Generations of English-speaking Protestants have celebrated Christmas in music through pieces such as Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. Lessons and carols often feature the mellifluous harmonies and supple rhythmic language of the hymn. Yet perhaps only the Lutherans appreciate the depths of history appropriated by the English and American churches in this music. In its original German, Er ist ein Ros' entsprungen, the Advent hymn dates back to the earliest days of German Protestantism. Its text richly embroiders the late Medieval analogy between the Blessed Virgin Mary and a spotless rose. She is the lovely rose who remained immaculate, despite bearing the shoot of Jesse, as Old Testament prophets foretold. The form in which the sensual hymn traveled to our own century comes from the pen of the prolific composer Michael Praetorius. Over his life, Praetorius wrote over 1,000 pieces of music based upon Lutheran hymnody in German, including the famous four-voiced setting of Er ist ein Ros'. His setting first appeared in one of the volumes of his massive publication Musae Sionae, in which he provided a systematic presentation of the wealth of German hymnody.

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