Christ is arisen

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Christ is arisen
from the grave's dark prison.  
We now rejoice with gladness;
Christ will end all sadness.  
Lord, have mercy.  
All our hopes were ended
had Jesus not ascended
from the grave triumphantly.  
For this, Lord Christ, we worship thee.  
Lord, have mercy.  
Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!
We now rejoice with gladness;
Christ will end all sadness.  
Lord, have mercy.

Words:  Christ ist erstanden, von der Marter alle, ca. 1100;
                    tr. William G. Polack, 1939, The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941
                                Translation copyright © 1941 Concordia Publishing House
   Tune:  German melody, 12th c., Gesangbuch, Wittenberg, 1529

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            Christ ist erstanden is one of the earliest hymns in the German language; the author is lost in the mists of antiquity. The hymn is another testament to the way people of the Middle Ages insisted on adjusting the formal Mass to make it their own, much to the consternation of religious authorities. First came the Latin "sequence" on which this pre-Reformation chorale was built. Sequences (also called tropes) were additional words to complement the regular Mass. Like Stabat Mater (see "At the cross, her vigil keeping," 245), this sequence, Victimae paschali, was one of only five to survive the purge by the Council of Trent of these popularized additions. From this particular sequence came the first liturgical dramas and miracle plays of the Middle Ages, because the lines lend themselves so well to dialogue.

            About a century later, vernacular lines were interpolated between the Latin lines of this sequence. "Christ has arisen" comes from these German lines. It is one of the best-known chorales. Even Martin Luther once stated, "After a time one tires of singing all other hymns, but the Christ ist erstanden one can always sing again." Later, he used the sequence as a pattern for his chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden ("Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands," 470). By the fifteenth century, still more versions had appeared, some with as many as eleven stanzas. This is a translation of the three-stanza version from Klug's edition cited above. Each stanza concludes with the Kyrie, "Lord, have mercy."

from the Hymnal Companion

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