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Easter Hymn (String Quintet)
Strings - Quintet or Ensemble and Organ
Score and parts
New 2026
Price:
$35.00
Jesus Christ is risen today
The tune EASTER HYMN was first published in the 1708 volume, Lyra Davidica, with the title The Resurrection. The composer is unknown. The older of the two English texts commonly sung to this tune, 'Jesus Christ is risen today,' is based on a 14th C. Latin hymn found in a manuscript from Munich, Surrexit Christus hodie, the English translation hewing closely to the original. A later manuscript from Breslau includes a verse - Mulieres o tremulae - alluding to the first witnesses, the women who came to the tomb:
Haste ye women from your fright
take to Galiliee your flight.
To the sad disciples say
Jesus Christ is risen today.
Unlike the staid metrical psalm settings predominating English hymnody, EASTER HYMN incorporates more variety, with melismatic Alleluias assigned to the congregation. The tune is English in origin, appearing first in tune-and-bass score only, which would not be unusual in the figured bass era, and later as a faburden (tune in the tenor). It was immediately popular, and other musical adaptations were common until it took its final form in Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861). The first English translation appeared together with the tune, and underwent several modifications, concluding with the additon of a doxology in 1882. Charles Wesley wrote the the text 'Christ the Lord is risen today' in 1739 in A Collection of Tunes, Set to Music, As They Are Commonly Sung at the Foundery, an abandoned facility that was the home of London's first Wesleyan congregation, the prosody more consonant with the pietistic sensibilities of the time, less didactic than its ancient forbear. Because the number of verses and the prosody for the Wesley text is so varied, we will set your preferred text in this arrangement and set a separate link for you when complete (less than forty-eight hours).
References
Glory to God: A Companion, Carl P. Daw Jr. (Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, 2016)
Lyra Davidica (1708), Archive.org, p.11
An Annotated History of Hymns, J.R. Watson, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2002)
Current Versions / March 2026
- added version for string quintet or ensemble in five parts (score US LGL portrait)
- commissioned by St. John's Gloucester, John Churchwell Mus. Dir.
- added version for two trumpets (score US LTR landscape)
- added version for two trumpets and string quartet (score US LGL portrait)
- Score converted to 8-1/2 x 11 landscape (easier page turns)
- Major revision upper three brass parts, especially horn (update highly recommended)
- Notation stylesheet updated
- added cues and specific dynamics
Previous Versions
Version 16.17.3 / Sep 2023
Revised three bars in descant / organ (v 3)
Version 16.16.3
Revised verse 4 brass & organ (refined a congregational cue)
Shared trumpet and trombone split to exploded staves
Version 16.15.9
Revised verse 4 brass (improve congregational cues)
New house score style
16.15.8
Revised Prologue
Revised Bridge
Revised Brass v.4
16.15.3
Revised Prologue - first seven measures (previously 10)
16.3.3.3
Change to organ in bridge meas. 69-71 (match audio ad lib)
16.3.2
Voice leading improvements, all instrumental parts
Changes to Timpani part
Tuning cues added to Timpani part
16.3.2.2
Missing measure repaired
Copyist error corrected
1 Jesus Christ is ris'n today, Alleluia!
our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
who did once upon the cross Alleluia!
suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
2 Hymns of praise then let us sing Alleluia!
unto Christ our heav'nly King, Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!
3 But the pains which he endured, Alleluia!
our salvation have procured; Alleluia!
now above the sky he's King, Alleluia!
where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
4 Sing we to our God above Alleluia!
praise eternal as his love; Alleluia!
praise him, all ye heav'nly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia!
Surrexit Christus hodie, c. 1000; tr. Jane Eliza Leeson (alt)
We bind this score in a US Legal (8½ x 14 inch) binder. I purchased on Amazon for $35 a pair. A standard three-hole punch that will center on the paper will be needed. For many purposes in the shop we have a heavy duty three-hole punch with an extendable guide. But an el-cheapo plastic notebook style will work if you snap off the stop limiting the paper size to 11 inches. (A three-pack of this type is about $10.)
