A Spotless Rose

Instrumentation: SATB unaccompanied

Duration: 3 minutes 30 seconds

Composed: April 12 – September 30, 2024

Premiered: 115th Christmas Carol Service of Harvard University Memorial Church, December 8, 2024, Harvard University Choir, conducted by Edward Elwyn Jones

A spotless Rose is blowing,
Sprung from a tender root,
Of ancient seers’ foreshowing,
Of Jesse promis’d fruit;
Its fairest bud unfolds to light
Amid the cold, cold winter,
And in the dark midnight.

The Rose which I am singing,
Whereof Isaiah said,
Is from its sweet root springing
In Mary, purest Maid;
For through our God’s great love and might
The Blessed Babe she bare us
In a cold, cold winter’s night.

Trad. German
trans. Catherine Winkworth (1827 – 1878)