As we are in the Easter Octave, this seems as good a week as any to share a deliciously robust piece of American hymnody; if music had a dimension of color (I am a synaesthete, so it does for me), this may be said to painted boldly in mostly primary colors. Subtle it's not, but delightful it is. Remember: this idiom was created for congregations to sing together in harmony. Imagine ... your congregation singing this.
Early American Choral Music Vol. 1: Anthems and Fuging Tunes by William Billings (Harmonia Mundi, 1992) His Majestie's Clerkes, Paul Hillier
Lyrics from Edward Young (1681-1765), expanding upon 1 Cor. 15:20:
The Lord is ris’n indeed! Hallelujah! The Lord is ris’n indeed! Hallelujah! Now is Christ ris’n from the dead, and becomes the first-fruits of them that slept. ||: Now is Christ ris’n from the dead, and becomes the first-fruits of them that slept. :|| Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
||: And did he rise? :|| (6x) ||: Did he rise? Hear it, ye nations! Hear it, O ye dead! He rose, he rose, he rose, he rose, He burst the bars of death. He burst the bars of death, He burst the bars of death and triumphed o’er the grave. :||
Shout! Shout, earth and heav’n! This sum of good to man: whose nature then took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb, and mounted with him from the tomb! [this verse was added in a 1795 republication]
Then, then, then I rose, then I rose, then I rose, then I rose. Then first humanity triumphant passed the crystal ports of light and seized eternal youth, and seized eternal youth!
Man all immortal hail, hail, heaven, all lavish of strange gifts to man, Thine’s all the glory, man’s the boundless bliss; Thine’s all the glory, man’s the boundless bliss; Thine’s all the glory, man’s the boundless bliss!
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