalms (113-118). Nine days in and I’ve got four of the six Psalms done, with sketches for the fifth. Once that foundation is laid, I can begin writing Hallelujahs and interludes.

Psalm 116 is a study in the contrast between death and life. The Psalmist had just about slipped into the pit of death when God restored him to the land of the living. And what better way to portray the depths to which the Psalmist had sunk than an accompaniment of basses?

I took quite a loose approach to the lyrics on this one. As a matter of fact, my goal isn’t to be literal or complete on any of these Hallel settings. There are plenty of metrical settings out there for people who want to sing something that sticks close to the Psalm text. I’m writing these more as musical reflections, meditations or a distillations of the spirit of the text. Is it working?

PDF, MP3

Categories
Quirky

Bathtime Singalong

Now for a quick little break from all that serious Hallel Psalm writing: MP3.

By the way, it gives me an idea for a fun project: Theme songs to TV shows that don’t exist. Maybe next year’s FAWM…

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 115: Not to Us, O Lord

My head is in the Hallel Psalms (113-118), so this morning a little praise chorus just sort of began singing in my mind. I had to write it down.

Now, if this were the early 90s I would have a hit rocketing its way up the CCLI charts to shine like a star next to the songs of Graham Kendrick and Geoff Bullock. But this is not the 90s. And I’m still not sure if I’m going to include it in this project.

The trick is that the songs need to be sung reflections on the Psalms that can sit alongside complex instrumental interludes, something like Bach’s chorale preludes. So I don’t know if a sweet little bon bon of praise will be the right thing for this project. I’m happy to be convinced one way or the other. Take a listen and let me know if you think it’s a keeper: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 114: Tremble Before the Lord

A few years ago I wrote a setting of Psalm 114 called “The Hills and Mountains Tremble.” I liked it, especially compared to the settings of Psalm 114 that are available. (There aren’t many.) I didn’t want to use the same setting in my new Hallel Psalm music, but I also didn’t want to close that door entirely, so I wrote something in the same key and with lots of echoes to the previous song. Here is my Taizé-like refrain, a musical summary of the major theme of Psalm 114: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Hallel Psalms Psalms

Psalm 113: From the Rising of the Sun

I finally decided to bite the bullet and do FAWM. What is FAWM, you ask? It stands for February Album Writing Month, and people who take part make it their goal to write 14 songs in 28 days. You can check out my page here: http://fawm.org/fawmers/gregscheer/.

For this year’s FAWM, I plan to write music around the “Hallel” Psalms (Psalms 113-118). For each Psalm there will be a song (that’s 6 songs), padded by instrumental interludes (7), and interjected Hallelujahs (5), for a total of 18 pieces of music. Part of the reason I decided to take the FAWM challenge this year is that I feel the need for a big project to keep me excited about life. It also coincides with a Cardiphonia project centered on the Hallel Psalms, due at the end of the month.

Now, on to the first post:

The first half of Psalm 113 is lots of beautiful creation imagery, but the second half contains some things that don’t fit as neatly into a modern worship song: God raises the needy from the garbage dump and places them among princes; he gives the barren woman children. I boiled this down to three themes in verse 2: God gives us a place at the table, a place in the kingdom of God, and a place in God’s family.

People at fawm.org get the MP3, but you, dear readers, get the PDF, too!

[Trivia for those who have too much time on their hands: this isn’t the first time I’ve set Psalm 113 to music. A few decades ago I wrote a whole cantata based on the Psalm for a church in Elterlein, East Germany.]

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Colin

Armour of the Lord

Colin Gordon-Farleigh has been working with singer named Chuck Longmayne and a Nashville studio to record some of the country songs we wrote quite a while back.

This one is called “Armour of the Lord.” (That’s “armor” to you Americans.) It was fun to hear this one fleshed out in a full countrified arrangement. Even more fun to watch the video, which is an anachronistic mashup of Nashville sounds and Crusade images. ( I think it would have been cooler if they had gone all out and had the knights driving pickup trucks!)

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live

2013 Calvin Worship Symposium Service: Not to Worry

I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s been a few weeks since I last posted. (Please say you’ve noticed…) My excuse is that I was busy preparing for the 2013 Calvin Worship Symposium, which ended Saturday. Among other things, I led the music in a worship service with the Calvin Christian High School, under Erin De Young’s fine leadership.

You can check it out here: http://new.livestream.com/calvin-college/events/1738250.

It featured three of my arrangements of hymns/songs for orchestra. It was very satisfying to be sandwiched between a full string orchestra and a thousand some worshipers singing their hearts out. The whole service–which I helped Sue Rozeboom plan and in which Luke Powery preached–is worth watching. But if you’re just interested in hearing the music I wrote or arranged, fast forward to:

  • 13:00 The Lord Be with You (by Ron Rienstra)
  • 16:11 One Generation
  • 1:00:52 O Bless the Lord, My Soul
Categories
Church Congregational Songs Contests Demos

We Are the Children of God

This summer I got an email from one of my blog readers alerting me to an upcoming song contest. (Thanks, Dean!) The contest is run by Grandfather Home for Children.  You really should check out their website, because they do wonderful work with abused and abandoned children.

As the deadline approached, I started looking through my songs to find some things that fit their three categories: traditional hymn, contemporary song, and children’s song. Sure, I found some songs that fit the bill, but I felt that I was taking the easy way out by submitting only old songs. (In Ninjago terms, I wasn’t unlocking my true potential.)

I started to think about the kind of song an abandoned or abused child would want to sing. I didn’t think an orphan would want to sing about being an orphan, even though there are lots of Bible passages about God being the father of the fatherless. Instead, I thought they’d want to sing about belonging and being part of a family. And of course, that’s what we all want.

Then like a bolt of lightening, it hit me: I need to write a simple children’s song about being a child of God. Not only is it cool that God adopts us as children, it’s even cooler that this makes us siblings–blood relations in Jesus. The great thing about this song is that it’s a song we can all sing–we’ve all been adopted into God’s family through Christ–but, of course, it has an even deeper meaning for the context of Grandfather Home for Children.

MP3, PDF

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Demos Global

All of My Heart (Adoração)

Update 1/15/22: Sheet music for this song is now available at gregscheer.com.

I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve taken it upon myself to introduce the Brazilian writing duo of Rubem Amorese and Toninho Zemuner. They write beautiful, singable, meaningful songs. In Portuguese. But with a resolute will and the help of Google translate, I forge on, transcribing and translating some of their songs.

The latest is a simple song called “Adoração.” Because the song is so simple, the translation was very difficult. Every word had to be just right. As a matter of fact, I’d like a little feedback. Here’s the first verse in Portuguese:

Te adorarei, te adorarei
Com todo o meu coração;
Com toda a sede do meu viver,
Com todo o meu ser.

Te adorarei, te adorarei
Com todo o meu coração;
Com toda a minha razão e amor,
Com todo o meu viver.

As you can see, the first two lines of each half verse are identical. Normally, the fourth line would rhyme with the second line, but in this song they’ve bound the two half verses by rhyming the last line in each half verse. This creates an unusually long wait for the rhyme completion for a simple song. I respected the integrity of the original and followed their pattern. At first it didn’t sound right to my ear, but after I spent some time recording it, it began to feel more natural. Yak, yak, yak. See for yourself.

Listen to their original: MP3

Look at the translation: PDF

Listen to my demo at the link above.

Look at the leadsheet at the link above.