The Musical Diary of Greg Scheer – Page 86 – This is, literally, my musical diary–notes fresh from my pen and recorded in a few hours. You can find my finished works elsewhere; here, it's all about capturing the moment!

Every Valley

Last night at Church of the Servant we had our Lessons & Carols service. (You can read more about the service at the COS worship blog.) One of the songs the choir sang was my composition “Every Valley.” This is one that I’ve done before, but it was great to do it again, especially because Jordan Clegg was singing the solo part. He rocked, as did Carol and “The Little Choir that Could.”

Every Valley is part of a set of pieces tentatively titled The Christmas Canticles that are written for solo, choir, piano, rhythm section and horns. I’ve already completed Every Valley, Blessed Be, and My Soul Will Magniy the Lord. Someday I hope to complete the canticles with a Gloria and Nunc Dimittis, but it will have to wait until some imaginative and well-endowed choir commissions me. (Hint, hint)

Until then, take a listen to Jordan Clegg, the COS Choir and Carol Rienstra (piano) performing Every Valley.

The King Shall Come

Last week at gregscheer.com I introduced the Advent song “The King Shall Come.” Actually, it was a reintroduction, as the song has been available at my site for a few years, but I recently made substantial changes to the lyrics (what we call improvements in the business) and wrote a piano accompaniment. Of course, the whole thing is based on a hymn by John Brownlie written in 1907, making it a re-reintroduction. (And Brownlie is said to have based it on a Greek Orthodox hymn, which would make it a re-re-reintroduction, but I digress…)

Hurry! There are only two more weeks in Advent to enjoy The King Shall Come.

Colin

Candle in the Window

This thing is a hit waiting to happen. Am I right or am I right? (You know the answer in your heart of hearts.) Check out the PDF or listen to the MP3.

Colin

If Only I Had Wings

I was feeling a little droopy this morning, so I decided to write a little music. After all, nothing cheers the soul like notes. Right? So here’s a new song in collaboration with Colin Gordon-Farleigh called “I Only I Had Wings.” You can view the PDF or listen to the cheesomatic-computer-automated MP3. By the way, if anyone wants to record their own rendition of this–or any song posted here–rest assured that I’ll gladly listen to it and most likely post it to my music blog.

Colin

Your Forever Friend

Poor Colin. I told him over a month ago that I had a draft of a new song and that I’d get him the completed song soon. Well, lately “soon” for me can take months. But soon has finally arrived! Listen to an MP3 of “Your Forever Friend” or play it yourself using this handy-dandy PDF.

Church Finale demo

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date November 7, 2008
2 Comments on Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Here’s a little something I whipped up this afternoon: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Okay, “whipped up” and “this afternoon” makes it sound too easy. I’ve actually been carrying around a rough draft of this in my backpack for the last 6 months and finally got a chance to complete it yesterday and today. The recording is one of my trademark cheesy Finale playback renditions, but it gets the point across.

Church Congregational Songs Finale demo Retuned hymn

A Great and Mighty Wonder

Post author By Greg Scheer
Post date November 2, 2008
No Comments on A Great and Mighty Wonder

Due to popular demand (okay–one request) I just wrote a piano accompaniment for my Christmas song “A Great and Mighty Wonder.” I also took the opportunity to update the text a little and write out a descant. The descant is kind of cool in a musically geeky sort of way–it uses the refrain of “O come All You Faithful” as counterpoint to this song’s refrain. (Do I smell a Christmas medley?) You can hear a demo MP3 here or download the lead sheet and piano score at my main site.

Choir Church

Jesus, Precious Jesus

In an earlier post I introduced a song called “Jesus, Precious Jesus” and promised a choral arrangement. Here it is. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad trait, but this song can range in performance style from a simple praise chorus accompanied by acoustic guitar to slow and funky Black Gospel. In this choir arrangement I took somewhat of a middle road, using the lush harmonies of Gospel but keeping the rhythms fairly straight. It’s a little sweeter and flashy than more typical style, but it’s growing on me.

Colin Demos

What Did You Mean?

At this point I’ve written over 30 songs with Colin Gordon-Farleigh. This latest is a ballad called “What Do You Mean?” I decided to do something different with this post. Usually I just make an MP3 of Finale playing back the score, but this song doesn’t sound right with a machine’s rigid playback. So here is a recording of yours truly singing “What Do You Mean?” in one take into the built in mics on my Mac. Not enough for you? Here’s the music for you to play at the piano.

Congregational Songs Retuned hymn Uncategorized

Abba Father

Calvin College’s chaplain Andy De Jong is doing a chapel series on the Lord’s Prayer. He asked if I would compose a new tune for a text by Thomas Troeger called “Let All Who Pray the Prayer Christ Taught.” It turned out to be quite a challenge. It’s quite a thick text which doesn’t lend itself naturally to the meditative spirit you’d expect from a song about praying. So I put Troeger’s text in the mouth of the leader and gave the congregation a simple “Abba, Father” as a response. Here’s the demo. I hope you like it. More importantly, I hope that Thomas likes it, because I’ll be working with him next summer at Lake Junaluska. I can just imagine our first meeting: “Greg Scheer. (silence) So you’re the guy who ruined my song.”