Ralph Vaughan Williams - Hodie, Part 3, It Was the Winter Wild......

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
John Milton (1608 - 1674)

Hodie: A Christmas Cantata
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir David Willcocks, conductor
Dame Janet Baker
Richard Lewis
John Shirley-Quirk
The Bach Choir
Choristers of Westminster Abbey
1965

"It was the Winter wild,
While the Heav'n-born child,
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in awe to him
Had doff't her gaudy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathise.....
And waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes a universal Peace through Sea and Land.

No War, or Battle's sound
Was heard the World around:
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of light
His reign of peace upon the earth began:
The Winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kiss't,
Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave."

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