Today’s Video of the Day is a performance of Gabriel Jackson’s ‘O nata lux de lumine’ by the Choir of Merton College Oxford. The final song on Jackson’s new Christmas work for choir and orchestra, The Christmas Story, was filmed during recording sessions in the Chapel of Merton College Oxford.

The Christmas Story, with a libretto assembled by the College’s chaplain the Revd Dr Simon Jones, tells the story of Christ’s birth. Spanning the period from Advent to Candlemas, it mixes biblical narrative with liturgical texts and four specially commissioned poems by members of the College. The new poems are given to the College’s girl choristers (an independent part of its choral foundation since 2016), while the main body of the work is carried by the full choir and by an ensemble of flute, percussion, strings, saxophone and three trombones.