Easter Carols and Caroling

by Rev. F. Joseph Kelly, Ph.D., Mus.D.

Though we associate carols with songs of praise in honor of the Nativity of our Blessed Lord, yet the glorious feast of Easter, the feast of His Resurrection also lays claim to carols which are particularly its own. It is from the soil of monastic life, that have blossomed some of the rarest flowers of Christian Catholic poetry, which constitute our Easter carols. There could be little, one might think, in the stern and rigorous existence behind the gray walls of the monastery, with its fastings and castigations, its penances and prayers, and its isolation from the light and beauty of the world, to stimulate the imagination, or to call into exercise the poetic faculty. Thus would the worldling reason with himself. But the monk had already at hand the Old Testament imagery, rich in a symbolism in which, by a poetry touched with divine inspiration, there were shadowed forth the mystery and glory of the later dispensation. The life and sufferings of our Divine Saviour Jesus Christ, with the attendant associations, offered an exhaustless theme, to be used by turns to interpret ancient types and symbols, or to quicken a flagging faith in a blessedness yet to be revealed. If ever he lacked themes, his own heart with its victories and defeats, its revolt against the impurities of the world, and its aspirations toward the heavenly existence, supplied them; and he had for the vehicle of his devotion a language marvelously sonorous and flexible, and capable of becoming stately or rugged, or tender, in harmony with his thought.

It is true that the medieval Easter carol was restricted in scope, and that its concepts often surprise us by their grotesque realism; but the intense feeling which the carols convey is a quality which helps us to forget such defects. Holding himself aloof from the domestic associations, which call out the natural affections, the monk poured forth all the fervor of his soul in these carols. This feeling is as far removed from our own time in spirit, as it is in distance; and there is nothing in the sacred poetry of the modern tongues to equal the grandeur of the medieval Easter carols. They are so musical and so rapturous as to appeal even to the dullest ear.

The medieval carol has as its particular theme the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord and Saviour. Our own conditions are such as to place us, perhaps, a little out of sympathy with the feeling which these carols convey. Our present existence has so much that is desirable, that we are in danger of finding it both engrossing and satisfying; and it is only after we are taught, by some sharp affliction, the uncertainty of this life, that we begin to fix our aspirations upon the life to come. But the monk found little to content him, either in the gloom and discipline of the monastery, or in the wild unrest of the world outside. In the solitude of his cell, he dreamed and sang of Paradise, and of the Resurrection of Christ, as an assurance of an abundant entrance thereinto.

The earliest Easter carol of which we have knowledge, carries us back fifteen centuries. Its author, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was born not many years after the recognition of Christianity by the decree of Constantine, probably about the year 340 A.D. Treves was probably his birthplace. The story of his life is like a romance, although the leading facts in it are clearly established. His carols are terse, simple and vigorous, and are written in a stanza which lacks the charm of rhyme. The Easter carol, beginning "Hic est dies verus Dei" is one of the very few of his writing, the authenticity of which is unquestioned. The following is the translation of this carol, which has become one of the most popular in our day:

This is the very day of God,
Serene with holy light it came,
In which the stream of sacred blood
Swept over the world's crime and shame.

O admirable Mystery,
The sins of all are laid on Thee;
And Thou to cleanse the world's deep stain,
As man dost bear the sins of men.

Death's fatal spear himself doth wound,
With his own fetters he is bound.
Lo, dead the Life of all men lies,
That life anew for all might rise.

Two centuries intervene between Ambrose and the next poet who sang of Easter, Venantius Fortunatus. Among the singers of the early Church, there is no greater contrast of temperament and character, than that which exists between these poets. Ambrose was stern, simple, fearless, profoundly earnest; Fortunatus was gay, light-hearted, often trifling, and as skilled in turning society verses as in the writing of carols. His carols are among the most valued treasures of sacred song. His Easter carol, "Salve festa dies," which is his best, is often sung:

Hail, day of days, in peals of praise,
Throughout all ages owned,
When Christ our God, hell's empire trod,
And high o'er heaven was throned.

This glorious morn, the world newborn,
In rising beauty shows;
How, with her Lord to life restored,
Her gifts and graces rose.

As star by star He mounts afar,
And hell imprisoned lies,
Let stars and light and depth and height
In Alleluias rise.

Ambrose and Fortunatus wrote in unrhymed verse. It was left for the poets of a later day, and for those chiefly of the twelfth century, to play upon the sonorous Latin tongue as upon the keys of a mighty organ. Not that rhyme was an invention of the Christian poets, nor an importation from without. Of the sacred singers of the twelfth century, there are none whose lives afford more interesting and ampler materials for study than Bernard of Clairvaux. There was in his nature a combination of gentleness and fierceness, of humility and ambition, of fervor and severity which constitutes him the representative monk of his time. Among the carols of exquisite beauty which we owe to this rarely gifted spirit is one which deserves a high place in the Easter festivities. The original contains about two hundred lines, and is a jubilation on the name of Jesus. The following is the translation which is most familiar to us all, and which is described as the sweetest and most evangelical carol of the Middle Ages:

Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest.

With Mary to Thy tomb I'll haste,
Before the dawning skies,
And all around with longing cast
My soul's inquiring eyes.

Beside Thy grave will make my moan,
And sob my heart away;
Then at Thy feet sit trembling down,
And there adoring stay.

Nor from my tears and sighs refrain,
Nor those dear feet release,
My Jesus, till from Thee I gain
Some blessed word of peace.

While Bernard was defending the interests of the monks of Clairvaux with much zeal, Peter the Venerable was at the head of a monastery at Cluny. He was a man of great gentleness and beauty of character, and his rule over the Cluny monks was of extreme mildness. Not many of his writings have come down to us, but his Easter carol is a marvel of ingenious and musical rhyme. Let us listen to a few lines in the translation:

Lo, the gates of death are broken,
And the strong man armed is spoiled;
Of his armor which he trusted,
By the Stronger Arm despoiled.
Vanquished is the prince of hell,
Smitten by the Cross he fell.

Then the purest light resplendent
Shone those seats of darkness through,
When, to save whom He created,
God willed to create anew.
That the sinner might not perish,
For him the Creator dies;
By whose death our dark lot changing,
Life again for us doth rise.

There is no other of the medieval poets, who left to the Church so rich a legacy of song and carols, as Adam of St. Victor. He had supreme command over form and rhyme so that his carols are marvels of melody. His profound acquaintance with the whole circle of theology of his time, and eminently with the exposition of the Scriptures; the abundant and admirable use which he makes of it, the exquisite art and variety with which for the most part his verse is managed and his rhymes disposed, their rich melody multiplying and ever deepening at the close; the strength which often he concentrates into a single line; his skill in conducting a story; and most of all the evident nearness of the things which he celebrates to his own heart of hearts — these and other excellences render him the foremost among the sacred poets of the Middle Ages. Among the best of his Easter carols is that, the first two stanzas of which are here given:

Now the world's fresh dawn of birth
Teems with new rejoicing rife;
Christ is rising and on earth
All things with Him rise to life.
Feeling this memorial day,
Him the elements obey,
Serve and lay aside their strife.

Gleamy fire flits to and fro,
Throbs the everlasting air;
Water without pause doth flow,
And the earth stands firm and fair;
Light creations upward leap,
Heavier to the center keep,
All things renovation share.

Let us listen to one more carol, from some unknown poet of the fourteenth century or possibly of the sixteenth. Hark how jubilantly he calls upon everything in nature, sky and air, the awakening spring, lilies and violets, hills, valleys and fountains, to join in the exultation over the Risen Lord:—

Smile praises, O sky, soft breathe them, O air,
Below and on high and everywhere.
The black troop of storms has yielded to calm;
Tufted blossoms are peeping, and early palm.

Awake thee, O Spring, ye flowers, come forth,
With thousand hues tinting the soft green earth;
Ye violets tender and sweet roses bright,
Gay Lent lilies blended with pure lilies white.

Sweep, tides of rich music, the world along,
And pour in full measure, sweet lyres, your song,
Sing, sing, for He liveth, He lives as He said;
The Lord has arisen, unharmed from the dead.

Clap, clap your hands, mountains, ye valleys, resound.
Leap, leap for joy, fountains, ye hills, catch the sound.
All triumph; He liveth, He lives as He said;
The Lord has arisen unharmed from the dead.

Compared with the older Easter carols, those of the modern era approach the style of the oratorio, and are not so advantageous for carol work. For a person educated in church music, no better or fitting works were ever written than the following oratorio choruses, which have the spirit and style of the carol "Achieved is the Glorious Work" by Haydn; the inevitable "Hallelujah Chorus" by Handel; the "Hallelujah Chorus" from the " Mount of Olives " by Beethoven; "All Glory to the Lamb That Died" from the "Last Judgment" by Spohr; "The Trump shall Sound," "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth", "Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul in Hell," from Handel's "Messiah." Easter carols of a more simple style, approaching the form of the anthem, are; "In the Gloom of Easter Morn" by Parkhurst; Springer's "Easter Alleluia"; Mozart's "Resurrexit"; and "Easter Hymn" by Oliver.

The carol, unlike most music compositions, seems to require a peculiar oneness of idea expressed in a simple line of melodious thought, to fulfill the concept which has been wrought by immemorial centuries of practice. Our modern Easter carols preclude the idea which underlies true carolry. Only a rustical age could produce such things without affectation.

No further need we speak of the Easter carol. Large numbers are of late origin, but the form is old and cannot be revived. Carolry for the greater part is identical with folk song. It is also older. From the angelic hymn which had its echo in the carol of the shepherds, and the Alleluias of Easter morn, down through the ages, an endless train of poetry and music has sprung up to commemorate these two great events in the Redemption of the human race. A true carol sings of the twofold Birth of Christ, at Bethlehem and at the Resurrection. This is the elemental idea of every carol. The cradle of the human race has its song which is endless. And just as in pre-Christian times, "everything that has breath" is invoked not otherwise than the stars, winds, dews, frosts, lightnings, green things, fish, fowls and beasts — as the poetical universe is laid under contribution, so too, has Music paid her tribute with every possible kind of melody, symphony and oratorical song.

© The Dolphin Press

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