Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, Advent 2 Year C
This is Parson Paul on the Hymns. If this is
your first time or you’ve tuned in before, welcome. Today’s hymn is Lo, How a
Rose E’er Blooming.
1 1. Our first selection today is by Arnold
Schoenberg 1921 with violin, cello
and piano please listen to a part of this work.
Again, welcome this is Parson Paul. I
am Paul Lathum a retired United Methodist Pastor with 32 years’ experience. My bachelor’s
degree is in Sacred Music. I want to help busy church professionals, church
musicians and people in general to have a greater appreciation and
understanding of the hymns and church music today. I want to help give you some
background on the hymns and how they came to us as well as share some great
music.
I believe the hymns can speak into our
lives as well today as in the day when they were first written. Please feel free
to share this blog or podcast with others you think might enjoy and drop us a
line with suggestions or any comments. Be sure and check out the links and
notes I have placed at the end of this blog and in the show notes of the
podcast for full videos today’s hymn selection and others I found interesting.
Today for the 2nd Sunday in
Advent, I want to share one of my favorite Advent Hymns, Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. This hymn is number 216 in the United
Methodist Hymnal and is found in most hymnals. The original German title is “Es
ist ein Ros entsprungen” which is literally ‘A rose is sprung up” is sometimes
translated in English as “A Spotless Rose”.
The rose in the text is either a
reference to the Virgin Mary or to Jesus Christ. It makes reference to the Old
testament prophecy of Isaiah fore-telling the Incarnation of Christ and the
Tree of Jesse, a traditional reference to the lineage of Jesus.
The hymn’s origin traces back to the
late 16th Century in a manuscript in St. Alban’s Carthusian
monastery in Trier. The earliest sources list between 19 and 23 verses,
focusing on the Gospel of Luke chapters 1 and 2 and Matthew chapter 2.
There is speculation about the rose
and its symbolism. One apocryphal legend has that on Christmas Eve, a monk in
Trier found a rose blooming while walking in the woods and placed the rose in a
vase on the altar to the Virgin Mary.
Some Catholic sources claim the focus
of the hymn on Mary and compares the symbol to the rose in the Song of Solomon
2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” In protestant
writings the idea of its symbology shifted from Mary to Jesus, citing Isaiah
21:1, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots.” There is also some discussion on whether the
original German word in the first line of stanza one was “Ros” meaning rose or
“Reis” meaning branch. Later is Isaiah 35:1 says, “and the desert shall
rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
2. 2. Now give a listen to the great Renee Fleming,
soloist singing with Tabernacle choir at Temple Square, arranged by Mack
Wilberg, Excellent recording from 2005. Please do follow the links to watch or
listen to this great work and others by Miss Fleming and the Choir.
Theodore Baker (1851-1934) provided
the translation of verses 1 and 2 is are most often used in our hymnals today and
is dated back to 1894. Baker was American born but educated in Leipzig. The 3rd
stanza in the United Methodist Hymnal is adapted from a translation of
Friedrich Layritz (1808-1859) and expands the image of the rose adding the
fragrance to his verse. His verse also points to the Nicene Creed – “True man,
yet very God”—and petitions the “Flower” to “from sin and death now save us,
and share our every load.” (from an
article by Dr. Hawn, professor of Sacred Music at Perkins School of Theology,
SMU)
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
harmonized the original German tune in his collection Musae Sioniae
(Zion’s Music) in 1669, his
harmonization or an adaptation of it is found in most hymnals.
The tune has been used by many
composers from Brahms, Schoenberg, as we heard at the beginning, and Sandstrom.
In recent years the hymn has been performed by artists and choirs worldwide
including such as Charlotte Church, Sting and Mannheim Steamroller and has
appeared in film soundtracks including Love Story (1970) and The Time
Traveler’s Wife (2009).
3. 3. The hymn can
be expressed a variety of ways, give a listen to a three-part women’s acapella
recording very nice, posted 2014. Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, IL
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, has been one of my favorite hymns for some
time. I especially like the movement of the haunting yet lovely tune and then
the words seem so poignant to me.
Why do we prefer one hymn over
another? It is because of the tune, the poetic phrasing, the theology of its
meaning? I think it depends on where you are on a particular day and the events
in your personal life. One day a hymn, its music or poetry can affect us in a different
way. Some days the deep theology strike us in a particular way, or the tune
captures us, and we hear it playing in our heads all day long on a continuous
loop. And yet music can be a trigger like a certain smell that takes us miles
and years away into our memories.
I have a love of cooking and
especially cooking for other people. The first year I was in seminary and I
appointed to serve the Lathrop United Methodist Church and I wanted to serve
those who were alone over Thanksgiving before we drove 7 hours to be with our
own family in Southeastern Missouri. I was preparing a family dish we call Egg
Dressing. Don’t bother to try and Google it you probably can’t find it as it is
a regional dish that also goes by the name of Ribble Soup that probably came
out of the depression when simple filling foods were essential to life. Anyway,
while attempting to prepare this family favorite for the first time on my own I
ran into trouble with the preparation and I didn’t know what to do to fix it.
Then as the aroma of the dish I was
preparing hit my nose I was transported back to our family’s restaurant in
Sikeston, where I was helping my grandmother prepare Egg Dressing. With the
smell as a trigger I was back in that kitchen with my beloved Mom Daugherty and
I could hear her voice as though she was in the room with me. “Take a spoon and
beat it Paul David, just stir it up.” I did as I was told, and the dish came
out perfectly.
After that I made it a point to use
that illustration of what I refer to it as a slip in time where I was
transported back 25 years and hundreds of miles away. And I refer that as when we
receive communion we receive not from a pastor or lay person but as from the
hands of Christ himself, gathered at table with the Disciples, hearing Him say,
“Take eat this is my body, broken for you…”
I don’t know about you, but when I was
pastoring by the time we actually got to Christmas, with the rehearsals and
public and church performances I was just about “Christmased” out. Have you had
that experience? You are not alone. My prayer for you this Advent an Christmas
is that you can get a fresh vision of the Rose E’er Blooming in our hearts and
lives.
4.
Take a few minutes and come away with me across the miles and years and listen
to this recording of the St. Olaf Choir with the Nidarosdom Girls Choir of
Norway. This is part of a longer recording of their entire Christmas Concert
together from 2014. I have placed the concert recording on my favorite’s list
for play and watching this Advent maybe you will too.
This is Parson Paul. I haven’t decided
on a hymn for next week yet. What is your favorite Christmas Hymn? Let me know
and I’ll share the results over the next few weeks, maybe your favorite will be
highlighted next. Till then God Bless, may the Rose that is Christ flourish in
your heart and life.
Links and videos:
1. In my research I found a work by Arnold
Schoenberg (1974-1951) an influential Austrian/American composer, music
theorist, teacher, writer and painter (1921) for two violins, cello, piano and harmonium is a short fantasy
on Es ist ein Ros entsprungen with Stille Nacht as a contrapuntal melody.
He migrated to the US in 1933 after his works were seen as modernist and atonal
and deemed degenerate by the Nazi party
2. 1. Renee Fleming, soloist with Tabernacle choir
at Temple Square, arranged by Mack Wilberg, Excellent recording from 2005
3. 2. A three part
women acapella recording very nice, posted 2014. This translation is from
Theodore Baker, 1894. Bonnie McMaken, Johannah Swank, and Marissa Cunningham
singing a beautiful arrangement of Christmas carol Lo, How a Rose E'er
Blooming. You can find more of Bonnie's music at http://www.themcmakens.com Find more of
Johannah's music at http://www.reverbnation.com/johannahs... Bonnie,
Johannah, and Marissa are all musicians at Church of the Resurrection in
Wheaton, IL. http://www.churchrez.org
4. 3. I think
this following arrangement is by Jan Sandstrom written in 1990 and performed by St.
Olaf Choir from Minnesota sings along with the Nidarosdom Girl Choir of Norway. Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
and The Rose, from Norway posted in
2014, with piano accompaniment. A longer recording of the entire concert is
also available and is excellent.
I am adding this longer recording to my
Christmas season play/watch list.
More Great versions --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZA1mqqIvUHere is another recording of the Tabernacle
Choir from Temple Square Temple with an arrangement by Michael Praetorius, 2015
Here is a great acapella recording
from Illumni Men’s Chorale & Harvard Glee Club, recorded at the Pacific
Lutheran University, 2014
From the Orchardist, date unknown two
voices with guitar, string bass, violin and mandolin
I really like this version by a great
duet, Robinson & Rohe, Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, 2014, two voices with
guitar and accordion
An interesting Multi-track recording
by Alex Stephens done in 2209 for the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music’s Men’s
Chorus, One man acapella, four vocal tracks
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