Tunes for Texts

Showing 1–12 of 55 results

  • A Guardian’s Prayer

    $0.00$5.00
    Select options
    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/01-a_guardians_prayer-A-Guardia.mp3"][/audio]

    Linda Bonney Olin, a frequent collaborator, found her way to my Orphan Tunes page and paired her hymn text “A Guardian’s Prayer/Joseph’s Song” with my tune BLEST BE THOU. I don’t know of any other hymn that so fully explores Joseph’s role as a human father to a heaven-born Savior. Linda notes that this song would fit beautifully with the Matthew 1:18-25 reading in the lectionary on the fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A. And of course, any service exploring Joseph’s part in the Christmas story.

  • ABBA DABBA DOO

    $0.00
    Add to cart
    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/abba_dabba_doo.mp3"][/audio]

    This began as a new tune for a text on the Lord’s Prayer by Thomas Troeger called “Let All Who Pray the Prayer Christ Taught.” It gives this 6 verse text some breathing room, creating more space to pray the song. It’s available here for others who would like to write new texts to it. Above is the boring computer playback; belong is a demo using Troeger’s text (from back when I was just learning how to record).

    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/abba_father.mp3"][/audio]

    This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense and let me know how you’ve used it.

  • ALLITERATION

    $0.00
    Add to cart
    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/alliteration.mp3"][/audio]

    I wrote the tune ALLITERATION as an alternative to RUSTINGTON. It gave me a chance to work out a few musical ideas, and now it’s your chance to pair it with an 8787D text and give it a try in a real life setting.

    This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense and let me know how you’ve used it.

  • Placeholder

    Behold, a Table Is Spread

    $0.00
    Add to cart

    http://musicblog.gregscheer.com/behold_a_table_is_spread.mp3

    This song draws its inspiration from John S.B. Monsell’s 1866 hymn “I Hunger and I Thirst.” I added a chorus and rewrote the original text. Drawing from the “I AM” titles for Jesus, the three verses of this uptempo communion hymn focus on bread, blood, and water.

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • BIG OLD TREE

    $0.00
    Add to cart

    https://archive.gregscheer.com/sounds/big_old_tree.mp3

    Hymn tunes shouldn’t only be for the older folks, right? Here’s a common meter tune that would work perfectly for a children’s song. The last phrase is repeated, so you can think of it as 8.6.8.6.8.6.

    This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write your own lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please let me know how you’ve used it.

  • BLEST BE THOU

    $0.00
    Add to cart

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/blest_are_the_innocents.mp3

    This tune was originally written for “Blest Are the Innocents” by Sylvia Dunstan, a text about the Slaughter of the Innocents, when Herod killed every male under two in the hopes of killing Jesus, the prophesied King. Dunstan wrote the text with the 10.10.10.10 tune  SLANE (“Be Thou My Vision”) in mind. However, a well-loved tune like SLANE may cause some cognitive dissonance with the grim subject matter of the text, so consider this alternative.

    This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense and let me know how you’ve used it.

  • CHARMING FOURTH

    $0.00
    Add to cart
    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/charming_fourth.mp3"][/audio]

    This tune is called CHARMING FOURTH, because I wrote and rejected three other tune drafts before settling on this one; they say the third time’s the charm, but I was hoping for an exception to that rule. I’m also hoping a talented text writer will stumble upon this tune and give it beautiful words that let it soar.

    This hymn is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies

    $0.00$5.00
    Select options

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/christ_whose_glory.mp3

    Charles Wesley originally titled this text simply “Morning Hymn.” Indeed, the text is filled with images of morning, light, and day. This new tune complements Wesley’s wide-eyed, joyful text, conveying the refreshing hope of a new sunrise. Though the song itself is simple and singable, I’ve added a challenging and exciting instrumental verse that either keyboard or two solo instruments can play.

  • Come, Sinners, Come, to the Gospel Feast

    $0.00
    Add to cart

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/come_sinners_come_to_the_gospel_feast.mp3

    In 1747, Charles Wesley wrote a beautiful hymn that turns the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:15-24 into a sung altar call. This lively folk melody captures the urgency of that call to salvation, giving new life to this historical text.

    This song is mentioned in Greg’s podcast, “2021 Musical Year in Review.

    This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

  • DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING

    $0.00
    Add to cart
    [audio mp3="https://gregscheer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DIDNTSEETHATCOMING.mp3"][/audio]

    This falls somewhere between regal and rustic— something that would be at home in a cathedral or a Sacred Harp sing. It is an unusual hymn tune: the melody slides from an E minor/pentatonic into a G minor/pentatonic scale in the second phrase. The harmonies, too, sneak off halfway through, sprint in all directions, then slip back home in the last two measures. But for all its darting about, the song is still surprisingly singable— both the melody and the inner voices.

    It first appeared in print with Isaac Watts’ “Your Glory, Lord, Is Great” (#41 In Melody and Songs“).

    This is an orphan tune, waiting to be adopted by a text to call its own. If you write your own lyrics for this melody or pair it with an existing text, please let me know how you’ve used it.

  • DOUBLE WIDE

    $0.00$25.00
    Select options

    https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/how_wide.mp3

    I wrote this tune for a text by Herman Stuempfle and a few months later I came across a second text by the same author to fit this tune. The tune has a mysterious, intimate, jazzy feel, but is still very much singable by a congregation. For all you text writers, the tune’s meter is 6.6.8.6.6.6.

  • Ever-Tender Shepherd

    $0.00
    Add to cart

    http://musicblog.gregscheer.com/ever-tender_shepherd-4.mp3

    “Ever-Tender Shepherd” is a musical “collect prayer”–a prayer which petitions God based on God’s attributes. In this case, attributes of Jesus are connected to the needs of the world. We ask Christ, the Shepherd, to gather scattered refugees, for example. This seemed a good way to address the needs of the world without taking sides or naming issues so specifically that the song would be obsolete by the time it was used. I’m especially fond of the third verse. But who am I to play favorites?

    This hymn is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to CCLI or OneLicense.

Showing 1–12 of 55 results