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A friend asked if there was a very simple setting in English of Regina coeli laetare that his musically challenged parish could learn and sing.
The easiest by far is to use the melody sung to the Easter hymn Jesus Christ is risen today with the following text:
Joy to thee, O Queen of heav'n! Alleluia!
He whom it was thine to bear; Alleluia!
As He promised hath aris'n; Alleluia!
pray for us to God above. Alleluia!
The contractions heav'n and aris'n may take some getting used to, but as a text and tune it is the very simplest I know about.
The only published version of this text with which I am familiar is to be found in the St. Ambrose Hymnal of the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. In that hymnal the text can be found as the fourth verse of the Paschal hymn Jesus Christ is risen today.
[The tune is usually called 'EASTER HYMN' and is an altered form taken from Lyra Davidica, 1708. The metre is 77.77 with alleluias.]
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