Christmas Chorale (A Rose bursts forth)

Karl Deigendesch (7 June 1839 — 14 April 1911) was a teacher, composer and highly respected organist.

He received the Cross of Merit from the Order of St. Michael in 1904, oversaw the rebuilding of the large organ of the Roggenburg abbey church in 1904, where he served (I believe) as organist. He retired in 1909.

His compositional knowledge was admire, as we were his skills in improvisation and organ performance.

Until I came across this very nice work in the collection, "Christmas Music for the Organ", edited by Dr. William C. Carl, and published by the Boston Music Company in 1914. I've already uploaded several other pieces from this collection.

I'm not sure if this is an original composed chorale, or an arrangement of a traditional one. Certainly it has similarities to the traditional "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" in both text and tune, but I'll leave it for the listener to determine which is the case. :-)

I do recommend this entire collection, as there are a number of excellent, and now "rare" romantic items in it.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of Karl Deigendesch, one of his family's grave, several of Roggenburg Abbey, including one of the organ there.