An Eruption of Easter Joy: Bairstow’s “Sing Ye to the Lord”

For Sunday, April 5, 2026
Sing Ye to the Lord by Bairstow

By David Jolliffe

If you’re eager to greet Easter with a full-throated, richly brassed musical celebration, you’ll love the anthem the St. Paul’s adult choir will sing at the Easter Vigil and both the 8:45 and 11 a.m. services on Easter Day.  Sir Edward Bairstow’s “Sing Ye to the Lord” is widely considered of the masterpieces of the 20th-century English anthem repertoire.  Written in 1911, it is a formidable work for choir, organ, and brass that showcases Bairstow’s unique blend of harmonic richness and structural precision.

The text employs language taken from Psalms 96 and 114.  Here are the lyrics:

Sing ye to the Lord
For He hath triumphed gloriously.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his host
Hath He cast into the sea.
Mighty Victim from the sky
Hell’s fierce powers beneath Thee lie;
Thou hast conquered in the fight;
Thou hast brought us life and light.
Now no more can death appall,
Now no more the grave enthrall;
Thou hast opened Paradise
And in Thee Thy Saints shall rise.
Mighty Victim from the sky
Hell’s fierce powers beneath Thee lie;
Thou hast conquered in the fight;
Thou hast brought us life and light;
Thou hast openеd Paradise
And in Thee Thy Saints shall rise.
Alleluia!
Amеn!

The anthem opens with a virtuosic organ introduction, after which the choir enters with a bold, unison theme, establishing a mood of exultant celebration.  Then Bairstow shifts into a more introspective verse, offering lush harmonies and soaring melodic lines, particularly in the treble voices.  The third section shifts into darker, more turbulent musical landscape, but then the piece concludes with a spirited fugal section, concluding in a massive, triumphant “Amen!”

When he wrote “Sing Ye to the Lord,” Bairstow was organist at Leeds Parish Church.  He later became organist-choirmaster at York Minster.