Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Not to be confused with Christ the Lord Is Risen Again!.

Jesus' ascension to heaven depicted by John Singleton Copley, 1775

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today is a Christian hymn associated with Easter. Most of the stanzas were written by Charles Wesley, and the hymn appeared under the title Hymn for Easter Day in Hymns and Sacred Songs by Charles and John Wesley in 1739. It remains a traditional processional hymn on Easter Sunday.

The hymn is a variation of an earlier hymn Jesus Christ Is Risen Today, a 14th-century Latin hymn which had been translated into English and published in Lyra Davidica in 1708 (and later in 1749 in Arnold's Compleat Psalmodist). In some hymnals, Jesus Christ Is Risen Today is in fact the 3 stanza Compleat Psalmodist version with one or more of the additional stanzas written by Wesley appended.

Many hymnals include both hymns separately. Almost all list Jesus Christ Is Risen Today to be sung to the hymn tune Easter Hymn (either the original from Lyra Davidica or an alternative arrangement by William Henry Monk). Some, such as the Australian Hymn Book, and the United Methodist Hymnal also list that as the tune for Christ the Lord Is Risen Today. However, most list Christ the Lord Is Risen Today to be sung to the anonymous tune Nassau (first found in a late 17th-century German book of sacred tunes), to the tune Gwalchmai by Welsh composer Joseph David Jones, or to the tune Llanfair, by another Welsh composer, Robert Williams. Hymns Old and New (New Anglican Edition - published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd) uses Wurttemberg with Alleluias (attributed to Hundert Arien, Dresden 1694) for 'Christ the Lord is Risen Again'.

See also

• Melisma
• Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Further reading

• which cites Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal

External links

• Cyber Hymnal
• Text, MIDI, and piano score from HymnSite.com