The Wondrous Mystery in Song: the capacity of music is to be both emotionally engaging and intellectually compelling, and thus a suitable and versatile vessel for expressing the realities revealed in the Nativity of our Lord. The musical vocabulary of carols has an organic connection with much earlier music; the musical imagination of composers such as Rubbra and Britten (and their much younger successors) was, after all, shaped by a centuries-long tradition of sacred choral composition.
