Hymn: Christ Is Alive!
Brian Wren wrote this hymn in April 1968 for Easter not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He “tried to express an Easter hope out of that terrible event,” rather than Easter as “long ago, far away, and high above.” The hymn has been revised several times as Wren has sought to keep the original theme of the text while seeking better language. The fourth stanza, not included in The Presbyterian Hymnal, reads, “Women and men, in age and youth, / can feel the Spirit, hear the call, / and find the way, the life, the truth, / revealed in Jesus, freed for all.”
Hymn: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
The text for this hymn comes from an anonymous Latin manuscript written in the fourteenth century. It was translated into German, then later to English in 1708. The hymn, paired with the EASTER HYMN tune that we’ll sing today, was published in
Lyra Davidica, an early songbook. The tune has been called “extraordinary for its time, anticipating the more exuberant tunes of the Evangelical revival later in the [eighteenth] century.”
Hymn: The Day of Resurrection!
Carlton Young writes, “This text and ‘Come, ye faithful, raise the strain’ are hymns of praise freely translated from the Easter ‘Golden Canon,’ also called the ‘Queen of Canons,’ linking the mighty acts of God: the Hebrews’ exodus and Jesus’ resurrection.” The writer of the hymn, John of Damascus, a poet of the Greek Church and one of its major theologians and hymn writers. It is related to Exodus 15, tying the story of Moses and the Hebrews going out from bondage to freedom with Christ’s winning the victory over death for us.
Hymn: We Know That Christ Is Raised
The author writes of this hymn, written in 1967 when he was a tutor at Cheshunt College, Cambridge: “A good deal of work was going on round the corner producing living cells. This hymn attempted to illustrate the Christian doctrine of baptism in relation to those experiments.” The hymn is, as Paul Westermeyer puts it, a statement of the explosive nature of baptism in all contexts. The text was specifically written for the tune ENGELBERG. Westermeyer writes, “The pulse of this one is so strong that the long notes at phrase ends never sit down but are always propelled onward with enough space for breath.” Sing it heartily and with conviction!
Anthem: Lamb of God
This setting of the Agnus Dei (O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig) was written by Nikolaus Decius about 1541, and arranged for four-part choir by F. Melius Christiansen in 1933. Christiansen is perhaps best known as the founding conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, which helped to encourage a cappella singing in the early twentieth century. The tune for this piece was derived from a thirteenth-century chant setting.
Anthem: Arise, Your Light Has Come
David Danner composed this anthem for the 1989 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Louisville as part of their Hallelujah Amen service. The piece sets texts adapted from Psalm 57:8-9, Isaiah 60:1, and the German chorale “Wachet auf (Wake, awake, for night is flying).”
Anthem: “Hallelujah” Chorus from MESSIAH
One of the best-known pieces in the choral repertory, this chorus speaks for itself. Handel wrote the music for Messiah in the space of 24 days (August 22-September 14, 1741). A legend tells the story of Handel’s servant happening upon his employer after the completion of the “Hallelujah” chorus. According to the servant’s report, Handel had tears streaming down his cheeks as he exclaimed, “I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself!” The chorus ends Part II of the work, as it transitions from selections for Lent; thus, it serves as a wonderful beginning to Eastertide.
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