EASTER.
Perhaps the most notable feature in the early hymnology of the Oriental Church was its Resurrection songs. Being hymns of joy, they called forth all the ceremony and spectacle of ecclesiastical 532 / 472 pomp. Among them—and the most ancient one of those preserved—is the hymn of John of Damascus, quoted in the second chapter ([p. 54]). This was the proclamation-song in the watch-assemblies, when exactly on the midnight moment at the shout of “Christos egerthe!” (Χριστὸς ἠγέρθη.) “Christ is risen!” thousands of torches were lit, bells and trumpets pealed, and (in the later centuries) salvos of cannon shook the air.
Another favorite hymn of the Eastern Church was the “Salve, Beate Mane,” “Welcome, Happy Morning,” of Fortunatus. (Chap. 10, [p. 357].) This poem furnished cantos for Easter hymns of the Middle Ages. Jerome of Prague sang stanzas of it on his way to the stake.
An anonymous hymn, “Poneluctum, Magdelena,” in medieval Latin rhyme, is addressed to Mary Magdelene weeping at the empty sepulchre. The following are the 3d and 4th stanzas, with a translation by Prof. C.S. Harrington of Wesleyan University:
Gaude, plaude, Magdalena!
Tumba Christus exiit!
Tristis est peracta scena,
Victor mortis rediit;
Quem deflebas morientem,
Nunc arride resurgentem!
Alleluia!
Tolle vultum, Magdalena!
Redivivum aspice;
Vide frons quam sit amœna,
Quinque plagas inspice;
Fulgent, sic ut margaritæ,
Ornamenta novæ vitæ.
Alleluia!
* * * * * *
Magdalena, shout for gladness!
Christ has left the gloomy grave;
Finished is the scene of sadness;
Death destroyed, He comes to save;
Whom with grief thou sawest dying,
Greet with smiles, the tomb defying.
Hallelujah!
Lift thine eyes, O Magdalena!
Lo! thy Lord before thee stands;
See! how fair the thorn-crowned forehead;
Mark His feet, His side, His hands;
Glow His wounds with pearly whiteness!
Hallowing life with heavenly brightness!
Hallelujah!
The hymnaries of the Christian Church for seventeen hundred years are so rich in Easter hallelujahs and hosannas that to introduce them all would swell a chapter to the size of an encyclopedia—and even to make a selection is a responsible task.
Simple mention must suffice of Luther's—
In the bonds of death He lay;
—of Watts'—
He dies, the Friend of sinners dies;
—of John Wesley's—
Our Lord has gone up on high;
—of C.F. Gellert's—
Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
He hath burst His bonds in twain;
—omitting hundreds which have been helpful in psalmody, and are, perhaps, still in choir or congregational use.
“CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY”
Begins a hymn of Charles Wesley's and is also the first line of a hymn prepared for Sunday-school use by Mrs. Storrs, wife of the late Dr. Richard Salter Storrs of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Wesley's hymn is sung—with or without the hallelujah interludes—to “Telemann's Chant,” (Zeuner), to an air of Mendelssohn, and to John Stainer's “Paschale Gaudium.” Like the old New England “Easter Anthem” it appears to have been suggested by an anonymous translation of some more ancient (Latin) antiphony.
Jesus Christ is risen to day,
Hallelujah!
Our triumphant holy day,
Hallelujah!
* * * * * *
Who endured the cross and grave.
Hallelujah!
Sinners to redeem and save,
Hallelujah!
AN ANTHEM FOR EASTER.
This work of an amateur genius, with its rustic harmonies, suited the taste of colonial times, and no doubt the devout church-goers of that day 535 / 475 found sincere worship and thanksgiving in its flamboyant music. “An Anthem for Easter,” in A major by William Billings (1785) occupied several pages in the early collections of psalmody and “the sounding joy” was in it. Organs were scarce, but beyond the viols of the village choirs it needed no instrumental accessories. The language is borrowed from the New Testament and Young's Night Thoughts.
The Lord is risen indeed!
Hallelujah!
The Lord is risen indeed!
Hallelujah!
Following this triumphant overture, a recitative bass solo repeats I Cor. 15:20, and the chorus takes it up with crowning hallelujahs. Different parts, per fugam, inquire from clef to clef—
And did He rise?
And did He rise?—
Hear [the answer], O ye nations!
Hear it, O ye dead!
Then duet, trio and chorus sing it, successively—
He rose! He rose! He rose!
He burst the bars of death,
And triumphed o'er the grave!
The succeeding thirty-four bars—duet and chorus—take home the sacred gladness to the heart of humanity—
Then, then I rose,
* * * * * *
And seized eternal youth,
Man all immortal, hail!
Heaven's all the glory, man's the boundless bliss.
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“YES, THE REDEEMER ROSE.”
In the six-eight syllable verse once known as “hallelujah metre”—written by Dr. Doddridge to be sung after a sermon on the text in 1st Corinthians noted in the above anthem—
Yes, the Redeemer rose,
The Saviour left the dead,
And o'er our hellish foes
High raised His conquering head.
In wild dismay the guards around
Fall to the ground and sink away.
Lewis Edson's “Lenox” (1782) is an old favorite among its musical interpreters.
“O SHORT WAS HIS SLUMBER.”
This hymn for the song-service of the Ruggles St. Church, Boston, was written by Rev. Theron Brown.
O short was His slumber; He woke from the dust;
The Saviour death's chain could not hold;
And short, since He rose, is the sleep of the just;
They shall wake, and His glory behold.
* * * * * *
Dear grave in the garden; hope smiled at its door
Where love's brightest triumph was told;
Christ lives! and His life will His people restore!
They shall wake, and His glory behold.
The music is Bliss' tune to Spafford's “When Peace Like a River.”
Another by the same writer, sung by the same church chorus, is—
He rose! O morn of wonder!
They saw His light go down
Whose hate had crushed Him under,
A King without a crown.
No plume, no garland wore He,
Despised death's Victor lay,
And wrapped in night His glory,
That claimed a grander day.
* * * * * *
He rose! He burst immortal
From death's dark realm alone,
And left its heavenward portal
Swung wide for all his own.
Nor need one terror seize us
To face earth's final pain,
For they who follow Jesus,
But die to live again.
The composer's name is lost, the tune being left nameless when printed. The impression is that it was a secular melody. A very suitable tune for the hymn is Geo. J. Webb's “Millennial Dawn” (“the Morning Light is breaking.”)