Now the Green Blade Rises
Arranged by Donald McCullough
What’s this?
It’s a section of this Substack containing videos of my choir’s anthems, along with my comments. A longer description can be found on the About page. If you subscribe to this Substack but don’t wish to receive notifications for this section, select Manage Subscription from the upper-right menu and turn it off there.
Now the Green Blade Rises
Adapted from a sampling of reviews:
"Now the Green Blade Rises", an Easter hymn, first appeared in the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928, with text by John MacLeod Campbell Crum and music from the ancient French carol "Noël Nouvelet". It reflects metaphorically upon the resurrection of Jesus as wheat growing from buried grain.
More information: History of Hymns: "Now the Green Blade Riseth"
Lyrics (modern version)
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid Him, Love whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Behind the Scenes
This was said to be a record year for attendance. What you see here is from our Sunday traditional service, a link to the livestream of which can be found at the end of this post. We had another traditional service the evening before, and there were two contemporary services on Sunday as well.
This anthem was both enjoyable to sing and challenging to learn. It proved to be more difficult than it looked. The audio in this recording sounded a little off to me, but good enough to post. There’s a demo on this distributor’s page if you would like to listen to that. I also noticed that there appeared to be no camera operators. That contrasts with three manned cameras, one roaming on a monopod, on this day in the past. I don’t know what is happening there.
The choir was smaller this year for a variety of reasons. Usually it peaks on Easter Sunday and shrinks dramatically the following week, and it may still do the latter—we’ll soon find out. We have just three Sundays left when we sing and before we break until September. There is no traditional service the first Sunday in May.
I am posting this anthem late because the video downloader extension for my browser quit working again, when YouTube yet again changed the recorded format. The developers of the extension released an update today and I was able to download again.
I plan to post the remaining anthems for this season, if all goes well. After that, I don’t know. I will decide later on. The bigger decision, which comes up each year when we return and I am a year older—75 coming up—is as to whether I am still physically up to rehearsing and singing every week. Having sung in church choirs throughout much of the past 33 years I don’t want to quit but, like some of the other members, I may not have much choice.
Recorded at Christ Community Church, Carmichael, California, April 20, 2025.
Excerpted from this livestream.
Most enjoyable, Clear! Thanks for sharing it with us! 😊