The Musical Diary of Greg ScheerA song that I wrote with Colin Gordon-Farleigh in 2008, If Only I Had Wings, has now been recorded by Jennifer Douglas. She has a beautiful voice and does a great job with the song. But wait, there’s more! There’s also a video of the song. Check it out:
As you know, I like nothing more than entering composition contests. More specifically, I love winning composition contests.
My most recent lunge for the elusive musical ring was the WCRC hymn contest. A number of international Reformed organizations are coming together this year to form one mega-international-Reformed organization called the World Council of Reformed Churches. To celebrate this historic event, they sent out a call for songs based on Ephesians 4–unity in the Spirit. I entered two songs.
The first, “Make Us One within You Spirit,” has a history of rejection. When I was named runner-up (which is something like be named “the guy who lost and whose name will be made public”) in the CRC Sesquicentennial hymn contest, I thought it would a nice gesture to compose a new tune for Bert Polman’s winning text, which had been paired with the ubiquitous NETTLETON (“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”). I was quite pleased with my new tune–which I named SASQUATCH, for obvious reasons–but it slowly made it’s way to the back burner. When the WCRC Ephesians 4 contest came along, I decided that SASQUATCH would make an excellent, regal tune that would fit the festive uniting event well. I set to work on a Ephesians 4/unity text, and came up with a Trinitarian text that I thought would be a shoe in for the prize.
I was wrong.
I also entered a more Taize-like hymn named “There Is One Body.” Not knowing the setting in which the hymn would be sung, I thought a more ecumenical, liturgical song would work well for communion or gathering. So I wrote one with a verse/refrain structure. It is not as bold as the first song, but has a good flow between cantor and congregation, organ and piano.
Wrong again.
The judges chose five (count ’em, FIVE) winners, and neither of mine were on the list. To add insult to injury, a number of the judges are friends. Ouch! (Granted, the submissions were anonymous. But still, ouch!) This is on the heels of losing the Astoria bicentennial song contest, being disqualified from the CRC justice song contest (I could have been a contender, but instead they made me be a judge: Living Justly and From the City), and countless publisher rejections. While I lick my wounds, take a listen to my award-losing songs:
Make Us One within Your Spirit: MP3 (Update 10/1/20: sheet music available for download here)
PS – I’m still waiting to hear about the NPM mass contest and the Grand Rapids Google Fiber video contest. To keep track of all this, I’ve created a new category for blogposts called “contests.”
On Saturday, my wife Amy successfully bench-pressed 125lbs in a competition. I’m so proud. (And relieved: it’s been an intense month of training and dieting.) To celebrate I created a soundtrack for the movie of the lift. No bench-pressing movie would be complete without the riff from “Iron Man,” and no pumped up competition soundtrack is complete without including Queen’s “We Are the Champion.” So I rolled them into one. Check out the video at my wife’s blog: Wait for It.
As a worship planner, I try hard not to put my own musical preferences over my congregation’s. However, during certain liturgical seasons I insist on singing a short list of songs that are my personal favorites. This could be considered selfish, but they’re all really good songs, so in a way I’m doing everyone a favor. In any case, during Lent and Holy Week any church of mine will sing “What Wondrous Love Is This” (MP3) and “Ah, Holy Jesus” (MP3).
“What Wondrous Love Is This” is from the Shape Note tradition. Like the best of these early American songs, the tune is beautiful but slippery (what key is this in, anyway?), the words are simple yet deep as death, and it loses much of its charm when it moves from the stark Shape Note harmonies to the sweeter harmonies of modern hymnals. People keep writing new arrangements of the song, but I don’t think anyone will ever get it right. It is a song of elusive perfection.
Knowing that I, too, would fail to pen the perfect arrangement of the song didn’t deter me from composing one. I decided to transplant the song from its original folk tradition to a more modern folk tradition of guitar and voice. I’ve been singing this arrangement for a number of years and finally recorded it this afternoon. I also wrote a piano arrangement that we sang at COS a few weeks ago. (You can email me for the PDF.)
“Ah, Holy Jesus” is a song that has fallen out of favor in modern hymnals. That’s too bad, because Johann Heermann’s text and Johann Crüger’s tune are a one-two-Holy-Week punch to the heart. Without being overly sentimental, the hymn personalizes Jesus’ crucifixion and forces the singer to take some responsibility for Jesus’ suffering. This is a song I discovered in the old Presbyterian hymnal when I first began music ministry at Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. I still remember riding the bus into town trying to memorize the song before the Good Friday service.
Even though I know I’m treading on hallowed ground–re-harmonizing Crüger’s music–I’ve continued to sing this folk version through the years. The last time I sang it at COS, an older man–a real straight shooter–came up to me and told me, “You need to know that was a horrible rendition of a great song.” I can’t remember if he went on to describe it as despicable, deplorable, or a sacrilege, but you get the point. Interestingly, that got me written into his will in a roundabout way. It said, “No guitars or drums at my funeral.” I actually liked this man a lot. You knew exactly where he stood on things, and he didn’t seem to harbor any lasting malice–he just didn’t want me messing up a perfectly good hymn or funeral with guitars.
I finished a demo for Colin Gordon-Farleigh this afternoon, which was something of a miracle given Easter planning, meetings, and having the boys with me for part of the afternoon. (You don’t realize just how annoying mixing is until you have someone in the room with you.) Because I had some extra instruments at the church in anticipation of Easter, I decided to add timpani, glockenspiel and a cymbal roll just for fun. What I *really* wanted to do was put the song in triple meter and give it my best Roy Orbison, a la “Running Scared.” But time ran out and I couldn’t find my sunglasses. This one’s for you, Roy!
Simon, Theo and I created a Lego movie on Saturday to go with my new Google Me! song. Amy chose not to take part in this Scheer family work of art, saying only “If I tell you what I think of the song, it’ll sound mean.” Hrrrmmmph. We’ll see how she feels about the song when the boys and I are eating at a fine Grand Rapids restaurant after winning the GR Google video prize while she sits at home by herself eating tuna from a can.
Do us a favor and go to YouTube to give this a 5 star rating. If you’re feeling really inspired, leave a comment like “That’s really cool and should win the prize!” or “After seeing this video how could Google resist coming to Grand Rapids?!!” or “This is a lot better than Amy said!!!” or “The song is still pretty annoying, but Simon and Theo’s Lego artistry is off the hook!!!!” (Multiple exclamation points optional.)
You may have heard that Google is planning to roll out super high speed (and free) internet in select cities across the nation. Which means, of course, that cities across the nation are vying for Google’s attention.
I, being true to my city, will not squander my skills on any other metropolitan area (even if they are offering a $150 worth of gift certificates to restaurants that are in driving distance). No, my heart is loyal to Grand Rapids, where citizens are joining together as one to extol their fine city’s virtues.
And that, my friends, is why I am contributing my new song “Google Me!” to the cause. I’m pretty sure that when the flash mob creates a human network on Marcy 19, they’re going to need some music. Here it is. Get dancing. And when people start shooting their videos, this is the soundtrack with the sizzle. And when Google rolls into town with its blazing fast network, Grand Rapids will sing one joyous, high speed chorus of “Google Me!”
I was reading Bruce Benedict’s very excellent Cardophonia blog today, and he had a post with four different musical renditions of Isaac Watt’s text “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed.” That reminded me that I have never uploaded my choral version of that text, which uses the tune MARTYRDOM. Just in time for Holy Week, here’s the PDF and MP3.
As any loyal follower of this blog knows, I have an interest in song contests that borders on the obsessive. I’m drawn to them like a moth to the flame, and my latest flame is Astoria, Oregon.
Astoria is celebrating its 200th birthday and they advertised a song contest as part of the festivities. I’ve never been to the town, but an afternoon of research reveals that it’s quite a charming place with a colorful history. Did you know that Lewis and Clark spent a winter there? That it was the first major outpost of the Northwest? That Goonies, Kindergarten Cop and Free Willy were all filmed there? I tried to pack my new found knowledge into a song the town could call their own.
The fruit of my labor is a song named after their bicentennial theme, “Astoria: An Adventure in History.” Take a look at the PDF or listen to an MP3 demo sung by the Greg Quartet.
Update 10/6/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.
Tonight at COS we’re throwing a big Lent party we call Ash Wednesday. (Not really, it’s just Ash Wednesday service.) As I chose music for the end of the service, I wanted to find music that was somewhat unobtrusive so that people could focus on the ashes and silent reflection. The song that came to mind is my setting of Psalm 40, “Patiently.” It’s one I’ve never used in a service before because it’s so long. But for music to accompany reflection its lengthy dialogue of verses and refrain fits perfectly. So come to the service tonight to hear it in context. To prepare your heart, sit at the piano with the music (see link above) or listen to the MP3.