William Billings' "An Anthem for Easter" (first published in Boston in 1787)
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,592
    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.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqfw7McfpE

    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!


    A nifty 1987 article from the American Antiquarian Society's site offers an appreciation of this "hit" of the Federal Era of American history: https://americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44539397.pdf
    Thanked by 1oldhymns
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,592
    A Sacred Harp sing example in action - mind you, these are Germans singing English with period-appropriate lustiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KqsV1zGeY0

    Score based upon the 1787 original (sans the 1795 inserted verse):

    https://sacredharpbremen.org/236-easter-anthem/
    Thanked by 2oldhymns FSSPmusic