Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

Hymns of Advent – A Singular Beauty

This  traditional Advent Hymn is one of the most beautiful pieces of choral music ever written. Both the words and the singular beauty of the musical composition faithfully transport me each year to that wonderful, holy place I enjoy so much each Christmas season.  My Christmas music library is growing, and I’m so appreciative of the age where, in spite of the decline in the public square of the powerful, Christ-based Christmas hymns, we have increasing access to the world’s traditional Christmas music performed by the world’s great choirs. This kind of music is one reason Christmas is my favorite time of year. The German words are a paraphrase of Isaiah 11:1 - "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."   The anonymous author and original work was German but the most familiar English renditions come from a strikingly beautiful and inspired translation by Theodore Baker. The verse has undergone quite a history with several additions incorporated into the original.  For instance, the following translation is mostly Baker’s, with an additional stanza – the third in the version below - added.  (Baker’s original third becomes the fourth in this version). 

The music composer, Michael Praetorius, was the German son of a Lutheran minister who had been a pupil of Luther. “Praetorius” is Anglicized from the original “Schultheiss” (which also means the head of a local municipality).  He appears to have been largely self-taught ^[1] in later life, as his studies in theology would have taken the majority of his time at the University of Frankfurt.  That didn’t hinder him from becoming “the cardinal figure in the development of Protestant sacred music in Germany in the seventeenth century”.^[2] 

I have several versions of this hauntingly beautiful hymn in my Christmas library. My favorite is performed by the Amor Artis Chamber Choir.   Their site is here.  Drop by and pick up Christmas with Amor Artis.  Another beautiful rendition is from the Umea Academic Choir.  If you’ve never known or were never quite able to hear the words to this hymn, by all means listen as you read:

1. Lo, how a rose e'er blooming,
From tender stem hath sprung!
From Jesse’s lineage coming,
As men of old have sung.

It came, a floweret bright,
Amid the cold of winter
When half spent was the night

2. Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind
With Mary we behold it,
The Virgin mother kind

To shew God's love aright,
She bore to men a Savior
When half spent was the night

3. The shepherds heard the story
Proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of Glory
Was born on earth this night.

To Bethlehem they sped
And in the manger they found him,
As angels heralds said.

4. This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere ^[3];

True man, yet very God,
From Sin and death he saves us,
And lightens every load.

There are several performances on YouTube as well:  This one is particularly good, and there’s a fascinating depiction of John Harvard singing the hymn to a student – a clip from the Michael Van Devere film of the Puritan reverend who would become Harvard’s namesake.

References

1.  George J. Buelow, A History of Baroque Music, Indiana University Press (2004)
2.  ibid
3.  "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”.  Isa 9:2, Matt 4:16