What is it?

Jesus Christ Is Risen Today ... a staple of Easter Sunday church services, in England certainly! ... and indeed we did sing it to the traditional tune on Easter Sunday 2024. And that would have been that, as they say, had my friend Adrian not made some comment about having a new tune for it! So I went home; and after a meal, wrote this alternative setting of the words. It's a beautifully light and joyful original setting, in neo-Elizabethan style.

It's fairly straightforward four-part (SATB) harmony, which works with or without an organ. Sheet music is available.

Jesus Christ is risen today
    Hallelujah!
Our triumphant holy day
    Hallelujah!
Who did once upon the cross
    Hallelujah!
Suffer to redeem our loss
    Hallelujah!

Hymns of praise then let us sing
    Hallelujah!
Unto Christ our heavenly King
    Hallelujah!
Who endured the cross and grave
    Hallelujah!
Sinners to redeem and save
    Hallelujah!

By the pains that he endured
    Hallelujah!
Our salvation has procured
    Hallelujah!
Now above the sky he's King
    Hallelujah!
Where the angels ever sing
    Hallelujah!

Just occasionally I find myself thinking that a well-known or otherwise pre-existing hymn could do with some new music: and always, in such a situation, I knock something out in a couple of hours ... or even less in some cases (O Love took half an hour to write, for example). So the 2024 Easter Sunday morning service at our local church was about to start when one of my fellow musicians said, "It's a good hymn, but could do with a different tune for a change!" He was referring to Jesus Christ Is Risen Today. So that afternoon I wrote this setting. If people want to use it, great, the sheet music is available. If not, well, it was only two hours of my Sunday wasted!