Last Sunday I went to a nearby Lutheran church, to service including a Bach cantata. We sang a version of 'That Easter Day with Joy was Bright,' but it was set to a tune I had never heard before.

The name of the tune is 'Erschienen is der herrlich Tag,' composed by Nikolaus Herman, 1480-1561. It is that rare thing, a genuinely modal tune. It's in the Dorian mode. It's in the key of C, but it starts on D, it ends on D, and a D is the highest note. And that high D note is a long one, a half-note, and not a mere twitter.

(I'm interested in early music and have seen a lot of it. Outside of chant, perhaps, truly modal tunes like this are rare.)

I have found a site that has the tune on it, if you would like to try it out.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Erschienen-ist-der-herrlich-Tag.htm

The song is in the Lutheran Book of Worship, number 154. It has harmony, but I don't know if it's original or newfangled.