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Johannes Brahms
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Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen Click to Listen, [1:49]
A sublime setting in which the melody hops from voice to voice of the familiar Christmas hymn, alternating between two stops, the Front and Back, but testing out the new Swell Pedal (dynamic control not possible with the original instrument unless it were placed in a chamber with shutters and operated by an organist outside the chamber). Output +2dB, no reverberation added. Brad Lehman Temperament. Instrument: 3-stop Harpsichord built by Martin Bezemer Eindhoven, 1981 - Samples by Hauptwerk.nl

Chorale Text
German:
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Aus einer Wurzel zart.
Wie es die Alten sungen,
Aus Jesse kam die Art.
Und hat ein Blümelein ‘bracht
Mitten im kalten Winter
Wohl zu der halben Nacht.

Das Röslein, das ich meine,
Davon Jesaias sagt,
Hat uns gebracht alleine
Marie, die reine Magd;
Aus Gottes ew’gem Rat
Hat sie ein Kind geboren
Wohl zu der halben Nacht.

Das Blümelein so kleine,
Das duftet uns so süß;
Mit seinem hellen Scheine
Vertreibt’s die Finsternis:
Wahr’ Mensch und wahrer Gott,
Hilft uns aus allem Leide,
Rettet von Sünd’ und Tod.
--Anonymous, 15th Century

English:
Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
the virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright,
she bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God,
from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.
--tr. Composite


Audio track was created with Hauptwerk v. 2 software