"" (also ""; "Christ lay in death's bonds") is an Easter hymn by Martin Luther. Its melody is by Luther and Johann Walter. Both the text and the melody were based on earlier examples. It was published in 1524 in the Erfurt Enchiridion and in Walter's choral hymnal . Various composers, including Pachelbel, Bach and Telemann, have used the hymn in their compositions.
In early editions the hymn, in seven stanzas, was indicated as an improved (German: ') version of "Christ ist erstanden". The hymn is in bar form. The , that is the repeated first part of the melody, sets two lines of text for each repetition, with the remaining four lines of each stanza set to the remainder of the melody.
The hymn celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus, with particular reference to a struggle between Life and Death. The third verse quotes from 1 Corinthians 15, saying that Christ's Atonement for sin has removed the "sting" of Death. The fifth verse compares the sacrifice with that celebrated by Jews in the Pascal Lamb at Passover. The sacrificial "blood" ("Its blood marks our doors") refers to the marking of the doors before the exodus from Egypt. The final stanza recalls the tradition of baking and eating Easter Bread, with the "old leaven" alluding again to the exodus, in contrast to the "Word of Grace", concluding "Christ would ... alone nourish the soul."
The melody as set by Luther (with help from Walter) seems to have strong correlations with parts of the Eucharistic sequence for Easter, Victimae paschali laudes, believed to have been written by Wipo of Burgundy in the 11th century. This was transformed, gradually into a "Leise", a devotional German pre-Reformation song with a number of stanzas, but maintaining strong characteristics of plainsong.
Johann Walter published "Christ lag in Todes Banden" with two variants of the hymn tune in 1524: Zahn No. 7012a, the tenth tune in the choral hymnal , is a setting of the hymn with stanzas of eight lines, the last line of each stanza consisting of the word "Halleluja". The other version, Zahn No. 7012b, appearing under the title "Der Lobsanck Christ ist erstanden / Gebessert" in the Erfurt Enchiridion and as ninth item in , is a setting of the hymn in seven-line stanzas, that is without the repeated "Halleluja" at the end of every stanza.
Notwithstanding the fact that the version with eight-line stanzas had a rhythmically imperfect form (, according to Johannes Zahn), and that Walter only included the version with seven-line stanzas in his later publications, the former version was picked up in the hymnals of Klug (1535, 1543), Schumann (1539) and Babst (1545), and, with some rhythmical adaptations, henceforth became the standard for publications of the tune. Minor alterations of the tune, that is, without modifying its melodic shape, included the addition of passing notes and modification of rhythmic patterns to conform the chorale to emerging styles, and to fit the chorale into a regular time signature. For instance, in the first half of the 18th century, Johann Sebastian Bach based all his settings of the "Christ lag in Todes Banden" hymn (BWV 4, 158/4, 277, 278, 279, 625, 695, 695a and 718) on the eight-line variant of the hymn tune. The following four-part setting, with the last stanza of the hymn as text, is taken from his Christ lag in Todes Banden chorale cantata:
In 1524 "" was published in the Erfurt Enchiridion and in Walter's choral hymnal '. The 1524 Erfurt Enchiridion presented the melody and text of Luther's hymn on two pages: <div class="center"></div>
In 1545 the hymn appeared as No. 8 in the Babstsche Gesangbuch. In the German-language Protestant hymnal (EG) it appears in modernised language as EG 101. It also appears in various translations in English hymnals, the most common one being "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands" by Richard Massie.
As one of the principal Lutheran hymns for Easter, "Christ lag in Todesbanden" appears in several vocal and organ compositions of the Baroque Era, for example by