This joyful Eastertide

Like 463, this hymn relies on 1 Corinthians 15 for its theme, unmistakably repeated in a refrain whose tune carries the exuberance ever-upward in carol-like fashion. It is one of George R Woodward’s more spectacular successes, first published in his Carols for Easter and Ascension (1894) and then in the substantial Easter section of The Cowley Carol Book. The ‘First series’ appeared in 1902, the second in 1919, and the combined volume in 1947. In his Preface to each series the editor explains that he wrote the words of several items to match existing music: ‘for some fine old melody’s sake’, and ‘so versified and rimed as to suit the requirements of the metre’. In this case his note adds, ‘Words written for the tune of Hoe groot de vrugten zijn, from David’s Psalmen, Amsterdam, 1685.’ This is identified as J Oudsen’s Amsterdam Psalter, where it is spelt How groot de Vruechten zijn and borrows the tune of a 17th-c Dutch popular song. From here the name VRUECHTEN is taken. Geoffrey Shaw’s arrangement was popularised by The Oxford Book of Carols, and Linda Mawson’s made for the present book.

The original text had ‘… and sorrow!/ My Love, the Crucified/ hath sprung to life this morrow’, followed by stz 2: ‘My flesh in hope shall rest,/ and for a season slumber:/ till trump from east to west/ shall wake the dead in number’; and 3: ‘Death’s flood hath lost his chill/ since Jesus … / Lover of souls, from ill/ my passing soul deliver.’ The Jubilate editors, recognising that Woodward wrote in a self-consciously archaic style (as in his other favourite Ding dong merrily), found their task more akin to translation than modernisation, retaining what seem to be its authentic spirit and biblical essentials but only 2 original lines. The text adopted here is that of HTC, ‘hammered out with much debate in the group’. For stz 2, cf 1 Thessalonians 4. A quite different approach was adopted by Fred Pratt Green in 1969; his hymn with the same opening is found in Hymns and Psalms (1983) among other books.

b Birkenhead, Ches (Merseyside) 1848, d Highgate, N London 1934. Harrow Sch and Gonville and Caius Coll Cambridge (BA 1872, MA). Ordained in 1874, he was twice curate at the ‘advanced’ Anglo-catholic parish of St Barnabas Pimlico, 1874-82 and 1894-99 (cf notes on S Baring-Gould); in between, incumbent of Lower Walsingham, Norfolk, and Chelmondiston, Suffolk. 6 ft tall, he ‘cut an imposing figure in clerical dress’; he played the ’cello and euphonium, the latter sometimes in church processions. Around this time he became a co-founder of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. From 1899 he was a licensed preacher in London, and joined the staff of St Mark’s Marylebone Rd 1903–06. He then moved to Highgate where he spent his later years. In 1901, following a carol collection 4 years earlier, he co-edited with Dr Chas Wood the first Cowley Carol Book, originally ‘a small volume…for use in the church of St John the Evangelist, Cowley’, Oxford; further vols following in 1902 and 1919. In 1904 he also published Songs of Syon: A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs set, for the most part, to their Ancient Proper Tunes; 4th edn 1923. His characteristically outspoken Preface includes at attack on the barbaric and discourteous ‘mutilation of foreign melodies when wedding them to English words’; an ‘apology for the frequent recurrence of his own initials’; and a request for the prayers of the singers and readers, ‘of their charity’, for the Editor. The total effect was to produce what Routley called ‘a collection of sacred madrigals for domestic devotion’, with ‘tunes of exquisite remoteness from the experience of ordinary congregations’. Further edns followed in 1908 and 1910. At least 4 other collections bear Woodward’s name and imprint, while two typically and joyfully archaic compositions have lasted well; one featured here, and Ding dong! Merrily on high. That carol reflects his own enthusiasm for bellringing; he also kept bees. As a writer, he acknowledged J M Neale (qv) as ‘my master’. He fell out with the compilers of EH, which contains none of his work, but in 1924 he received the Lambeth DMus. He is commemorated at St Augustine’s Highgate, N London. See also the RSCM’s Church Music Quarterly, Dec 2006. No.474.