A Christmas Gem

This is one of my Christmas favorites, from

the 1959 cantata Hodie by Ralph Vaughan

Williams. Here's the text (the first verse is

anonymous; the second is by the composer's

wife, Ursula Wood Vaughan Williams):

No sad thought his soul affright
Sleep it is that maketh night;’
Let no murmur nor rude wind
To his slumbers prove unkind:
But a quire of angels make
His dreams of heaven, and let him wake
To as many joys as can
In this world befall a man.

Promise fills the sky with light,
Stars and angels dance in flight;
Joy of heaven shall now unbind
Chains of evil from mankind,
Love and joy their power shall break,
And for a new born prince’s sake;
Never since the world began
Such a light such dark did span.