A rose has sprung up (Sandström)
Es ist ein Ros sprung ( Det är en ros utsprungen ) is a version of the Christmas carol Es ist ein Ros sprung for two mixed choirs a cappella by the Swedish composer Jan Sandström . The work was written in 1990 and incorporates the four-part movement by Michael Praetorius from 1609.
composition
Jan Sandström composed the work in 1990. He started with the well-known four-part version of the song by Michael Praetorius (1609), which he slowly incorporated line by line into an eight-part unaccompanied humming choir. Choir I, singing Praetorius, can be sung by four solo voices. Choir II is hummed throughout. Formally, the movement is similar to a chorale fantasy, as it combines a cantus firmus with different musical material. It is unusual that Sandström not only quotes the melody, but also its harmonization and that he transmits the contrasting music voices. Their textless hum contributes to a successful international distribution. Originally performed in Swedish, many international performances prefer the German version proposed by Praetorius.
The work was first published in 1995 in Sveriges Körförbunds Förlag, Stockholm. It is available as a single edition or in the collection of Choral Music Cantemus 3 . In the United States it was released by Walton Music as Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming / Es ist ein Ros sprung .
It is notated in F major in 4/4 time without a tempo designation, with the tempo indication quarter note = 56, which is extremely slow when you consider that Sandström almost only uses long values and doubled the note values of Praetorius. The voices of choir II begin one after the other, from the lowest to the highest, initially ppp and gradually increasing to piano. All voices except Bass II, which sustains on its first note F, move up from their starting note to a second on which they hold out. So gradually a chord forms, in which choir I begins in bar 5, also ppp to piano and back to ppp to the words “Es ist ein Ros sprung”. The chords in choir II change almost imperceptibly through small shifts or pauses in individual voices and support the harmonies in Praetorius' movement. Choir II sings alone for more than one bar before choir I continues “from a root tender”.
The composition was voted favorite piece for September 2003 by The Virtual Music Library .
Individual performances and recordings
The composition is chosen by demanding choirs and vocal ensembles as the highlight for Christmas programs. In 2007 it was part of the Christmas Eve live broadcast from Kings College Chapel, Cambridge with the Choir of King's College . The vocal ensemble Chanticleer performed it in 2007 and then commissioned Sandström to compose, which resulted in The Word Became Flesh . In 2010 the BBC broadcast the piece twice in a chorale Evensong from Winchester College . The choirs of the New England Conservatory included the work in their 2011 Lessons and Carols program. It is on the program of the NDR choir in the Hamburg main church St. Nikolai .
In 2002 the Dresdner Kammerchor , directed by Hans-Christoph Rademann , recorded Es ist ein Ros sprung for its CD Christmas . In 2009 a CD was created with the title Es ist ein Ros' sprung - Christmas Music for Choir and Organ with Vox Bona , the chamber choir of the Kreuzkirche, Bonn , directed by Karin Freist-Wissing. It combines several versions of the song, the movement by Praetorius, a late chorale prelude by Johannes Brahms (op. 122 No. 8), variations by Hugo Distler from The Christmas Story (1933) and Sandström's version, in connection with other Christmas music. Under the heading Internalized Christmas Music , reviewer Stefan Schmöe compared the “floating soundscapes” of the Sandström movement with an “acoustic halo”. John Miller described Sandström's version as "timeless, atmospheric, dream-like sound-scape of poignantly dissonant polyphonic strands" (timeless, atmospheric, dreamlike soundscape of emphatically dissonant polyphonic strands).
The Swedish Composers' Association, Society of Swedish Composers, selected the piece for Composer's Radio 2011 , alongside three works by Jan W Morthenson , Karin Rehnqvist and Mikael Edlund , under the title: Inspirations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Person ( English ) Jan Sandström Musikproduktion AB. November 11, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
- ↑ a b c Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming ( English ) sheetmusicplus.com. 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ↑ a b John Miller: Es ist ein Ros' sprung - Christmas Music for Choir and Organ ( English , PDF; 316 kB) audite.de. November 16, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ↑ a b Favorite piece for September 2003 ( English ) musicanet.org. 2003. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ↑ Present activities ( English ) Jan Sandström Musikproduktion AB. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ↑ The Word Became Flesh ( English ) Chanticleer. Archived from the original on September 7, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ^ Choral Evensong / Winchester College ( English ) BBC . Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ↑ Lessons and carols ( English ) New England Conservatory. Archived from the original on December 13, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ^ Christmas concert with the NDR choir ( German ) Hauptkirche-stnikolai.de. 2011. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ↑ Christmas ( English ) Dresden Chamber Choir. September 27, 2011. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
- ↑ Stefan Schmöe: Internalized Christmas Music ( German ) Online Music Magazine. 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ^ Inspirations ( English ) Society of Swedish Composers. 2011. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
