Hymn suggestions for the Easter season
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    I'm rounding up my Easter season English hymns, and it looks like it's time to learn some new ones. Any suggestions of your favorites?

    This is what I have:

    Jesus Christ is Risen Today
    Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones
    O filii et filiae
    The Strife is O'er
    The day of resurrection
    Alleluia Sing to Jesus
    Praise my soul the King of heaven

  • Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain is one of my favorites.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    That's a very lively one. Thanks!
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,098
    All public domain, in alpha order; not including Ascensiontide oriented hymnody:

    Alleluia, Alleluia, Let The Holy Anthem Rise
    At The Lamb's High Feast We Sing
    Jesus Lives, No Longer Now (aka Jesus Lives, Thy Terrors Now)
    Love's Redeeming Work Is Done
    That Eastertide with Joy Was Bright
    This Joyful Eastertide

    (I dislike Festival Canticle (not PD anyway) and RVW's Hail Thee Festival Day. Organists love them more than congregants....)
  • I always forget about This Joyful Eastertide. Such a fun one!
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks so much for these, Liam! I really love This Joyful Eastertide.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbWSZvfDCoQ
  • Here are a few that I'm planning on doing for Easter season:

    Let Hymns of Grief to Joy Succeed (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
    At the Lamb's High Feast (SALZBURG)
    The Day of Resurrection (ELLACOMBE)

    Thanked by 2JulieColl Steve Q
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Love that last Alleluia, Liam! What a splendid hymn; it makes such a difference when you can hear a wonderful choir with excellent diction modeling it. It always amazes me how a great choir can take the simplest anthem and turn it into something spectacular, and sometimes the simpler it is on paper, the more gorgeous it sounds with a full choir.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    I see a few more in my English hymnal the Hymnbook 1982. Has anyone ever done these:

    O Thine be the Glory (MACCABEUS)
    Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem (ST FULBERT)
    Awake, arise, lift up your voice (RICHMOND)
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing (my harmonizations of stanzas 2-4 and descant attached).
    Giffen-At the Lamb's high feast-2011.pdf
    93K
    Giffen-At the Lamb's high feast-2011.mp3
    3M
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Glorious arrangement, Chuck, and the descant is amazing.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 421
    Hymn of Joy (aka Alleluia, Alleluia)
    Christ the Lord is Risen Today (LLANFAIR)
    Christ the Lord is Risen Today (VICTIMAE PASCHALI)
  • I second Liam's 'Jesus Lives, thy Terrors Now' as sung to St Albinus.
    This is my very favourite Easter hymn.
    (And I hadn't realised that some smart alec had changed the words.)

    And, a big 'yes' to 'Ye Choirs of new Jerusalem' - St Fulbert
  • Xav
    Posts: 23
    Through the Red Sea brought at last.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    Fans of ENGELBERG might like my Let Easter Alleluias Fill This Place, in the WLP hymnal.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Thine be the glory - JUDAS MACCABAEUS - is one of my favourites.
    Thanked by 2Heath CharlesW
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,098
    PS: PDF of Jesus Lives from Oremus

    http://www.hymnary.org/page/fetch/EH1982/413/low/194
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Caleferink
    Posts: 434
    Sing with All the Saints in Glory
    Sing We Triumphant Hymns of Praise
    I Know that My Redeemer Lives
    Regina caeli/Be Joyful, Mary, Heavenly Queen
    Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands
    Now the Green Blade Riseth
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,098
    Ah, speaking of Ode to Joy, here I insert my periodic rant: please, please, please use Beethoven's original rhythm for the final line (that is, beginning with the tied pick-up, *not* squared-off as in too many hymnals). The one thing makes all the difference - without it, it goes from sublime to merely good. You may well need to prepare the congregation for it aurally by playing it through once, the right way.
  • drforjc
    Posts: 38
    Hail Thee, Festival Day! (with Easter refrain)
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • You may well need to prepare the congregation for it aurally by playing it through once, the right way.


    I think most congregations would have to hear it more than once to start singing it the right way. Old habits die hard.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    .
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks so much for the excellent suggestions! Now I'm all fired up for the Easter season, and have just made an enormously exciting discovery online:

    Hymndescants.org

    A very sophisticated website offering beautifully prepared and thrilling descants, organ introductions, and bridges to Anglican hymns, with soundcloud recordings and a brief history of each hymn. I'm having such fun going through the special Easter section. This is the best Easter present ever, and many thanks to the generous folks for sharing this.

    St. Albinus

    St. Fulbert
  • There is a Russian Easter carol called Hilariter which, when sung at a very rapid tempo, is quite fun to sing with due jocularity. I don't remember the words and haven't seen or sung it since being in the choir of Houston's Christ Church Cathedral a long time ago. It was during communions that the then-choirmaster liked to do more intimate, somewhat joyful and lighter choral works, saving the profound works with gravitas for the offertory. Wise was he. William Barnard was his name. Any old Houstonians would remember him. As is often the case at Episcopal cathedrals, after some years of outstanding service he was named the cathedral's canon for music.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Hilariter...quite fun to sing with due jocularity.


    It's HILARITERIOUS!
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Is it perhaps this?


    The whole bright world rejoices now,
    Hilariter, hilariter,
    The birds do sing from every bough,
    Alleluia, Alleluia.

    Then shout beneath the racing skies,
    Hilariter, hilariter,
    To him who rose that we might rise,
    Alleluia, Alleluia.

    And all you living things make praise,
    Hilariter, hilariter,
    He guideth you on all your ways,
    Alleluia, Alleluia.

    To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
    Hilariter, hilariter,
    Our God most high, our joy and boast.
    Alleluia, Alleluia.


    Friedrich von Spee, 1591-1635
    Trans. Percy Dearmer
    © 1964, Oxford University Press.

    211 in The Hymnal 1982
    (Not present in the 1940, it seems.)

    Also appears in the Oxford Book of Carols.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    This hymn is pure genius, Adam. I've seen it in my hymnal, but I just had to find a recording, but could only find it in the German original. It's totally medieval.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=dGvTWxQUAXs
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Speaking of Anglican hymns, I was surprised to see on St. Agnes' (Manhattan) website that at the end of their Good Friday service they will be singing these hymns, which are among my most favorite Lenten hymns:

    God so loved the world (from The Crucifixion) – Sir John Stainer (1840–1901)
    Drop, drop slow tears (II) – Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e2cje7D9W0
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,098
    I (heart) Byrd strongly, but I also love Gibbons, and I wish his lovely tunes and anthems were more current in Catholic circles in the US. I find it interesting that William Byrd was over 40 years older than Gibbons, but only predeceased him by less than 2 years.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    Gibbons tunes are perfect.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,098
    Ted Marier appreciated Gibbons' tunes and made good use of a handful in his hymnal, which is more than almost any other American Catholic hymnal I can think of for the period.
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    How about 'Battle is o'er, hell's armies flee' which we in Aberdeen, Scotland, will be having.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Gibbon's "Hosanna to the Son of David" is a gem, it's on my "maybe some day" list for Palm Sunday.

    Also wonderful is his anthem "Almighty and everlasting God", which takes it's text from the collect of the Third (?) Sunday After Epiphany. Excellent for OT
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    The thread drift from hymns to anthems and to Gibbons in particular brings back memories of first singing "Hosanna to the Son of David" some 52 or 53 years ago. We also sang "Almighty and Everlasting God" the next year. It was during that time that I also first sang the complete Vaughan Williams "Five Mystical Songs" and his "Festival Te Deum" - along with many other excellent works by such composers as Byrd, Tallis, Purcell, Bach, etc.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Ad coenam agni providi is especially nice, either in Latin or in J.M. Neale's exquisite translation as found at no. 125 in The English Hymnal. Too, the organ versets from Titelouze's Hymnes de l'Eglise for this hymn are wonderful pieces for the season, for use with the hymn or independently as voluntaries. If using TEH version of this, one will note that the first interval here is a fourth (sol-do), rather than the more familiar third (la-do) as found in most Roman sources. This is likely a Sarum quirk. (Or, perhaps, um, the [smirk] Roman version is the quirk.) There are, actually, a goodly number of English translations of Paschaltide office hymns in TEH. Another very lovely one is Sermone blando Angelus, ('His cheering message from the grave | An Angel to the women gave...') suggested for Low Sunday.

    Also, some of these were translated by J.H. Newman; but, unfortunately, he consistently changed the metre, so it's difficult to fit them to plainchant tunes.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    How many people in your choir at that time, Charles? I would love to be in a large choir doing great repertoire such as you mentioned.

    MJO, I have The New English Hymnal, and it includes some very lovely out-of-the-ordinary hymns and many chant hymns. I wish the text was incorporated with the music, but after a while one does get used to rubber-necking back and forth. : )
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Julie, if I recall (but that was a long time ago), the size of the choir was probably in the 15-20 range.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Julie -
    Yes, one does get used to 'rubber-necking' with such arrangements. In my youth the people in Episcopal churches had small pew versions of the 1940 (only the choir had the full music version). In these small books the words were at the bottom and only the tune was at the top. It never occured to me that it should be otherwise, and I had great fun with my eyes dancing about the page fitting each syllable with its note. Figuring it out was a fun and engaging source of joyful accomplishment - and remembering the words. Modern people are so 'challenged' (as in handicapped) about so many things that a few generations ago were no problem at all that it isn't even funny. I have no sympathy for them.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    You don't need a big choir to do difficult music, but you do need a culture of regular attendance, and also dependable section leaders.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen eft94530
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Exactly, Kathy. I think our regular attendance then was closer to 15 than 20, only rarely dipping to as low as a dozen. I remember that the men were anchored by an excellent tenor and two of us in the bass section. After being recruited by a soprano with whom I sang in a folk-singing group (we sang at parties and for fun, not at church), I became bass section leader the next year.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Gibbons, Weelkes, and Tomkins certainly deserve much more air-time then the usually get.
  • Here are a couple of my favourites:
    Thine be the glory, risen conquering son
    This joyful Eastertide
    Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour
    God has spoken through his prophets
    Hallelujah! sing to Jesus
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • I second 'Lord enthroned in heav'nly splendour', especially when sung to Bryn Calfaria. It is a marvelously powerful hymn, appropriate also (if not moreso) for Ascension.

    My favourite, though, is 'Jesus lives! Thy terrors now', sung to St Albinus. It's too bad that this has yet to make it into Catholic hymnals (other than the Ordinariate's hymnal, The 1940.)
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    MJO:
    What is a canon for music?
    Can you imagine such a thing in the RC Church??
  • What is a canon for music?


    Well, I know that you mean what would be the fundamental and definitive repertory for choir, organ, congregation, priest, deacon, cantors, etc., in the Catholic Church. The short answer was given to us by the IInd Vatican Council, and those who follow in the spirit of Vatican II are guided by it. Three, and only three, repertories of music are mentioned in the council's documents as being treasures of greater value than any others in the Church's liturgical dower. They are Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and the organ (which implies the organ's specific historic repertory). By extension, one might posit that more modern music which is grounded in this repertorial tradition is also to be treasured. To list this 'canon' would fill volumes, but we know, don't we?, what would and would not be in said volumes.

    Can you imagine such a thing in the RC Church??

    Yes, I can, I can imagine it. If only those who run our seminaries could imagine it! Unfortunately, they have neither the education, the learning, the cultural intelligence, nor the imagination - nor do they even care.

    What is a canon for music?

    This is a different sort of canon, namely, the choirmaster or master of the music at many Anglican cathedrals. One such is the choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral here in Houston, Robert L Simpson, who is 'Canon for Music'. This implies a very serious understanding of his role, and a very great deal of respect for him and it. I doubt that many Catholic cathedral rectors or people would countenance taking their masters of the music so seriously. It is near impossible for Roman Catholics to understand or appreciate the degree (the just and fitting degree) of respect that Anglicans have for the work, calling, and role of music and musicians in their parish and cathedral liturgy. (One notes that the great Jehan Titelouze, Renaissance-Baroque father of the French organ school, was made a canon at the cathedral in Rouen.)

    Can you imagine such a thing the the RC Church?

    Only with great difficulty and wishful thinking.
    (There is, you know, so much, so very, very much about the Catholic Church [particularly with regard to liturgy] that really isn't at all very Catholic.)
    Thanked by 2BruceL CHGiffen
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Slightly less surprising than the reality of death or taxes, this student of Anglicans would send you straight to the Hymnals 1940 & 1982. Most of the best solutions have been named, but forgotten is: Through the Red Sea brought at last (STRAF MICH NICHT). You can sing the hymn like this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR16NTgAEuQ

    then get your organist to play this little ditty...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRz1L5GK-VY
  • Does somebody have sheet music for "Christus resurréxit, mala nóstra texit"? Was it approved for use in Church pre-Vatican II? Thank you in advance :)
  • That’s in Laudes Festivae found on this site.
  • Could you please give a link, I can't find it...