Arise! Shine!

Grade K-2 Children's Choir (or Easy Access anthem for Grade 3-6 choir) for unison treble voices, percussion instruments and piano (or organ).

• Text Source: Isaiah 60: 1, 4, text adapted by Carol Mc,Clure
• Vocal Range: e-c’
• Key: A minor
• Meter: 2/2
• Accompanying Instruments: Wood block, chimes, glockenspiel, xylophone, and piano (or organ)

Teaching Overview: Arise! Shine! is good for teaching young singers to begin to sing longer lines. The anthem features both ascending step-wise motion as well as ascending and descending fourths (“A-rise and shine”, m. 4-5) and ascending fifths (“Come, lift”, m. 13). Use these fragments as initial preparatory warm-ups for this anthem. The anthem-based warmups provided in the accompanying Warm-Ups October edition also serve to introduce the phrases “and the glory of the Lord” and “Come lift your eyes” and the care that needs to be taken for the choristers to sing precisely on pitch.

Additional Preparation for Worship: Allow ample time for the Orff intrumentalists to practice together. Although the instrumental parts are very straightforward, the older choristers/youth/adults Orff instrumentalists may not be accustomed to playing an instrument in public. In addition to rehearsing the instrumental parts themselves, make sure you give the instrumentalists ample instructions for getting to and getting up from the instruments (if they can be seen when they play for worship.) Next, plan to rehearse the choristers and instrumentalists together enough times that the choristers are not distracted as they sing accompanied by the Orff instruments. This provides a wonderful opportunity to teach the choristers about the different timbres of the Orff instruments.