This joyful Eastertide Away with sin and sorrow

This joyful Eastertide/ Away with sin and sorrow. George Ratcliffe Woodward* (1848-1934). This Easter carol is one of the best known compositions of Woodward, first published in his Carols for Easter and Ascension (1894). The only original text in that collection of twelve carols, Woodward described it as ‘Words written expressly for the melody of an old Dutch Easter Carol’. It was later included in the Second Edition (1902) of The Cowley Carol Book, First Series, with Charles Wood*’s harmonization of the melody. The tune, customarily known as VRUECHTEN (‘fruits’), was a popular Dutch song, later used for an Easter hymn, ‘Hoe groot de Vruechten zijn/ door Christus’ dood verworven’ (‘How...