There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue

Scoring: AATBarBarB (a cappella) [also available as SATB a cappella]
Written: Dartington, UK (2012)
Duration: 
Publisher: Edition Peters
Cost: £14.95 (anthology; not available as separate sheet)

Jim came across this text when singing Britten's Ceremony of Carols as a chorister at Rochester Cathedral and has since sung many and varied settings; this is his interpretation of words that have lasted over five hundred years, in a setting for men's voices.

There is no rose of such virtue - anon. (mediæval)

There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu;
Alleluia.

By that rose we may well see
There be one God in persons three;
Pari forma.

Leave we all this worldly mirth,
And follow we this joyful birth;
Transeamus.

For in this rose contained was
Heaven and earth in little space;
Res miranda.

The angels sungen, the shepherds too,
"Gloria in excelsis deo";
Gaudeamus.

Alleluia, res miranda,
Pares forma, gaudeamus,
Transeamus.