Take Up Your Cross

By urging the congregation to “Take up your cross,” this easy setting is perfect for a Sunday following Easter. The first verse is for women, then an accompanied four-part setting. This is followed by a modulation that is antiphonal between SA/TB voices. The predominantly two-part writing continues into the fourth verse, which declares that “only those who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown,” an ideal post-Easter message. The music is very easy but well-crafted.
The Diapason
May 16, 2006

Austin Lovelace is a distinguished American Methodist church musician, who is held in high regard not least for his work with the American Guild of Organists and the Hymn Society of America. His setting of four verses of Charles Everest’s hymn could not be simpler, and is mostly in unison or two parts, with a supportive organ accompaniment, and all voices sing in the centre of their ranges until a final tenor top F sharp. Its simplicity is its strenth, and the writing is such that a small and comparatively inexperienced choir would sound thrilling as it approached the climax with its promise that those who ‘bear the cross’ may ‘wear the glorious crown.’
James L. Montgomery
Church Music Quartet
March 2006