for mixed voices (SATB with divisi) a cappella
Text: Latin (Magnificat Antiphon for Christmas Day)
Duration: 3.5 minutes
Difficulty: 4/5
Use: Christmas

In this contemporary setting of the traditional text Hodie Christus natus est, the piece begins in a hushed, exultant manner marking the news that ‘today Christ was born’. The piece then slowly builds into a climactic moment before a contrasting passage, reminiscent of the opening quietened jubilance, emerges out from underneath the texture. The work builds further yet again and breaks out into a triumphant, canonical Gloria in the upper parts before all the voices are united together at the end to sing ‘Alleluia’ in a still, yet ebullient, moment.

Text
Hodie Christus natus est:
Hodie Salvator apparuit:
Hodie in terra canunt Angeli,
Lætantur Archangeli:
Hodie exsultant justi, dicentes:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Alleluia.

Today Christ is born:
Today the Saviour appears:
Today angels sing on earth,
Archangels rejoice:
Today the righteous rejoice, saying:
Glory to God in the highest.
Alleluia.

Grace-Evangeline Mason
Born in 1994, Grace-Evangeline Mason grew up in the West Midlands, learning trombone, clarinet and piano. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the University of Oxford, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her breakthrough as a composer came as an 18-year-old when she won the 2013 BBC Young Composer competition, the first of many awards and prizes Mason would go on to win. This saw her working with leading ensembles and artists including members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with works presented by leading UK arts organisations including the Cheltenham Festival, Southbank Centre and BBC Proms. In 2020, Mason was named the ‘face to watch’ for classical music in The Times Calendar of the Arts and in 2021 the newspaper selected her as one of five young stars featured at the BBC Proms, linked with the premiere of her orchestral work The Imagined Forest.