The Crown of Roses (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

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• (Posted 2020-01-18)  CPDL #56681:     

Editor: Matthew Watts (submitted 2020-01-18).   Score information: A4, 4 pages, 56 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

• (Posted 2009-02-07)  CPDL #18886:       

Editor: Mark Chapman (submitted 2009-02-07).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 312 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Crown of Roses (Легенда, Legend, Op. 54 No. 5)
Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Lyricist: Aleksey Pleshcheyev^{create page} , after Richard Henry Stoddard

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB, with minor divisi in bass
Genre: Sacred, Anthem

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1883
Description: First published as #5 in the composer's collection "Songs for the Young" for voice & piano; arr. by the composer for chorus 1889. Stoddard's poem Roses and Thorns begins "The young child Jesus had a garden". English versions matching the 8-syllable lines of Pleshcheyev's imitation are "When Jesus Christ was yet a child" (?1938, by Geoffrey Dearmer, 1883-1996) and "Fair was the garden, blest with flow'rs" (William Gurney Rothery, 1858-1930).

External websites:

• Tchaikovsky-research.net entry
• 16 Songs for Children, Op.54 at the Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP)
• Arensky's String Quartet opus 35 at the Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP), whose second movement was arranged as Variations on a Theme by P. Tschaikovsy for String Orchestra (1894), op. 35a

Original text and translations

Russian text Был у Христа-младенца сад И много роз взрастил он в нем; Он трижды в день их поливал, Чтоб сплесть венок себе потом. Когда же розы расцвели, Детей еврейских созвал он; Они сорвали по цветку, И сад был весь опустошен. "Как ты сплетешь теперь венок? В твоем саду нет больше роз!" – "Вы позабыли, что шипы Остались мне", – сказал Христос. И из шипов они сплели Венок колючий для него, И капли крови вместо роз Чело украсили его.

English text When Jesus Christ was yet a child He had a garden small and wild, Wherein He cherished roses fair, And wove them into garlands there. Now once, as summer time drew nigh, There came a troop of children by, And seeing roses on the tree, With shouts they plucked them merrily. "Do you bind roses in your hair?" They cried, in scorn, to Jesus there. The Boy said humbly: "Take, I pray, All but the naked thorns away." Then of the thorns they made a crown, And with rough fingers pressed it down, Till on His forehead fair and young, Red drops of blood like roses sprung.

German translation Als Jesus noch ein Kind war, hatte er einen Garten, gar klein und wild, dort hegte er Rosen, hold und schön, aus welchen er Girlanden wob. Einmal dann, der Sommer nahte, kam eine Schar Kinder vorbei, sie sahen Rosen oben am Baum, und mit glücklichem Geschrei pflückten sie diese. „Bindest du dir Rosen ins Haar?“ fragten sie Jesus voller Hohn. Der Junge sprach in bescheidnem Ton: „Nehmt alles ausser der blanken Dornen fort, das nur bitte ich euch.“ Aus den Dornen dann machten sie eine Krone, und mit groben Händen pressten sie diese auf seinen Kopf, bis auf seiner Stirn – schön und zart – rote Tropfen Bluts wie Rosen erblühten.