"Christ the Lord Is Risen Again!" (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: "''Christus ist erstanden Von der Marter alle''") is a German Christian hymn published by

Michael Weiße Michael Weiße or Weisse ( – 19 March 1534) was a German theologian, Protestant reformer and hymn writer. First a Franciscan, he joined the Bohemian Brethren. He published the most extensive early Protestant hymnal in 1531, supplying most hymn ...

in 1531 based on an earlier German

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

of a very similar name. It was translated into English in 1858 by

Catherine Winkworth Catherine Winkworth (13 September 1827 – 1 July 1878) was an English hymnwriter and educator. She translated the German chorale tradition of church hymns for English speakers, for which she is recognized in the calendar of the Evangelical Lut ...

History

Weisse based his new hymn text, "''Christus ist erstanden Von der Marter alle''", upon the earlier German Leise text from the Mass of ("''Christus ist erstanden''") which was studied by

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

. The hymn tune CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN was derived from a

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...

used in the German Roman Catholic Latin Mass from 1100 called " Victimae paschali laudes" which was a widely popular Easter melody. It was then expanded from its initial short Sequence use in the Latin Mass, which "victimae paschali laudes" was, into the longer Liese form in German. The tune CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN was then adopted by the Protestants as a hymn tune, and Weisse modeled new hymn text after the "''Christus ist erstanden''" used in the German Mass. His hymn text is titled "''Christus ist erstanden Von der Marter alle''" and was set to what had been adopted as the hymn tune, CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN, and thus became a hymn of the Church of Bohemia. Weisse published his German hymn text in 1531 in the German language hymnal he edited, ''Ein Neugesängbuchlein'', in the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...

. In 1858, Winkworth translated Weisse's German text for "''Christus ist erstanden Von der Marter alle''" into English, initially giving it the English title of "Song of Triumph". She published "Christ the Lord Is Risen Again" in the second edition of her ''Lyra Germanica'' in 1858, attributing the hymn to the "

Bohemian Brethren , image = AgnusDeiWindow.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , caption = Church emblem featuring the Agnus Dei.Stained glass at the Rights Chapel of Trinity Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States , main_classification = Proto-Prot ...

". Winkworth's approach in translating the hymn was to try and recreate the verses rather than making a direct translation of them due to German

fusional language Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. Fo ...

meaning that some words in the original had to be removed in translation as they did not fit into the English translation. The hymn is often used as a hymn for

Easter Sunday Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

which commemorates the

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...

Music

The most common hymn tune Weisse's German text is set to is CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN, which originated from the Latin "Victimae pashali laudes". The U.S. Lutheran hymnal sets Winkworth's English translation to the hymn tune WÜRTEMBURG. However, this hymn text has been set to other hymn tunes, including LLANFAIR. In 1971,

John Rutter John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutte ...

also composed his own musical setting targeted at choirs, not as a congregational hymn, set to Winkworth's English translation, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Again!"

References

{{German Lutheran hymns 1531 works Easter hymns 16th-century hymns in German Songs in German Songs about Jesus

History

Music

See also

References