Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 57 · Great Composers of Christmas · Page 83 in print
Michael Praetorius
In the old German carol behind “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” the rose first stood for Mary. Michael Praetorius changed the second verse so that it points to Christ as the rose.
Jump to a word
The words
Carthusian
The monastic order of St Alban’s in Trier, keeper of the earliest text.
Cologne
City where the carol was first printed in 1599 with 23 stanzas.
Creuzburg
The Thuringian town where Praetorius was born around 1571.
Helmstedt
The university town where Praetorius studied in 1589.
Kapellmeister
Court director of music, Praetorius’s post at Wolfenbüttel from 1604.
Musae Sioniae
Praetorius’s chorale collection; part six (1609) holds his Es ist ein Ros.
IMSLP: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (opens a new tab) · Hymnary.org: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (opens a new tab)
Praetorius
The composer Michael Praetorius (c. 1571–1621).
Rose
The rose of the carol, which Praetorius read as Christ.
Schutz
Heinrich Schütz, with whom Praetorius organized festive music at Dresden.
Syntagma
Syntagma musicum, Praetorius’s three-volume treatise on music.
Terpsichore
Praetorius’s 1612 collection of 312 dances.
IMSLP: Terpsichore, Musarum Aoniarum (opens a new tab) · Encyclopedia.com: Michael Praetorius (opens a new tab)
Theodore Baker
Translator of the English Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming, around 1894.
Torgau
The town with a famous Lutheran school where Praetorius grew up.
Trier
City whose Carthusian monastery held the earliest manuscript of the carol text.
Wolfenbuttel
The ducal court town where Praetorius worked and printed Musae Sioniae.
Carus-Verlag: Michael Praetorius (opens a new tab) · IMSLP: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (opens a new tab)
Sources
- Lo, How a Rose E’er BloomingHymnary.org text page, quoting the Psalter Hymnal Handbook (1987)
- Michael PraetoriusCarus-Verlag, composer biography page (music publisher, Stuttgart)
- Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Praetorius, Michael)IMSLP Petrucci Music Library, work page
- Michael PraetoriusEncyclopedia.com, reprinting Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians and the Encyclopedia of World Biography
- Terpsichore, Musarum Aoniarum (Praetorius, Michael)IMSLP Petrucci Music Library, work page (first edition scan record)