"Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem" or "Sing, Choirs of New Jerusalem" is an English Easter hymn by Robert Campbell. It is a 19th-century translation of the medieval Chorus novae Ierusalem, attributed to Fulbert of Chartres. The text's primary focus is the Resurrection of Jesus, taking the theme of Jesus as triumphant victor over death and deliverer of the prisoners from Hell.
The text was first published by Robert Campbell in 1850, and partially rewritten by the compilers of the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The hymn remains popular in modern compilations, notably appearing in the Carols for Choirs collection. It is normally paired with the tune "St. Fulbert" by Henry John Gauntlett. It has also been set to music as an anthem by Charles Villiers Stanford, and this version is equally in common use in Anglican churches.
The hymn first appears in multiple 11th-century manuscripts, so if the attribution to St. Fulbert (who died c. 1029) is correct, "it must have become popular very quickly".[1] The hymn was widely used on the British Isles. In the Sarum Breviary, it is listed for the Vespers of the Easter Octave and for all Sundays from then until the Feast of the Ascension. It also appears in the York, Hereford and Aberdeen breviaries,[2][3] and remains present in late medieval manuscripts.[4]
The modern text first appeared in Campbell's Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850).[5] The editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern altered Campbell's text in various places, replaced the final stanza with a doxology, and added "Alleluia! Amen" to the hymn's end.[6] Other translations of the hymn by J. M. Neale, R. F. Littledale, R. S. Singleton and others were also in common use at the end of the 19th century.[2]
Further changes to Campbell's setting include alterations to the fifth stanza, sometimes omitted entirely, due to its references to "soldiers" and "palace".[7]
The original Latin hymn is written in iambic dimeter, with lines of 8 syllables each in quatrains with an a-a-b-b rhyme scheme.[8][9] The most common version nowadays is based on the translation of Robert Campbell, which is in the shorter common metre. The version by John Mason Neale is in the original long metre and thus unsingable to the same modern tune as Campbell’s. Neale’s version better reflects the original and shows that Campbell's version, as retouched in Hymns Ancient and Modern and later hymnals, is a "Victorian creation".[7]