Easter

This is Take Note. I'm Anna Williams, and we're taking history by the tempo.

Easter is a Christian festival and cultural holiday that falls on a Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th.

This year, Easter is celebrated on April 5th, and today, we're going to listen to some music that commemorates the holiday.

Russian Easter, of which, was composed during the years 1887 and 88 by Nikolai Rinsky Korsikov.

In the score, the music is prefaced by two quotations from the Bible, as well as a third quote by the composer.

Though an atheist himself, Rinsky Korsikov wanted his piece to depict both the salinity of Russian Orthodox liturgical practice,

as well as the jubilance of pagan festivities that followed on Easter Sunday morning.

The piece borrows themes from Russian Orthodox liturgical chance.

We turn now to an Eastern tradition with English origins, the baking and eating of hot cross buns.

Containing spices said to represent the spices that embalmed Jesus Christ, and marked with a dough cross signifying his crucifixion.

These buns have been eaten on Good Friday and Easter for centuries.

You may be all too familiar with this nursery rhyme, but did you know that the song originated as a street cry that accompanied the selling of the church?

Take note is a production of Classical Arizona PBS, a service of Arizona State University.