The Day of Resurrection

Among the canon of Anglican hymns for the Feast of the Resurrection is, appropriately enough, “The Day of Resurrection,” a hymn translated from the Greek by John Mason Neale.

The text is attributed to eighth century Greek Theologian, St. John of Damascus. According to Hymnary, the hymn is published in more than 450 hymnals.

Hymns of the Eastern Church

While my previous research has emphasized Neale’s translations from Latin, Neale also translated Greek hymns. In 1862, he published his pathbreaking translations of more than fifty hymns from the Greek in his book Hymns of the Eastern Church. As John Julian summarized in his 1892 Dictionary of Hymnology (p. 788):

Dr. Neale conferred even greater boon upon the lovers of hymnology than by his translations from the Latin, when he published, in 1862, his Hymns of the Eastern Church. In his translations from the Latin be, did what, others had done before; but in his translations from the Greek he was opening entirely new ground. “It is,” he says in his preface to the first edition, “a most remarkable fact, and one which shows how very little interest bas been hitherto felt in the Eastern Church, that these are literally, I believe, the only English version of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology.”

As early as 1838 he had printed a few of his versions in The Ecclesiastic, but it was not till the appearance of the complete volume that the interest of the general public was awakened in them. Then they became wonderfully popular. His translations “Christians, dost thou see them?”, “The day is past and over,” “’Tis the day of Resurrection,” and his Greek-inspired “Art thou weary,” and “O happy band of pilgrims,” are almost as great favourites as “Jerusalem the golden,” and the first in his Hymns of the Eastern Church, “Fierce was the wild billow,” deserves to be. Dr. Neale had a far more difficult task before him when he undertook these Greek hymns than he had with the Latin, and he appeals to the reader “not to forget the immense difficulty of an attempt so perfectly new as the present, when I have had no predecessors and therefore could have no master.”

Beyond “The Day of Resurrection,” and “Jerusalem the Golden,” perhaps the most popular in this collection is “Come, ye faithful, raise the strain,” a second Easter hymn by St. John of Damascus.

Hymnal 1940, #96, 1st tune

The Day of Resurrection

In Hymns of the Eastern Church, “The Day of Resurrection” is one of 12 by St. John of Damascus — nine for Easter and three for Doubting Thomas Sunday (now celebrated July 3).

As noted, translation from Greek is trickier than from Latin. However, Neale’s 1862 translation is almost completely unchanged:

’Tis the Day of Resurrection: Earth! tell it out abroad!
The Passover of gladness! The Passover of GOD!
From Death to Life Eternal,— From this world to the sky,
Our CHRIST hath brought us over, With hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, That we may see aright
The LORD in rays eternal Of Resurrection-Light:
And, listening to His accents, May hear, so calm and plain,
His own—All Hail!—and hearing, May raise the victor strain!

Now let the Heav’ns be joyful! Let earth her song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, And all that is therein:
Invisible and visible Their notes let all things blend,—
For CHRIST the LORD hath risen,— Our joy that hath no end.

It was picked up (naturally) in Hymns Ancient & Modern (2nd edition, 1877), which initiated the three changes we keep today:

• Drop the “’Tis” in the first phrase
• “From this world to the sky” became “From earth unto sky”
• “Invisible and visible their notes let all things blend” became “Let all things seen and unseen their notes together blend.”

These three same verses were used in The English Hymnal (1906) and — as far as I can tell — all subsequent publications in Anglican hymnals.

Anglo-German Tune: Ellacombe

Ellacombe (which Anglicans sing today) was not the first tune for “The Day of Resurrection.” In Hymns A&M (#132 in the 1877/1889 edition), the tune was Rotterdam (by Berthold Tours). Hymnary says it’s the third most popular hymn for the text over the last 150 years.

The most popular hymn (according to Hymnary) is Lancashire by Henry Smart. This seems to be the most popular tune for this texts in American Protestant hymnals: it is used (for example) by Methodist (United Methodist Hymnal, 1989), Southern Baptist (Celebrating Grace, 2010), Presbyterian (Glory to God, 2013) and Lutheran (The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; Christian Worship, 1993; Lutheran Service Book, 2006) hymnals.

The second most popular tune is Ellacombe. According to Hymnary.org and The Cyberhymnal, the original tune for Ellacombe was published in a German Catholic hymnal in 1784, and then revised by various German hymnals in the 19th century.

The current version and harmonization was by William Henry Monk, music editor of Hymns Ancient & Modern, for the first (1868) supplement to Hymns A&M. The text is “Come, sing with holy gladness”. The name (for a village in Devon) also dates to Hymns A&M. The tune was also used later for “Hail to the Lord’s anointed.”

The English Hymnal was the first to pair Neale’s (modified) text with Ellacombe.

The English Hymnal (1906), #137

Among Anglicans in the former colonies:

• Hymnal 1916 (#171) gave a choice of two tunes: 1) Rotterdam and 2) Greenland (by Michael Haydn). 
• Hymnal 1940 (#96): first tune is Ellacombe from TEH, and the second is All Hallows — written in 1892 by George Clement Martin (1844-1916). It is a rare example of when H40 has multiple tunes but doesn’t keep at least one of those used in H16.
• Hymnal 1982 (#210) just has Ellacombe
• Book of Common Praise 2017 (#123) not surprisingly also only has Ellacombe.

The text and tune also stand unchanged in hymn #217 of the New English Hymnal (1986).

Conclusion

We can thank Neale for preserving and making accessible a 1300-year-old Easter text by one of the greatest theologians of the Eastern church. By hymnal standards, Neale’s 1862 translation has well stood the test of time. 

Meanwhile, we must say “Alleluia” to William Henry Monk for publishing an adaptation of this stirring tune in Hymns Ancient & Modern —  and to Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams for pairing the text with this tune.

References

• John Julian, ed., “John Mason Neale,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, New York: Scribner’s Sons (1892), 785-791.
• J.M. Neale, trans., Hymns of the Eastern Church, London: J.T. Hayes, 1862, available at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/hymnseasternchu01nealgoog/