"This joyful Eastertide" is an 1894 Easter carol. The words are by George Ratcliffe Woodward, the tune is from the Netherlands (1624), and the 1894 harmonisation is by Charles Wood.

Publication

The original carol was published in 1894 in ''Carols for Easter and Ascensiontide'', a publication put together by Woodward and Wood. They published it subsequently in 1902 in ''The Cowley Carol Book'' (second edition) and again in the ''Cambridge Carol Book'' of 1910. The music has been republished many times, often under choral arrangements. It appears in the ''

Carols for Choirs ''Carols for Choirs'' is a collection of choral scores, predominantly of Christmas carols and hymns, first published in 1961 by Oxford University Press. It was edited by Sir David Willcocks and Reginald Jacques, and is a widely used source o ...

'' collection under Wood's original arrangement. Some of the arrangements published include that of William Llewellyn published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, and that of

Philip Ledger Sir Philip Stevens Ledger, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE, FRSE (12 December 1937 – 18 November 2012) was an English classical musician, conducting, choirmaster and academic, best remembered as Director of the Choir of King' ...

. More recently, Oxford University Press published the text set to a completely new tune composed by Matthew Owens in 2015 in the form of a choral anthem. A number of alternative versions exist, including

Percy Dearmer Percival Dearmer (27 February 1867 – 29 May 1936) was an English Anglican priest and liturgist best known as the author of ''The Parson's Handbook'', a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy, and as editor of ''The English Hymnal''. A lifelong ...

's "How great the Harvest is"; "This Joyful Eastertide, What need is there for grieving?" and "How rich, at Eastertide", both by

Fred Pratt Green The Reverend Fred Pratt Green (2 September 1903 – 22 October 2000) was a British Methodist minister and hymnodist. Born in Roby, Lancashire, England, he began his ministry in the Filey circuit. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 19 ...

; and in German, "Der schöne Ostertag" ( Jurgen Henkys, 1983) and "Die frohe Osterzeit" (

Friedrich Hoffmann Friedrich Hoffmann or Hofmann (19 February 1660 – 12 November 1742) was a German physician and chemist. He is also sometimes known in English as Frederick Hoffmann. Life His family had been connected with medicine for 200 years before him. Bo ...

, 1986).

Tune

Woodward and Wood published "This joyful Eastertide" set to , a Dutch tune published in 1624 in Dirk Rafaelsz Camphuysen's collection of 'Stichtelycke Rymen' where it was attached to the hymn "De liefde Voortgebracht", a scripture paraphrase of

1 Corinthians 13 The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in Co ...

. It also appears as a

hymn tune A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrain ...

in Joachim Oudaen's 1685

psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...

, "David's Psalmen" as a setting for "Hoe groot de vruchten zijn", a paraphrase of

1 Corinthians 15 The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in Co ...

:12-23. In both instances the ascending repeats of the final line of the

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...

effectively support the respective central messages of the paraphrased

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

verses. Joseph Butler, an

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

municipal musician of English origin, published a number of variations for the keyboard based on the same tune.

Text

Many versions exist of the three original verses; but in its original form as written by George Ratcliffe Woodward and published in 1894, it is as follows: Two additional verses were penned by Basilian Father M. Owen Lee:

References

External links

* * arr. Sir

, sung by the

Choir of King's College, Cambridge The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is an English Anglican choir. It was created by Henry VI of England, King Henry VI, who founded King's College, Cambridge, in 1441, to provide daily singing in his King's College Chapel, Cambridge, Chapel, ...

, 2019 * arr. Wood, sung by The Gesualdo Six, 2021 {{Hymns and songs for Easter Easter hymns Hymns in The New English Hymnal