The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is actually the 12-day period beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 5th (the day before the day the three kings/Magi/wise men visited the Christ child, aka “Epiphany“). So I’m getting started a little early.

Backstory: I was thinking about doing a blog post listing my favorite five Christmas carols. Too hard, though, picking just five. Then I tried for a list of ten songs—but when I counted them up, I had twelve. Well, that still works out: If I post one song per day from now until the last day of my break (Sunday, January 3), that’s twelve days.

Today’s song is one of my very favorites, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” To me, the harmonies sound very medieval, like something that should be sung by monks in an ancient European monastery. “Lo, How a Rose” is actually a German carol that dates from around 1600, so not quite as old as the Middle Ages. Its German title is “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen.” (For more, see the Wikipedia article here.)

This video contains both the lyrics (in German) and the sheet music with all four singing parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), which is fun.

Hope you enjoy it!