The text comes from the pen of the seventeenth-century Welsh poet Henry Vaughan, a leading metaphysical voice during the Commonwealth period 1649-1660, when the republican government of Oliver Cromwell banned the Anglican Church.Christs Nativity was commissioned by the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington D.C. with support from the Richard Wayne Dirksen Memorial Endowment Fund. The selected lyrics by Welsh poet Henry Vaughan fascinated me immensely and therfore prompted me to think about a specific musical environment for the piece, best suited for merging the music into this wonderful poetic landscape. This poetry brings about a