You Don’t Need to Be a Pro

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Most of us have had the experience of encountering a great piece of art or entertainment and thinking: “I wish I could do that, but I’m not talented enough.”

Many of your favorite works were indeed made by people with a lot of natural talent. But you’d be surprised how often it was just a regular person who had an inspired idea.

“Let Easter Anthems Ring,” one of the new hymns the Church has recently released, was written by a Latter-day Saint named Larry A. Hiller. He was a professional writer and editor (retired now), but not a songwriter. He wasn’t a great singer or musician, either.

He was just someone who loved music and had an inspired idea.

While serving as ward choir director years ago, Brother Hiller tried his hand at writing new lyrics for an old song he discovered. He enjoyed that experience and asked a friend who worked at the Church if she knew of any other songs that needed new words. She pointed him to a hymn tune composed in the 1800s.

Brother Hiller said, “I sat down with that music and the words came into my mind immediately: ‘Rise up, ye Saints, rejoice.’ And from there I felt the general text and what it needed to be—a song of rejoicing about the Savior.”

That hymn was published in the Ensign in 2012. It had four verses and was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. “It had a strong focus on ‘you will see your loved ones again; there’s a resurrection,’” Brother Hiller said. When the Church put out the call for new hymns, Brother Hiller was asked to refocus his lyrics on Easter specifically.

After changing many of the lyrics—though the opening line, “Rise up, ye Saints, rejoice,” remained—Brother Hiller now had a three-verse hymn called “Let Easter Anthems Ring.” You might sing it in sacrament meeting this Easter season!

Did Brother Hiller feel inspired when he wrote the words?

“It’s humbling to say so,” he said. “But yes. There have been times when I felt the flow of words come into my mind. It’s gratifying and quietly joyous. And I can often feel an echo of that joy when I reread something that particularly moved me at the time. That alone brings back those feelings of testimony. It’s almost like reliving the experience.”

People will probably love the hymn, but it sounds like the person who got the most out of it was (drumroll) … the one who wrote it! Using our talents and inspired ideas doesn’t just bless others—it blesses us, too.