Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hearts to heaven and voices raise

with
HALLELUJAH
LUX EOI
ODE TO JOY

I. Text: Origins

In 1862, while serving as parish priest of Stamford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire, England, Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885) published a collection of hymns called The Holy Year. In the preface, he wrote how his aim in publishing hymns was to support the regular worship life of the church, especially the Church of England, and to be a reflection of what the church believes:

A primary requisite of a hymn-book, whether it be designed for private use or for public worship, seems to be that it should follow the guidance of the Church, and be adjusted to her ritual. A hymn-book of the Church may be expected to represent the mind of the Church, to show an intelligent appreciation of her intentions, and a dutiful submission to her appointments. A hymn-book of the Church of England may, perhaps, best be described as a companion to the Book of Common Prayer.

… Thus, in the words of the judicious Hooker, the world, “by looking upon what the Church does, may in a manner read what she believes.” Assuredly these glorious truths ought to be displayed to the eyes and hearts of all Christian congregations in a hymn-book, and ought to be made the subject of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God.

…Christian poetry ought to be a medium for the conveyance of Christian doctrine. A hymn ought to edify the mind, as well as to gratify the ear. It ought to be profitable to be read, as well as agreeable to be sung.[1]

One of his most enduring hymns from this collection is his resurrection hymn, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hearts to heaven and voices raise” (Fig. 1), given in five stanzas of four lines, without music.

Wordsworth explained how the patterns of this season of the church year were reflected in his collection, with the Resurrection acting as both the end and the beginning of two forty-day periods:

The circumstances of Passion Week, which display the consummation of humanity suffering in Christ, and perfectly obedient in Him, and glorified by suffering and obedience, complete the teaching of the Church concerning the necessity of human labour co-operating with divine grace. The hymns from Septuagesima to Easter in this volume have been composed on these principles.

… The Holy Spirit teaches us in Scripture by means of repetitions and amplifications. To produce greater assurance, the same prophecies are reiterated; the Ten Commandments are twice inculcated in the Old Testament; the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, are presented to us twice in the New. The Church pursues a similar method. Epiphany repeats and amplifies the warnings and encouragements of Advent. And she has also two seasons of forty days each: the season of Lent, and the season between Easter and Ascension. Both these periods of forty days are seasons of trial and struggle ending in victory. The former terminates in the triumph of Christ, His conquest over sin, Satan, and the grave at His Resurrection. Then follows another period of forty days, which inculcates afresh the lessons of Lent with new warnings, encouragements, and assurances.

Resurrection at Easter has its spiritual correlative in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Red Sea is passed, the pilgrimage through the wilderness begins, with all its spiritual privileges, and its solemn judgments. There are presented to the eyes of the faithful in the services of the Church during that period, which issues in the triumphant joys of the Ascension, which conducts to a loftier eminence than that of Easter, and is followed by the gift of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and by the vision of heavenly glory in the crowning festival of Trinity Sunday. Thus the church leads us up, as it were, from one mountain-ridge of spiritual elevation to another; till at length she lands us on the culminating eminence of heavenly glory before the throne of God.[2]

II. Text Analysis

For his Resurrection hymn, his choice of metre (15.15.15.15) was deliberate:

It was an ancient rhythmical principle that the tetrameter trochaic of fifteen syllables should be specially employed on occasions where there is a sudden burst of feeling, after a patient waiting, or a continuous struggle. This metre never finds its place at the beginning, but is reserved for a later period in the drama, both tragic and comic, of the ancient stage. The long, rapid sweep of this noble metre, and the jubilant movement of the verse, render it very suitable for use on the great festivals of the Christian year, such as Easter and Ascension, when, after severe trial quiet endurance, the church is suddenly cheered by a glorious vision which gladdens her heart and evokes a song of rapture from her lips.[3]

The first stanza begins with a call to worship and rejoice in response to the Resurrection, and it ends with the great reversal from Christ’s death on a cross to his victory over the death. While the Bible does not use the word “victim” directly to describe Christ the crucified, it does speak of one who suffered and bled to obtain salvation for the world, as in Hebrews 9:26-28, which describes one who “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” “having been offered once to bear the sins of many,” or Hebrews 10:12, which says, “Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (ESV).

The image of iron bars being broken can be found in Psalm 107:10-16, where it speaks of people being redeemed from iron shackles and bars, or Isaiah 45:2, God’s prophecy to King Cyrus, “I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron” (ESV). Albert Edward Bailey observed:

Perhaps the poet had in mind the pictures of “The harrowing of hell” in which the medieval artists showed Christ breaking down the gates and liberating the Old Testament worthies who had been imprisoned there.[4]

The second half of stanza 2 describes the way in which Christ’s victory is also the Christian’s victory. Paul spoke of this in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

The third stanza is rich with imagery of the spiritual harvest and speaks of Christ as first-fruits of that harvest, as in 1 Corinthians 15:20 (“Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” ESV). The concept of spiritual harvest can be found in places such as the Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matt. 13, Mark 4, Luke 8), or Christ’s word to his disciples in Matthew 9:37-38 (“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers”), or especially the great harvest of the Second Coming in Revelation 14:14-16—

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped (ESV).

Continuing the metaphor of fruit and harvest, Wordsworth looked to God for nourishment, an outpouring of grace, “rain and dew and gleams of glory.” The Bible speaks of sun and rain as acts of universal grace (“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:45). The desire in line 3, “here on earth may fruitful be,” is possibly a reflection of the extended metaphor of the vine in John 15, in which Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Lastly, the harvest by angel hands comes from Matthew 13:39, where Jesus explained his parable by saying, “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” The final stanza is a trinitarian doxology.

Hymnologist Bert Polman saw in this text a pervasive connection to 1 Corinthians 15, with its discussions of death and resurrection and first-fruits.[5] Lutheran pastor Robert C. Preece believed Wordsworth’s text was inspired to some degree by his environment:

It its original form, the hymn is a product of Wordsworth’s Berkshire fields and forests, with images of Christ as the “first-fruits of the holy harvest field,” and His Church as the “golden ears of harvest” that are “ripened by His glorious sunshine” while yet in the “furrows of the grave.”[6]

Wordsworth’s hymn is frequently altered in various ways. The opening words are often presented as “Alleluia.” The opening line, with its unusual transposition of words, is sometimes rearranged to read “Hearts and voices heavenward raise.” This alteration dates as early as 1871 in The Hymnary: A Book of Church Song. Others, especially the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, replace the phrase “on this holy Easter morn” with “on his Resurrection morn.” Some hymnals use a substitute middle stanza produced by the editors of Hymns for Today’s Church (1982); this stanza is typically used as a replacement for the inner harvest stanzas (2-3), and instead carries the idea of human and spiritual warfare.

Albert Edward Bailey, in spite of finding much Scripture in this hymn, felt stanza 4 had “A rather unpleasant mixture of incongruous figures in which Christ has become the sun whose rays produce the harvest of saved souls,” and he said “this is one of the poorest Easter hymns.”[7] English hymnal editor Percy Dearmer was likewise unimpressed, musing, “this hymn was found by the compilers of The English Hymnal [1906] to be rather beneath a satisfactory standard of hymnody.”[8] Nonetheless, as Sheila Doyle has noted, “The hymn has a celebratory quality, which makes it one of Wordsworth’s most successful hymns and has won it widespread popularity.”[9]

III. Tunes

1. HALLELUJAH

In his Holy Year, Wordsworth wrote:

With regard to the tunes to which the hymns in the present volume may be sung, it is obvious that if hymns are to be used in public or domestic worship, they must for the most part accommodate themselves to tunes already known. The Church of England possesses an ample store of hymn tunes made or harmonized by eminent composers. Almost all of the hymns in the present publication may be sung to some tune which may be found in those collections, as will be seen in the notes subjoined to each hymn.

In a footnote to this paragraph, he recommended the tunebooks of William Mercer, especially The Church Psalter and Hymn Book (1855), and Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), edited by William Henry Monk. In the “Index of Tunes” in the first edition, he suggested ALLELUIA DULCE CARMEN as in HA&M, and CHICHESTER as in Mercer. In the third edition (Fig. 2), under his Resurrection hymn, he offered the tunes ST. JOHN’S, as in Mercer’s book or in the Manual of Psalmody (1860); ST. THOMAS, as in HA&M; CHICHESTER, as in Mercer; and ST. PATRICK, as in the Manual.

Wordsworth’s collection was later produced in an edition with tunes (1865) edited by William Monk. In that collection, his text was set to a new tune composed for it by Henry Gauntlett, HALLELUJAH (Fig. 3). This tune has not endured.

2. LUX EOI

Wordsworth’s text is often printed with LUX EOI (“Eastern light”), a tune composed by Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), from Church Hymns and Tunes (1874 | Fig. 3). In that collection it appeared twice, with “Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding” by Edward Caswall (1814–1878) and “All is bright and cheerful round us” by John Mason Neale (1818–1866). The first pairing between Wordsworth’s text and Sullivan’s tune is unclear, but in the United States it appeared as early as Laudes Domini (NY: The Century Co., 1884), and in England as early as E.J. Hopkins’ Church Praise with Tunes (London: James Nisbet, 1883).

3. ODE TO JOY

The tune ODE TO JOY is by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) from his Symphony No. 9 (1824). Beethoven’s melody was first adapted as a hymn tune in The Mozart Collection of Sacred Music (NY: Paine & Burgess, 1846 | Figs. 5a-c), edited by Elam Ives Jr. (1802–1862). For more on the history of this tune, see the article on “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee.” The history of the pairing between Wordsworth’s text and Beethoven’s tune is not well documented, but this combination appeared as early as The New Laudes Domini (NY: The Century Co., 1892).

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
24 March 2020

Footnotes:

1. Christopher Wordsworth, “Preface,” The Holy Year, 3rd ed., rev. (1863), pp. v, xv, xxxii.

2. Christopher Wordsworth, “Preface,” The Holy Year, 3rd ed., rev. (1863), pp. xxi-xxiv.

3. Christopher Wordsworth, “Preface,” The Holy Year, 3rd ed., rev. (1863), pp. xliii-xliv.

4. Albert Edward Bailey, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. 358.

5. Bert Polman, “Alleluia! Alleluia!” Psalter Hymnal Handbook (Grand Rapids: CRC, 1998), pp. 544-545.

6. Robert C. Preece, “Alleluia, alleluia! Hearts to heaven,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), p. 377.

7. Albert Edward Bailey, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. 359.

8. Percy Dearmer, “Alleluya, alleluya! Hearts to heaven and voices raise,” Songs of Praise Discussed (Oxford: University Press, 1933), p. 98.

9. Sheila Doyle, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/alleluia!-alleluia!-hearts-to-heaven-and-voices-raise

Related Resources:

Percy Dearmer, “Alleluya, alleluya! Hearts to heaven and voices raise,” Songs of Praise Discussed (Oxford: University Press, 1933), p. 98.

Albert Edward Bailey, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), pp. 358-359.

Alan Luff & Raymond Glover, “Alleluia, alleluia! Hearts and voices heavenward raise,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3A (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 390-391.

Bert Polman, “Alleluia! Alleluia!” Psalter Hymnal Handbook (Grand Rapids: CRC, 1998), pp. 544-545.

Robert C. Preece & Joseph Herl, “Alleluia, alleluia! Hearts to heaven,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 377-378.

“Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/alleluia_alleluia_hearts_to_heaven_and_v

Sheila Doyle, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/alleluia!-alleluia!-hearts-to-heaven-and-voices-raise