Poems for Easter (6): ‘Easter Hymn 6,’ by Tom Wright

Easter Oratorio by Paul Spicer, with words by Tom Wright, was recorded on a double CD for the BBC in 2005

Patrick Comerford

My choice of a Poem for Easter today is a modern hymn with poetic qualities. ‘Easter Hymn 6’ is one of six hymns in the libretto written by Tom Wright for Paul Spicer’s Easter Oratorio.

At the time, the two men were neighbours in the Cathedral Close in Lichfield – Tom Wright was then the Dean of Lichfield and Paul Spicer was still the Artistic Director of the Lichfield International Arts Festival. The oratorio was conceived in 1998 to mark the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of Lichfield Cathedral, and while its first performance was in Ely Cathedral, it received its proper première at the Lichfield Festival on 15 July 2000. The celebrations that year of the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death also left its mark on the score.

The Easter Oratorio begins where the Passion narratives end, with Christ’s body in the tomb and is divided into two parts: Part 1, The New Day; Part 2, The New Calling. It is based on the ground plan of one of Bach’s Passions, with a mixture of choruses, recitatives, arias, chorales and hymns.

Paul Spicer says he “tried to write the work so that it is accessible to good choral societies.”

One reviewer praised the libretto by Tom Wright, divided into a regular succession of choruses, recitatives, arias, chorales and a sequence of six Easter hymns, as “a model of poetic concision and dramatic lucidity.” He divides the work into a regular succession of choruses, recitatives, arias, chorales and a sequence of six Easter hymns.

The words are based closely on Saint John’s Gospel (Chapters 20 and 21), beginning where the Passion ends, with Christ entombed

It was recorded on a double CD in 2005 for the BBC over several days in the spacious acoustics of Hawksyard Priory, near Armitage – I have many happy memories, including musical memories of Spode House and Hawksyard Priory from my late teens and early 20s, when the folk masses organised by the Dominicans there were popular with my friends from around Lichfield and Rugeley.

On that BBC recording, Spicer’s own Birmingham Bach Choir, under his baton, is joined by the Lichfield Cathedral Choristers and the Lichfield Cathedral Special Choir, the English Symphony Orchestra, organist Alexander Mason and an impressive array of soloists headed by the soprano Rachel Nicholls as Mary. The Independent described it as “almost operatic in its inherent drama and memorable tunes.”

Paul Spicer hopes that his Easter Oratorio “will prove useful and attractive to choirs who might be seeking an alternative to the Bach repertoire to be performed around that time of year.” It would be good to hear it one of our cathedrals next year.

Lichfield Cathedral: Paul Spicer’s ‘Easter Oratorio’ was first commissioned for the Lichfield Festival to mark the cathedral’s 1,300th anniversary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

Easter Hymn 6, by NT Wright

Ye choirs of new Jerusalem
Your sweetest notes employ,
The Paschal victory to hymn
In strains of holy joy.

How Judah’s Lion burst his chains,
And crushed the serpent’s head;
And brought with him, from death’s domains,
The long-imprisoned dead.

From hell’s devouring jaws the prey
Alone our Leader bore;
His ransomed hosts pursue their way
Where he hath gone before.

Triumphant in his glory now
His sceptre ruleth all,
Earth, heaven, and hell before him bow,
And at his footstool fall.

While joyful thus his praise we sing,
His mercy we implore,
Into his palace bright to bring
And keep us evermore.

All glory to the Father be,
All glory to the Son,
All glory, Holy Ghost, to thee,
While endless ages run. Alleluia! Amen.

‘Triumphant in his glory now / His sceptre ruleth all’ (Tom Wright, Paul Spicer) … John Piper’s East Window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin