Day 5: Lo how a rose

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a flow’ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter, when half spent was the night.

Four hundred years ago, in 1609, Michael Praetorius created an exquisite arrangement of this old German carol. I have only to read the carol’s first words, and the familiar harmonies fill my mind. I’ve sung the Praetorius arrangement in church choirs, school choruses and Revels performances. I’ve sung three different voices of the arrangement (I’m really not an alto), and while I neither speak nor read German, I have sung Es ist ein Ros entsprungen on stage, from memory, on less than a week’s notice. As many times as I’ve performed Lo how a rose e’er blooming, I’ve heard others sing it many, many more.

In all my years of singing and listening, I’ve never tired of the ethereal melody and the elegant arrangement. Every time I hear or sing it, I wait for the passing tones in the third line of the alto part (on the word “bright” in the first verse), and feel my heart ache as the chords shift.

And I wonder: in 400 years, how many people have listened to the Praetorius setting of Lo how a rose e’er blooming? How many have felt the same delight that I feel?

The rose in our front yard is still blooming, though it has few leaves left, and the buds are outnumbered by the fully formed hips on the plant.