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Congregational Songs Production music

OCD?

I’m beginning to think I have OCD: Obsessive Compositional Disorder. I just can’t say no to a compositional challenge. Take this one that arrived in my email inbox Friday night:

DEADLINE: ASAP
TV series needs CHILDREN’S CHOIR religious and “early to rise” theme music.
1) Songs such as “Jesus Loves me” but very unpolished sounding, sung by a children’s choir. It’s supposed to sound like a small group of kids are singing this – impromptu – in the background of an auditorium.
2) We are also looking for more children’s choir hymns. Any religious songs you have sung by children are welcome. They really want a song about “early to rise..” or “getting up in the morning”  or “morning prayer”.  Any kind of rise and shine theme’s.

I knew I could come up with something for that, so I set to work and had a song finished by the end of the evening. Saturday morning I spent a few hours recording some basic tracks and I prepped them for mixing later that night. The next morning I got up early and laid down some bass tracks before church, and today I finished a rough mix. Wednesday night I’ll add the COS Youth Choir, and who knows? Maybe we’ll end up on a TV show!

But if you can’t wait until then, you can listen to an MP3 of the rough mix.

Categories
Production music

The First Song

As I’ve begun my journey into world of production music, I’ve thought through my existing composition catalog to see if there’s anything that could be re-tooled as commercial music beds or movie scenes. So when I saw a call for music to introduce a news cast, I remembered “The First Song.”

“The First Song” was one of the first scores I wrote. I had been writing lots of songs, but hadn’t composed much instrumental music and hadn’t written out anything in score form for a full ensemble. It was fun to dig up this piece from 1987 and see a wet-behind-the-ears Greg run the piece into the ground within the first 20 measures.

But there were still some things I liked about it, so I revisited it this week and turned it into a recording that could be used as music for a newscast, opening credits of a TV drama, or a modern fanfare. Soon I’ll slice and dice sections of it into self-contained units that can be used for 30 and 60 second commercials. For now you can listen to the whole enchilada in MP3 form.

Categories
Congregational Songs Retuned hymn

All the Sacrifice Is Ended

A few weeks ago I and some other songwriters got an email from Bruce Benedict asking if we’d take part in his latest musical venture–a re:hymned version of Samuel J. Stone’s Lyra Fidelium. This collection is Stone’s hymnic reflections on the Apostles’ Creed. Inspired by Brian Moss‘s version of “The Church’s One Foundation,” Bruce thought it would be cool if a bunch of us would contribute new tunes to these classic texts in time for All Saints’ Day.

“Sure,” I said. “No problem.” I quickly chose Article V: He Descended into Hell. This may seem like an odd choice, but let me explain. First of all, it was one of two texts that others hadn’t chosen. Next, I felt it was penance for a job interview in which I submitted the Apostles’ Creed as my statement of faith and subsequently got grilled by one of the people on the search committee who asked if I *really* believed that Jesus went to hell. Very awkward.

The tune wrote itself fairly quickly. But a demo had to wait a week. When I had some free time to record the song on Friday, I spent the day laying down tracks that I realized by 2pm were sadly lacking. So naturally I brewed some coffee and assessed the situation. I started over with a more direct approach to the song. (See: Occum’s razor.) Somewhere around 4pm it all became an act of worship, and the arcane English worked its way deeper and deeper into my heart and the recording became an opportunity to explore Christ’s death, descending into hell, and resurrection more fully.

You can check out my All the Sacrifice Is Ended and a bunch of other songs at Cardiphonia Hymns of Faith page.

Categories
Art Music

Two Inventions

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then imitating imitative counterpoint must be utter musical sycophancy.

Let’s just say that in the 90s I went through a Bach phase. I studied counterpoint, read through Riemenschneider’s 371 Bach Chorales collection, and pretty much every piece I wrote was an homage to the man. That’s not all bad, of course. For years, composers have studied the masters to hone their own craft. And in my case, studying Bach counterpoint blossomed into a series of inventions, rhythmic metamorphoses, and crossfades that I still like today.

But it all got started with some pieces imitating Bach’s inventions for piano. Here are my imitatively flattering Invention #1 (MP3, PDF) and Invention #3 (MP3, PDF).

Categories
Church electronic Psalms

Psalm 23 for a Mid-Life Crisis

It’s my birthday today. (If you’ve forgotten to get me a gift feel free to head over to my Amazon wish list and buy something.) A birthday is a time to remember, celebrate, and look forward to one’s slow descent into a certain death. And for a man of my age, it’s a time to have a mid-life crisis. While I feel no great desire for a sports car, have no need to flaunt death with skydiving, and am entirely happy with my current woman (when my mother turned 40 my father threatened to trade her in for two 20s), I seem to be grasping after youth in a musical way: rap.

A few days ago, I submitted a spoken/rapped version of Acts 1:8 to Faith Alive. They liked it enough that they requested similar treatment of Psalm 23. I was a little reluctant. After all, Psalm 23 is sacred territory. But I gave it a try, and now I’m glad I did. It came out really well (if I don’t say so myself.) So take a listen to the MP3 while you read the lyrics below. Yo, MC G out.

He makes me lie down in fields of green
Walks with me along quiet streams
He restores my soul and gives me rest
Guides me in paths of righteousness
For his name sake and even though I take
A journey to the valley of the shadow of death
There’s nothing to fear, because you are with me
Your rod and staff bring peace and uplift me

There is nothing to fear
Because my Shepherd is near.

You’ve set a table full of good things
In the presence of my enemies
With oil you anoint my head and bless me
And my cup is filled to overflowing
Goodness and love will be with me
Every day I live brings brand new mercies
It will never end, because I’ll be a guest
In the house God forever find my rest.

There is nothing to fear
Because my Shepherd is near.

Categories
Colin

Anniversary Serenade

If there’s a blogging addiction, just put me in rehab!

This latest post is a PDF and demo of a new song with Colin Gordon-Farleigh.

Categories
Colin Rock and/or Roll

Dance! (an international sensation)

You may remember a song called “Dance!” that I co-wrote with Jackie Worth a few years ago. It was intended for a teen girl group called the Gemz, but they didn’t use it. In fact, they seemed to have broken up. (Let that be a lesson to all who consider rejecting my music in the future.)

But thanks to long time collaborator Colin Gordon-Farleigh, the song has taken on a new, international life. Colin gave the song to fellow Brit Jennifer Douglas (who sang our “If Only I Had Wings”) and Aussie producer Darren Mullan. Between the two of them, they’ve created a spot on dance hit. Go to CDBaby and buy the MP3 before the price go up! (If you’re too cheap to put out $0.99 for the full MP3, you can preview the song for free.)

Categories
Contests

If You Love Me

It’s our fifth and final day of a week of non-stop submission music. How can I top a rapped version of Acts 1:8 or a hymn tune that was almost entitled “My Fanny”? Well, in times of great need, one turns to scripture. In this case, the scripture is John 14:15, and the rendition is neo-soul. Imagine Alicia Keys writing a song for John Legend, in which he employs Barry White as backing vocalist. Now you’re getting the idea.

My wife thinks it’s an abomination. She tells me that if anyone else had written this, I would be appalled. I say, “Honey, how can it be wrong if it feels so right?” You be the judge: MP3, PDF.

Categories
Congregational Songs Contests

MY CROSBY

Update: Sheet music for this tune (still waiting for a text to call its own)
is now available at gregscheer.com.

Day 4 of my contest submission extravaganza is the second tune I entered in the St Lukes contest. Same text, new tune. This time the tune that came out was a straight up gospel hymn. So I decided to call it MY CROSBY. Hey, it’s better than MY FANNY, right?…

Feel free to write a new text for this: MP3.

Categories
Contests

Acts 1:8

You’ll notice that this week’s series of posts get progressively more quirky. In this, day 3 of my posting extravaganza, we once again tap into my submissions to Faith Alive’s Sunday School curriculum. They asked for hip hop, Caribbean, and other cool styles, so I figured I’d turn their request for Acts 1:8 songs into a scripture memory rap. Is that dope enough? Indeed. Here’s the MP3. It seems a little cerebral to include a score, but if you’re so inclined, knock yourself out with the PDF.