Voices Together ‎#216

216. Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

1 Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
from tender stem has sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
as saints 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 show God’s love aright,
she bore to us a Savior,
when half spent was the night.

3 Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
dispel in glorious splendor
gloom and grief ev’rywhere.
True man, yet very God,
from sin and death he saves us,
and lightens ev’ry load.

Text Information

• First Line: Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
• Title: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
• Translator: Theodore Baker (1894)
• Translator: Harriet K. Spaeth
• Author (stanza 3): Friedrich Layritz
• Meter: 7.6.7.6.6.7.6
• Publication Date: 2020
• Scripture:
  Isaiah 7:14
  ;
  Isaiah 11:1-10
  ;
  Luke 1:26-38
• Topic: Heritage: Before 1500; Incarnation; Jesus Christ: Images and Names of; Mary, Mother of Jesus; Prophets
• Source: stanzas 1–2 anon., “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” (present-day Germany), 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng (present-day Germany), 1599; stanza 3 Friedrich Layritz (Germany), Liederschatz, 1832; trans. Harriet K. Spaeth (USA), The Hymnal, 1940, alt.

Tune Information

• Name: ES IST EIN ROS’
• Harmonizer: Michael Praetorius
• Meter: 7.6.7.6.6.7.6
• Key: F Major
• Source: German traditional, 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng, 1599; harm. Michael Praetorius (present-day Germany), Musae Sionae VI, 1609