Christus ist erstanden

Christus ist erstanden. Michael Weisse* (ca. 1480-1534). First published in Ein new Geseng buchlen (Jungbunzlau, Bohemia, 1531). It had seven 4-line stanzas. It is based on an earlier German hymn for Easter, ‘Christ ist erstanden,/ Von der Marter alle’*, which dates from the 12th century and existed in various forms (see Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied II. 43-4). That hymn was much loved by Luther*, who imitated it in ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’*. Weisse’s version had seven 4-line stanzas (DDK III. 273-4); it was one of two hymns by him celebrating the Resurrection with the same first line: the other began ‘Christus ist erstanden,/ hat uberwunden!’ (DDK III. 267). Weisse’s hymn is...