LO, HOW A ROSE E'RE BLOOMING 

Lyrics: Translated by Theodore Baker
Music: From the 'Kölner Gesanbuch' (1599)
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

The German devotional poem “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” dates from the 15th century. It was first set to music as a hymn in the Speyer Hymnal, published in Cologne in 1599, with a melody probably derived from plainchant. Ten years later, the renowned German organist/composer Michael Praetorius published a moving, tender harmonization of the hymn that has remained intact for more than four centuries. 

This was originally a “Twelfth Night” carol, sung in early January as the season of Christmas concluded and the feast of Epiphany approached. Based on Messianic prophecies from Isaiah, the rose in this carol is a symbolic reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. 

In 1894, the American musicologist Theodore Baker completed an English translation of this hymn—“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”—that helped it gain a foothold in Anglophone celebrations of Christmas. 

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.

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 men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.