Exultation

About the Christmas anthem Exultation

Exultation is from the old collection Southern Harmony. This is energetic music! It has an early American primitive quality that invites you to shout and dance, as you sing about “singing and praise” (verse 2). This anthem, with piano accompaniment, sets three of the six verses.

Verse 1:
Come away to the skies, my beloved arise,
And rejoice in the day thou wast born.
On this festival day, come exulting away,
And with singing to Zion return.

Verse 1 shows us the tune. Verse 2 and verse 6 with its “lyres and heavenly choirs” are set as they were in Southern Harmony. In the middle, verse 1 returns with some playful contrapuntal treatment.

Exultation is part of a larger cantata, Shepherds and Angels, with violin, harp, and tambourine. Instrumentally, the cantata aligns well with Britten’s Ceremony of Carols or Susa’s Carols and Lullabies. Teach your chorus Exultation or one of the other anthems this year, and expand to Shepherds and Angels next season!

View and listen

Preview score  Click the big button to download a free perusal score. The watermarked PDF is disabled for printing.

Listen  The Master Singers of Lexington, MA sang Exultation in 2010 in the Shepherds and Angels version with violin and harp.

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