"Christ ist erstanden" (Christ is risen) is a German Easter

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 ...

, and is possibly the oldest

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

liturgical German song. It has inspired music by composers such as

Ludwig Senfl Ludwig Senfl (born around 1486, died between December 2, 1542 and August 10, 1543) was a Swiss composer of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to the court of Maximilian I, Hol ...

and

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

(from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively) through to modern composers such as

Oskar Gottlieb Blarr Oskar Gottlieb Blarr (born 6 May 1934) is a German composer, organist, church musician and academic teacher. Career Blarr was born in Sandlack near Bartenstein (East Prussia). The Gothic church with its Baroque organ fascinated him early on; he ...

and

Enjott Schneider Enjott Schneider (born Norbert Jürgen Schneider 25 May 1950 in Weil am Rhein) is a German businessman, composer, musicologist, and music educator. He is best known as the chairman of the board of the German collecting society GEMA. As a compo ...

, and has appeared in 45 hymnals, including the current German

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

hymnals. Translations and paraphrases include a version 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 Luth ...

which has appeared in 231 hymnals. "Christ ist erstanden" also inspired

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

to write "

Christ lag in Todes Banden "" (also ""; "Christ lay in death's bonds") is an Easter hymn by Martin Luther. Its melody is by Luther and Johann Walter. Both the text and the melody were based on earlier examples. It was published in 1524 in the Erfurt ''Enchiridion'' and in ...

", deriving the melody from it.

History

"Christ ist erstanden" is possibly the oldest liturgical song in German. The first stanza was sung around 1100 to venerate the

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

. It is mentioned in 1160 in an order of liturgy of the

diocese of Salzburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg ( la, Archidioecesis Salisburgensis) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, serving alongside the Archdiocese of ...

, which is kept as the Codex MII6 at the library of the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg, Salzburg municipality, Salzburg (state ...

; it is a Leise (a form of medieval church song), each verse ending with the word "Kyrieleis" (from the Greek "

kyrie eleison Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives f ...

", for "Lord have mercy"). Victimae paschali - Christ ist erstanden

The

hymn tune A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrai ...

, Zahn No. 8584, is derived from " Victimae paschali laudes", 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 called ...

for Easter, by Wipo of Burgundy. The melody appeared in the

Apel Codex The Apel Codex is a German manuscript which dates from about the year 1500, providing an important source for 15th and 16th century polyphonic music. The works in the manuscript were collected by Nikolaus Apel from about 1490 to 1504. They consist ...

, a manuscript from around 1500. From the 14th century, "Victimae paschali laudes" and "Christ ist erstanden" were sung alternatively. From the 15th century, different versions with several stanzas were in print.

codified a version in three stanzas in 1529 and 1533 in Klug's hymnal, in which Luther changed the line "So freut sich alles, was da ist" (So everything living is glad), frequently used in older versions, to "So lobn wir den Vater Jesu Christ (So we praise the father of Jesus Christ), with an emphasis on Christology instead of universality. He also wrote his own paraphrase of "Victimae paschali laudes", " Christ lag in Todesbanden", published in 1524. Since then, it has been printed in German-language Protestant hymnals up to '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'' (EG 99). It is also part of the current German-language Catholic hymnal '' Gotteslob'' (GL 318, 213 in the 1975 version), without Luther's alteration. The hymn has appeared in 45 hymnals.

Use by the Teutonic Order

According to historian

William Urban William Urban is an American historian specializing in the Baltic Crusades and Teutonic knights. He is the Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International studies at Monmouth College. He served as an editor for the '' Journal of Baltic Stud ...

, Ulrich von Jungingen's

Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

troops sang "Christ ist erstanden", which he describes as "their anthem", before the

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald, Battle of Žalgiris or First Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respec ...

began.

At the siege of Kaunas

Wigand of Marburg's ''Chronica nova Prutenica'' (''New Prussian Chronicle'') reports that the Teutonic Order army sang "Christ ist erstanden" after overcoming the pagan Lithuanian defenders inside the walls of Kaunas Castle at the end of the

siege of Kaunas The siege of Kaunas was laid by the Teutonic Order on the newly built Kaunas Castle in spring 1362. It was the first brick castle built by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After a month-long siege, the castle was captured and destroyed. Its comman ...

" ..Christians began to joyously sing in ''lingua vulgaris'' the glorious chant ''Christ ist erstanden'' whose ending can be translated as: 'all of us want to rejoice, all the pagans have been punished, ''kirieleison'' (in Latin: ''unde christiani ceperunt letanter cantare hoc laudabile carmen in vulgaris: 'Cristus surrexit', concludentes in vulgari: 'nos omnes volumus letari, pagani sunt in omni pena, kirieleison'')."

Theodor Hirsch, in the edition of ''Chronica nova Prutenica'' he published in ''Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum'' hypothesizes in a footnote about the original

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...

lyric, which did not survive: "Wigands Verse lauteten wohl: wir alle wellen vrôlich sin – di heiden sint in allem pin." ("Wigand's verse probably read: ..") Johannes Voigt's earlier ''Geschichte Preußens von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Untergange der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens'' translates Wigand's Latin lyric into modern German as "Wir wollen alle fröhlich seyn, die Heiden sind in aller Pein". Drawing on Wigand, Voigt writes that while the ruins of the castle were still burning brightly, the Christian army, full of the joy of victory, began to sing the song of praise "Christ ist erstanden".

Derived hymns

Michael Weisse, a minister of 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 ...

, wrote a hymn "Christ ist erstanden" in seven stanzas, using the same melody.

translated that hymn to " Christ the Lord Is Risen Again!", published in 1858, which has appeared in 231 hymnals.

Text

Christ ist erstanden von der Marter alle! Des solln wir alle froh sein, Christ soll unser Trost sein. Kyrioleis. Wär er nicht erstanden, so wär die Welt vergangen. Seit daß er erstanden ist, so freut sich alles, was da ist. Kyrioleis. Alleluja, alleluja, alleluja! Des solln wir alle froh sein, Christ soll unser Trost sein. Kyrioleis.

Musical settings

composed a setting for six voices in the 15th century. Heinrich Schütz wrote '' Christ ist erstanden'', a setting for three vocal choirs, a choir of trombones and a choir of viols. Bach used the final stanza of the hymn to conclude his Easter cantata ''Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen'', BWV 66. He also employed the hymn for the

chorale prelude In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 ...

BWV 627 of his '' Orgelbüchlein''.

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor a ...

set the hymn in 1900 for seven-part choir ( SSAATTB)

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

and included it as No. 8 in his ''Zwölf deutsche geistliche Gesänge'' (Twelve German sacred songs), WoO VI/13, named "Ein alt' Lob- und Freudenlied von der Urstend unsers lieben Herrn Christi" (An old song of praise and joy of the resurrection of our dear Lord Christ). Settings from the 20th century include organ works by

and

Hermann Schroeder Hermann Schroeder (26 March 1904 – 7 October 1984) was a German composer and a Catholic church musician. Life Schroeder was born in Bernkastel and spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His mother's family had common a ...

composed a setting for four-part choir with optional organ in 2012.

Notes

References

External links

Christ ist erstanden
ChoralWiki
Christ ist erstanden
(in German) Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

(in German) Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz {{Authority control German Christian hymns Hymn tunes Easter hymns