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Congregational Songs Contests Psalms

My Keeper

It’s going to be a week long extravaganza of contests, starting today!

The first song is one that I wrote a while back–1999 to be exact. “My Keeper” is a rendition of Psalm 121 that began its life as a Jars of Clay or Caedmon’s Call style acoustic rock song. I’ve always had a soft spot for this song, but it’s never quite worked as planned. The main problem is that the verse rhythm is fairly difficult, especially on the page. The second problem is that the refrain hit a high D on an “ee” syllable. That’s not particularly congregational friendly.

So when Faith Alive put out a call for songs based on particular scriptures, and one of those scriptures was Psalm 121, I knew I needed to take the opportunity to revisit “My Keeper.” In this case, the call was for “Caribbean-style” songs based on Psalm 121 for grades K-1, so I had to do some serious rethinking.

The Reggae style I used help me move the melody to a straighter, more congregational-friendly rhythm in the verse. I expect the straighter rhythm will work well even when not using the Reggae style. Recording the song–and struggling with the high Ds in the refrain–led me to repeat the first phrase of the refrain twice. Peaking at a B four times may not be as interesting of a compositional choice, but it works a lot better for the people singing the song.

Now all I have to do is wait to find out if Faith Alive feels the same soft spot for the song as I do. In the meantime, take a listen or look.

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Colin

Grace Bawden sings “If Only I Had Wings”

Faithful readers of this blog (and who isn’t?) will remember that Colin Gordon-Farleigh and I co-wrote a song in 2008 called “If Only I Had Wings.” Last year it was recording by Jennifer Douglas, and now it has been recorded again by Australian Grace Bawden. You can take a listen and download an MP3 at CDBaby Both singers do a beautiful job with the song, and it’s interesting to hear how each has arranged and “owned” the song in their own unique way.

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Congregational Songs Psalms

Psalm 133: How Very Good and Pleasant

At COS we’re doing a series on stewardship and this Sunday’s theme was “Stewards of Community.” We normally use the lectionary Psalm, but I thought it would be more appropriate to use Psalm 133 this week. My favorite setting of that Psalm is Barbara Boertje‘s “How Very Good,” and my initial thought was to pair it together with readings from the Psalm, John 13:34-35, and singing Taize’s “Ubi Caritas.”

But you know me–I just can’t leave stuff alone, and I started playing around with an idea to add solo verses to Barbara’s song. My study of the Psalm tells me that the oil represents–thinking broadly–the anointing that made Israel God’s people, and the dew represents God’s blessing through food and creation. Looking through New Testament eyes, we could interpret the oil as Jesus our anointed High Priest and/or the baptismal waters that set us apart as God’s people. The dew could become the bread and wine which are a foretaste of the eternal life promised at the end of Psalm 133.

With that in mind–and with Barbara’s permission–I wrote 2 verses to go with the original song. We sang it this Sunday morning and it worked well. The verses feel like they’re cut from the same cloth as the refrain and it expands Barbara’s original idea to include the text of the whole Psalm, without increasing the difficulty of the congregation’s part. Listen to the MP3 or take a look at the PDF. (The score doesn’t include the piano part for the refrain. I just pasted it in for the time being.)

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Congregational Songs

Faithful Stewards

Last year I wrote a song based on Micah 6:8 for the Church of the Servant Girls’ Club to sing. I guess it went well, because they asked me to write another one this year. This time, they chose the scripture I Corinthians 4:1-2 (“servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries”) to coincide with Pastor Jack Roeda’s series on stewardship. The basic idea is that we are not only called to be stewards of money, but of all the gifts God has given us.

So yesterday I wrote a draft and today I revised (ie. scrapped and rewrote) and finished it up. Late this afternoon I made a quick demo. Check it out: MP3, PDF.

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Church Congregational Songs Contests Finale demo

A Humble Mass

A while back NPM (National Pastoral Musicians) held a contest  for new musical settings of the English Mass which was recently approved by the US Roman Catholic bishops. For those of you who aren’t Catholic, even small changes in the language of the mass can be a pretty big deal, with publishers scrambling to release new versions of mandated text.

Of course, you know how I am about composition contests. You’ll remember that in the calm before the storm of this year’s Calvin Worship Symposium, I completed a Robot Dance Music contest entry (I won) and started a mass. I made enough progress on the mass before the symposium started that I was able to complete it during the event. This was helped along by my friend Kelly at GIA who was gracious enough to give me excellent feedback from her symposium vendor’s booth, and by Jeremy Begbie, who was kind enough to overlook that guy in the back who was editing a mass while he gave a lecture.

Fast forward a few months. I lost the NPM contest, which is not entirely unexpected. But I can’t just let 13 pages of music languish because of something as benign as losing a contest. So I did what any reasonable person would do–I asked for a second opinion in the form of YouTube. That’s right. I’ve published a “bouncing ball” version of the mass on YouTube so you can sing along while watching the music scroll by.

I named this setting “A Humble Mass” not because I think it’s a cool name like… I don’t know–Missa Lunesta or Mass of the Proletariat–but because I just couldn’t find a great name. I wanted to convey that this is a simple mass that is quite usable in congregations that only have a keyboard available to them. And it’s quite singable, with a few themes tying the whole mass together. But you never really know how effective a piece is until it’s sung by a living, breathing congregation.

If any of you would like to give this mass a go in your congregation, let me know and I’ll get you a PDF file of the mass.

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Church Congregational Songs Hymn tunes Retuned hymn

Filled with the Spirit’s Power

Just trying to catch up on recent compositions:

During Pentecost, John Phiri from Sierra Leone preached at COS. The text “Filled with the Spirit’s Power” (Psalter Hymnal #417) fit well with his sermon thematically, but musically it left something to be desired. (Sorry Henry Lawes.) So I wrote a new tune. Check out the PDF or the MP3.

If you’re looking for a 10.10.10.10 tune, give this a try.

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Production music

The Rascal Flag/Ten Second Sunrise

When I lived in Pittsburgh I was part of a men’s organization called the Rascals, Rogues and Rapscallions. It was an awesome enclave of pseudo intellectualism and cigar smoking. I, of course, couldn’t help but write music for our meetings. In fact, the Rascals’ website is now named after one of my songs (http://thatinterestingthing.org/).

One of things I did at the time was to make a rough animation of the Rascal flag, and of course, it included a brief soundtrack. It was, to tell the truth, quite a low budget affair. You can check out the original animation and soundtrack on YouTube.

For some reason, I stumbled across this file on my computer a few months ago. As I listened to the music that accompanies the animation, I realized that the music could be retooled for use as theme music, a la the NPR theme or Windows system start up music. (Ka-ching!) I recast it in a more orchestral vein and polished the recording to prepare it for submitting it to production music companies.

But first I’m giving you, my faithful listeners, a chance to hear what is now called “Ten Second Sunrise.”

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Quirky

Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist

My muse can be strange. This evening I was hanging out on the porch with the boys doodling with a little jazz tune on my guitar when Simon told me about our bunny Dottie doing a little dance. That reminded me of the title of one of Dav Pilkey’s alter ego’s books: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist, by Sue Denim. From there the mash up of the two ideas began, and a charming (if I don’t say so myself) new song song was born: Billy the Tap-Dancing Hygienist.

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Demos Production music

Hanging Out My Shingle

For 20 years now I’ve been writing and recording music for special occasions, from classical music commissions to marches to theme songs. For 5 years I’ve been entering contests, from hymns to fight songs to remixes. I’ve won enough of these contests that it one day occurred to me: “Hey, maybe I could turn the ‘made to order’ side of my composing into a lucrative side career.” So I assembled a variety of songs, compositions and arrangements into 3 minute, whirlwind tour of Greg, called the demo reel. You can read a description of what you’re hearing in this PDF. Of course, if you’re interested in hearing the full cuts of any these brief snippets, just let me know. More importantly, if you know anyone who works in the world of commercial or production music, tell them I’m hanging out my shingle and I’m ready to work. Do they need a jingle, arrangement or theme music? I’m their guy.

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Psalms

Psalm 52: Why Do You Boast?

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

If Casey Kasem were to do a count down of the Psalms, Psalm 52 would not be in the Top 40.

But Casey Kasem didn’t create the lectionary or write the Psalms. So when Psalm 52 appeared as the assigned Psalm for Sunday, July 18, 2010 in the lectionary, I felt a responsibility to study this difficult little chunk of God’s Word and present it in the best possible light to my congregation. The problem is that a casual reading of the text highlights a “holier than thou” vibe which is a turn off in our culture (v3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth) which is quickly followed by another cultural taboo–wishing ill on others: v5 God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Yikes.

The gulf between the Psalmist’s culture and ours is pretty wide, but if we dig a bit deeper arrive at some common ground. Psalm 52 works out of a basic belief that there is a good way to live and a bad way to live. Yes, you can get ahead using deceit, treachery and lies. (Come on, we’ve all been the recipients or perpetrators of this approach.) But in the end, our riches will provide no refuge in the face of death. So, the Psalmist says, it is better to live a life of trust in God’s steadfast love.

But enough preaching! The song started its life as an email to two friends asking if they knew of any dynamite settings of Psalm 52. Doug Gay wrote back in short order with his own metrical version of the Psalm. As the clock kept ticking I didn’t feel like I had any winners from my hymnal collection, so I sat down with Doug’s text at the piano. A new tune slowly emerged, and a new version of his text emerged as well. I don’t know that I’m ready to declare it finished yet, but we sang it in church on Sunday and it worked pretty well.

Take a listen to the MP3 from the service, or have a look at the PDF of the music (see link above). Feel free to leave your suggestions for improvements.