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Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Revenge of the Killer B’s: Psalm 30, Sing to God

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

I’ve blogged about “Sing to God” previously (and shortly after that), but I thought I’d let you hear it again. I still like this tune quite a lot. Evidently the editors of PfAS didn’t. (To be honest, I can’t remember if I submitted this one.) In #30C they paired this text with the Jewish tune YISRAEL V’ORAITA, which is actually a pretty nice fit.

One of the things I do to keep myself honest is to let choirs sight read my music without the warnings I often give before before rehearsing a new piece: “watch out for the harmony in measure 5” or “that rhythm in the chorus goes da daa da doo da.” If the choir stumbles on something, there’s a good chance the congregation will find it tricky.

That’s just what I did during this reading session. The twists and turns in this one caught the choir off guard, as evidenced by the laughing in verse 1. But by verse 3 they got those wrinkles ironed out: MP3.

Categories
Arrangement Choir Church Psalms

Revenge of the Killer B’s: Psalm 23, The King of Love

Update 10/2/20: Sheet music for this song and arrangement can be downloaded here.

Hands down, one of my favorite hymns is “The King of Love My Shepherd Is.” I wrote an SSA arrangement of this which found a home in the Augsburg Choirbook for Women. More recently I re-arranged it for SATB choir. Here is is: MP3.

Categories
Choir Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Revenge of the Killer B’s: Psalm 13, How Long Will You Forget

This choral/congregation setting of Psalm 13 began its life as Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed (which, by the way, I think you should sing in your church this upcoming Lent). When TCS and I were doing the initial reading sessions, I decided that the arrangement of the tune MARTYRDOM would fit both texts. This tune and text combination appear in Psalms for All Seasons, but not this arrangement. You can only get that right here: MP3.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Revenge of the Killer B’s: Psalm 5, Hear My Words, O Lord

Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

Next week, Psalms for All Seasons, a collection of a gazillion Psalm settings, will be given to every one who attends the Calvin Worship Symposium. Cry Out to God!, an accompanying CD made in collaboration with The Choral Scholars and a host of other friends, will also be released next week.

I’ve spent the last six months rehearsing, recording, and mixing this CD’s 22 songs. Along the way a number of songs have fallen by the wayside. In honor of the release of PfAS, I’m going to make a number of these songs available at my blog. You could call these songs “also rans,” “runner ups,” “the despised and rejected”; I call them Revenge of the Killer B’s in honor of an LP of the same name, which was a collection of B-sides* from various 80s artists.

First up is my setting of Psalm 5, “Hear My Words, O Lord.” It appears as Psalm 5C in the Psalms for All Seasons hymnal, but if you want the unsquished piano part you hear on this recording, see the link above. The recording is just a rough read through of the refrain without the reading. The reading allows the whole Psalm to be heard, and really lets the multiple voices of the original text come through.

*The back side of a single–if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, ask an old person.

Categories
Contests Demos

Carry Me

In 2001 a call went out from a new group called Crimson Bridge for songs that would fit their style. I seem to remember them wanting something to the effect of

  • songs from a Christian perspective, but necessarily only for Christian audiences
  • themes that dealt with the weightier issues of life and faith
  • mature perspective (i.e. teeny bopper songs wouldn’t fit this group of women)
  • something their multivocal group could sink their teeth into

I don’t know that I ever heard back from them. (You wouldn’t believe how many people request songs and then don’t even respond to your submission. At least have the decency to acknowledge that you received the submission; preferably you should take the time to let them know why their song didn’t fit the project. But no, I’m not bitter.)

I came across this demo the other day and gave it another listen. I’ll be up front and say that the demo is cheesy. Fair enough. But I still kind of like the song itself. It’s written from the perspective of a person who is at an undisclosed juncture (illness? midlife crisis? failed relationship?) and is praying one of those nothing-to-lose honest prayers of doubt and faith that mark such crossroads.

I know this kind of straight up CCM pop is not everyone’s cup of tea, but expand your hipster horizons and give it a listen: Carry Me, MP3.

VERSE 1
The days are filled with coffee,
and the nights last for days.
You never know where your life is going
But I didn’t think it would be this way.

How could I have seen it coming?
What could I have done to prepare?
Of all the places I thought I’d end up
it would be anywhere but here.

CHORUS
If Your love moves mountains,
and Your love soothes seas,
then I need Your love to reach down
and move and soothe my soul. I need your love
to carry me.

VERSE 2
Who am I to question?
I’m in no place to make demands.
But you’ve led me into this wilderness
and I’m trying to understand:

Should I see hope on the horizon?
Should I find comfort in the past?
Right now I’m in between
and I don’t know how long it will last.

CHORUS

BRIDGE
Your love has brought me here today,
to a place where I can’t see my way.
O Lord, there’s nothing I can do
if Your love doesn’t carry me through.

VERSE 3
Nothing in this world is forever.
It burns like dew in the morning sun.
But longer than the earth will spin
Your love goes on and on.

CHORUS

Categories
Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live Retuned hymn

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty/Praise the Lord, O My Soul

I found an MP3 on my computer the other day, and to tell you the truth I don’t know what it’s from. It’s my arrangement of “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” that includes the added refrain “Praise the Lord, O My Soul.” I’m pretty sure it’s played by Church of the Servant’s Guitarchestra, because it features the soulful accordion stylings of Kurt Schaefer. But is it a service recording? Something I recorded during rehearsal? I really don’t know.

But I liked its relaxed vibe, so I thought I’d share it: MP3

You can find a list of my hymn arrangements here. I’m in the process of uploading the whole lot to hymnary.org, but I will accept email requests in the meantime.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs

Christ Has Died

Churches of a liturgical bent usually include the “memorial acclamation” as part of their communion liturgy. The leader says “Let us proclaim the mystery of faith” and the people respond with “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” This not only makes for good liturgy, but is a profound miniature creed.

Here, both parts are sung. The introduction is given to the leader–probably a cantor/soloist, but it’s wonderful when a pastor/priest is able to sing the liturgy. The acclamation is sung first by the choir (in this case a choir of Gregs) and then repeated by the congregation (of Gregs).

Christ Has Died: MP3, PDF

Categories
Church Congregational Songs

The Body of Christ

As I worked on Cardiphonia’s Songs for the Supper project, I wrote lots of sketches before settling on “O Lamb of God” as the one I’d record “for real.” I recently got a chance to complete and record a few of the other ideas. The first is “The Body of Christ.”

In many churches, passing of the communion elements is accompanied by the words “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven” and “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation,” to which the recipient answers “Thanks be to God.” Here are those words in musical form. I imagine the song being used as a meditative refrain that the congregation can sing while passing the communion elements, similar to Taizé’s “Eat This Bread.” I plan to write Taizé-style descants as well. The first blog reader who schedules this song for a service and requests the descants (with a few days’ notice) gets them for free!

The Body of Christ: MP3, PDF

Categories
Quirky

Theophiles: Theo Dumb Dumb

Disclaimer: I did not make up the character Theo Dumb Dumb, nor did I endorse or encourage it. (Except writing this theme song…)

I don’t know how the super hero Theo Dumb Dumb came to be, but it seems he is a likable character whose clumsy foibles always save the day. My favorite part of this recording is Theo’s spoken introduction: “here’s a true story that I made up.” Very funny.

It is fitting to end our 12 days of Christmas with a rousing little earworm that finds the whole Scheer family singing along. Won’t you join us?

Theo Dumb Dumb

Categories
Quirky

Theophiles: Rubberbandman

When the boys invented Rubberbandman, I didn’t have the heart to tell them he already had a theme song. A good one. So I just went ahead and invented a new one. Make sure to listen for Theo’s narration in the middle. He’s been working on his rhyming, and spontaneously came up with the ingenius, “He’s like an elastic waist/but without all those suntans/so clap your hands/for Rubberbandman.” That’s my boy!

Rubberbandman