Three Anthems for Easter Sunday
Alleluia! My Redeemer Lives, Glory to the Lamb, and All Rise, with Crown Him With Many Crowns
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Alleluia! My Redeemer Lives
Words by Benjamin Harlan and Samuel Medley. Arranged by Benjamin Harlan. Orchestration by Stan Pethel.
Our call to worship anthem with congregational inclusion. From the publisher:
The familiar hymn tune "Duke Street" is paired with the familiar text "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and has a sparkling soprano descant and an accompaniment that builds in intensity.
This is a combined choral and congregational arrangement.
Note: We had problems with livestream sound throughout the service. Sound in the sanctuary was good.
Two other choral anthems were incorporated into the service music, Christ the Lord is Risen Today followed by O For a Thousand Tongues, sung by both the choir and the congregation. (These links point into the YouTube livestream recording and do not stop automatically.)
Glory to the Lamb
Tom Brooks, Integrity Music
The sermon response. Usually this would be a congregational hymn, but this day we offered an anthem.
Note: mics were off at the start, for the first three words.
This anthem was immediately followed by…
All Rise, with Crown Him With Many Crowns
Words and music by Babbie Mason. Arranged and orchestrated by David T. Clydesdale. (Followed by Because He Lives refrain.)
From Great Stuff Music Company:
One glorious day we shall enter the Royal Palace of Eternity, and there, surrounded by the splendor of Heaven's pageantry, find ourselves standing face to face with the King of all kings: Messiah Jesus!
And at last we will worship Him as we have longed to worship Him, and every creature will be singing: "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be praise...honor... glory and power... forever and ever! ALL RISE!"
This arrangement of All Rise incorporates a verse of Holy, Holy, Holy toward the end, and then transitions into Crown Him With Many Crowns. From the end of that we went immediately into the refrain of Because He Lives, which I included in this excerpt, followed by the benediction, which is not included here. The entire service can be viewed at the link at the end of this post.
I don’t have great deal to say about the audio of this livestream recording, but in this last anthem we had a excellent soloist with her mic muted. And there are sounds like noise gates cutting in and out — there is distortion of some kind. We have had ongoing sound system difficulties ever since Christmas Eve. Our main mixer is sitting on a table in the choir room, waiting for parts. It is a discontinued Soundcraft, and it takes months. All reflective of the state of the world, I guess.
The sound was different in the sanctuary, and rather deafening at times up on the chancel! We are short of volunteers for livestream, and for this service no volunteers were confirmed in the service plan from the livestream tech team. That may have had something to do with it.
I would like to find a way to help — I ran sound on and off over nearly 40 years — but I don’t feel physically up to it any longer. I could probably sub at the consoles, but no bending over or getting down on the floor. I used to joke about how much time I spent in the sanctuary on my knees at an earlier church — running cables, and occasionally sawing holes in walls. (I drew the line at crawl spaces with black widows in them, though. I reached in with poles instead.) This traditional service has an aging congregation, and this is how it goes.
Recorded at Christ Community Church, Carmichael, California, March 31, 2024
Excerpted from this livestream.
