Hodie

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Hodie (This Day) is a cantata by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Composed in 1953–1954, it is his last major choral-orchestral work and was premiered under the composer’s baton at Worcester Cathedral on 8 September 1954 as part of the Three Choirs Festival. The piece is dedicated to Herbert Howells.

Overview
- Music: 16 movements for SATB choir, boys’ choir, organ, and a large orchestra. Soloists are soprano, tenor, and baritone.
- Style: A synthesis of Vaughan Williams’ career, combining biblical texts with poetry. It nods to earlier works like Dona nobis pacem, Sinfonia antartica, and the Five Mystical Songs (1911).
- Motifs: A few recurring musical ideas run through the work, including a motif around the word “Gloria” that returns later, and an epilogue motif that mirrors an earlier theme. The final setting of Milton’s text reuses the opening soprano melody with different orchestration.
- Reception: Critics at the time felt the piece was too direct and old-fashioned for the era, especially when compared with newer composers like Benjamin Britten. Later critics have been more favorable. Hodie is not commonly performed but it still appears occasionally and has been televised (notably by PBS with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). There are several recordings.

Instrumentation
Hodie calls for a large orchestra: woodwinds (including a third flutist doubling piccolo), a full brass section, extensive percussion (timpani, bass drum, snare, tenor drum, tubular bells, cymbals, glockenspiel, triangle), celesta, piano, organ, strings, a mixed chorus (SATB) with a boys’ choir, and three soloists (soprano, tenor, baritone).

Structure and text
- The work opens with bright brass fanfares and “Nowell!” sung by the full chorus, introducing a Christmas Day portion of the vespers in Latin, followed by English translations.
- A series of narrations links the movements, scored for organ and boys’ choir, drawing on Gospel texts from Matthew and Luke.
- The tenor often represents the angel, while the chorus voices the heavenly hosts. The soprano and baritone take the solo lines in various movements.
- Notable sections include:
- A gentle soprano song setting a Milton fragment from “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.”
- Luke 2:1–7 narration, followed by a choral piece adapted from a hymn by Martin Luther (translated by Miles Coverdale) sung by an unaccompanied chorus.
- A Luke 2:8–17 shepherds narration, with the tenor again as the angel and the baritone singing “The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy.
- A George Herbert text sung by the baritone, and a lullaby for soprano with a women’s chorus.
- A tenor solo hymn “Christmas Day” by William Drummond of Hawthornden, added late in the process.
- The “March of the Three Kings,” a powerful movement in which soloists, choir, and orchestra share the stage; Ursula Vaughan Williams (the composer’s wife) wrote the text for this march.
- An unaccompanied choral movement with an anonymous text (second verse supplied by the composer’s wife).
- Epilogue: a setting for the three soloists of text drawn from John 1:1, 4, 14 and Matthew 1:23, after which the chorus returns to conclude with Milton’s words (adapted) from “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” ending the work with full choir and orchestra.

In short, Hodie is a richly scored, challenging late work by Vaughan Williams that fuses Biblical material with poetry and liturgical text, weaving together motifs and references from his own musical past into a unified Christmas–themed cantata.