Low in the grave he lay; Jesus, my Saviour!
Waiting the coming day: Jesus, my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign; He arose! He arose!

Hallelejuah! Christ arose!

Easter was the first Christian high holiday, coming into existence very early in the history of Christianity. To all Christians, Easter is the greatest day on the church calendar because it celebrates our Lord's greatest miracle - His Resurrection. The Easter Cycle is divided into three parts: LENT: a preparation of our Lord's Passion; HOLY WEEK: includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday-, EASTER SUNDAY: the Day of Resurrection.

Within the liturgy of the Church Lent is the season of penitential and prayerful preparation for the great feast of Easter. Since music has always been associated with celebration and joy, many composers shunned this season. Lenten hymns were a part of the early church. Saint Gregory the Great (604) wrote many poems (all in Latin) which dealt with Lent. Some were translated into English around 1700. Johann Sebastian Bach set a number of them to music: "Kind maker of the world, o hear" and "The sacred time of Lenten fast". Other Latin hymns include "By mystical tradition taught" and "O Jesus, saving sun of grace"; both are recited daily at the Office of the Matins in the Catholic church.

The most important hymns are in honour of the Redeemer's Passion. An old German song, "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (O sacred head, so wounded), written by Paul Gerhardt in 1656, is sung both in Catholic and Protestant churches during Lent. Johann Sebastian Bach used this tune extensively in his St. Matthew Passion.

Of modern Lenten and Passion hymns, the most famous is the American Negro spiritual, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord". It was first published in 1899.

Following the Reformation, the practice grew in Germany of presenting, on Good Friday afternoon, musical settings of the parts of the Gospel narrating the Passion and death of Christ. One of the earliest works of this kind is the composition of Antonio Scandello (1580), choir director of the court chapel at Dresden. He wrote a St. John's Passion and became the first composer to set the story of the Passion to music in oratorio form, which became the model of his successors for hundreds of years.

The best known and perhaps the greatest of all are the two immortal compositions of J. S. Bach, "St. John Passion" and "St. Matthew Passion". The "St. John Passion" was first performed on Good Friday, 1723, at Leipzig. The "St. Matthew Passion" was produced for the first time at Leipzig in 1729. Many performances have been heard by millions and millions all throughout the world.

While Handel, in 1704, at the age of 19, wrote a Passion far better known: his inspired "Messiah". The latter half of this tremendous oratorio deals with the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Other beautiful compositions dealing with Christ's suffering and resurrection, are: the "Seven Last Words" by Franz Joseph Haydn (1809); "Cristus am Delberg" (Christ on the Mount of Olives) by Ludwig von Beethoven; Charles Gounod's "Seven Last Words" (1924); and the famous "Crucifixion" by John Stainer.

Easter has been set to music as early as the second century. Priests and Saints have written about the miraculous Resurrection on numerous occasions. All Easter themes deal with the phrase directly out of the Apostolic Creed - "He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead".

Many beautiful Easter hymns date from the later Middle Ages. "The strife is over, the battle done" first appeared in a songbook for students published by Jesuit Fathers at Cologne in 1695.

Finally, there is a wealth of newer hymns, written in the past few centuries. Charles Wesley (1740) gave us various Easter songs. "Christ the Lord is risen today" is his best-known hymn. "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain", written by John of Damascus in the eighth century was translated by John Mason Neale in 1859. John of Damascus and John Mason Neale also "worked together" on the powerful Easter hymn, "the Day of Resurrection".

The Easter season, from the beginning of Lent to the final Easter Sunday, is a time of preparation and anticipation. We know what joyous Resurrection and break lies ahead and we prepare for the out into song, singing:

Thine is the glory,
Risen, conquering Son;
Endless is the victory
Thou o'er death hast won.