Psalter Hymnal (Gray) ‎#403

403. This Joyful Eastertide

1 This joyful Eastertide,
away with sin and sadness!
Our Lord, the crucified,
has filled our hearts with gladness.

Refrain:
Had Christ, who once was slain,
not burst his three-day prison,
our faith would be in vain.
But now has Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen,
but now Christ has arisen.

2 My being shall rejoice
secure within God's keeping,
until the trumpet voice
shall wake us from our sleeping. Refrain

3 Death's waters lost their chill
when Jesus crossed the river.
His love shall reach me still;
his mercy is forever. Refrain

Text Information

• First Line: This joyful Eastertide
• Title: This Joyful Eastertide
• Author: George R. Woodward (1894, alt.)
• Refrain First Line: Had Christ, who once was slain
• Meter: 67 67 with refrain
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1987
• Scripture:
  1 Corinthians 15
• Topic: Funerals; Easter; Freedom; New Creation; Opening of Worship

Tune Information

• Name: VRUCHTEN
• Harmonizer: Dale Grotenhuis (1984)
• Meter: 67 67 with refrain
• Key: E♭ Major
• Source: J. Ouden's David's Psalmen, 1685
• Copyright: Harmonization © 1987, CRC Publications

Text Information:

Scripture References;
st. 2 = 1 Cor. 15:51-52
ref. = 1 Cor. 15:14, 20

George R. Woodward (b. Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, 1848; d. Highgate, London, England, 1934) wrote the text of this Easter carol to fit the VRUCHTEN tune. The text expresses the joy Christ's resurrection brings to believers (st. 1); that joy provides a sense of security throughout our lives (st. 2) and gives confidence even in the face of death (st. 3). The hymn was first published in Woodward's Carols for Easter and Ascension (1894), which later became a part of the 1902 edition of his famous Cowley Carol Book.

Educated at Caius College in Cambridge, England, Woodward was ordained in the Church of England in 1874. He served in six parishes in London, Norfolk, and Suffolk. He was a gifted linguist and translator of a large number of hymns from Greek, Latin, and German. But Woodward's theory of translation was a rigid one–he held that the translation ought to reproduce the meter and rhyme scheme of the original as well as its contents. This practice did not always produce singable hymns; his translations are therefore used more often today as valuable resources than as congregational hymns. With Charles Wood he published three series of The Cowley Carol Book (1901, 1902, 1919), two editions of Songs of Syon (1904, 1910), An Italian Carol Book (1920), and the Cambridge Carol Book (1924). Much of the unfamiliar music introduced in The English Hymnal (1906) resulted from Woodward's research. He also produced an edition of the Piae Cantiones of 1582 (1910) and published a number of his translations in Hymns of the Greek Church (1922).

Liturgical Use:
Easter season; funerals.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

VRUCHTEN is originally a seventeenth-century Dutch folk tune for the love song "De liefde Voortgebracht." It became a hymn tune in Joachim Oudaen's David' s Psalmen (1685) as a setting for "Hoe groot de vruchten zijn."

The tune is distinguished by the melismas that mark the end of stanza lines and by the rising sequences in the refrain, which provide a fitting word painting for "arisen." Although the melody has a wide range, it has become a popular Easter carol in modern hymnals. The harmonization by Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) makes for glorious part singing (many hymnals use a harmonization by Charles Wood). Use medium organ accompaniment, possibly with a trumpet stop or real trumpets.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook