Easter Hymn

I always read the teeny print at the bottom of the hymnal page while singing in church - it is amazing how old so much of the music is. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and one of my favorite hymns will be joyously proclaimed ...

From Wikipedia
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, 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'.

1. Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia! Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia! 

2. Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia! Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia! 

3. Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia! Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia! 

4. Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia! Following our exalted Head, Alleluia! Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia! 

5. Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia! Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia! Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia! Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia! 

6. King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia! Everlasting life is this, Alleluia! Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia! Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!