Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: ELW #364 "Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia"
Tune: MFURAHINI, HALELUYA, Tanzanian traditional
Text: Bernard Kyamanywa (1938) tr. Howard S. Olsen (1922 - 2010)

Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia comes to us from African Lutheranism. Rev. Bernard Kyamanywa wrote the original Swahili text while he was in seminary in Tanzania. He wrote it in a very African style, envisioning a story-teller and congregation responding; the story- teller presents the simple story of the Easter Gospel, and the congregation responds with the refrain.

Howard Olson, longtime missionary/teacher in Africa, compiled a number of African songs in Set Free (Augsburg Fortress, 1993). Many were folk tunes like this one, to which Christian Swahili texts were later added.

Musical Reflection: Dance: Gaudeamus paritur, Mary Beth Bennett

Today’s Musical Reflection is a setting of the hymn tune Gaudeamus Paritur, by Johann Roh (1487-1547), which leads us to speak of pseudonyms. Johann Roh was a native of Bohemia. Roh was his name in Bohemian, but when he wrote in Latin he called himself Cornu, and when he wrote in German, he called himself Horn. In the ELW, this tune is paired with the text “Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain.”

Mary Beth Bennett is a nationally recognized performer, composer and improviser living in historic Richmond, Virginia where she serves on the adjunct music faculty of the University of Richmond and is Organist of Second Baptist Church. She has previously held various positions in Washington, D.C., including at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.