John Tavener's characteristic reverent and pensive sound turns to jubilation in his a capella Christmas carol, Today the Virgin. And while his devout belief in the Russian Orthodox faith lends to his more meditative works a deeper dimension of spirituality, and even prayerfulness, his personal religiosity conversely finds, in this work, an authentically and infectiously celebratory voice. Unusually playful rhythms combine within an engaging variety of textures and melodic gestures, creating what is arguably one of Tavener's most listenable and enjoyable pieces.

The work was composed in 1989 as a setting of a text by Mother Thekla, the Abbess at Normanby, and Tavener's career collaborator, friend, and spiritual guide. Mother Thekla's text alternates between exclamation and question; the Virgin's joy at being chosen as the vessel of the Lord is expressed in the refrain, while her husband's confusion and worry, and Mary's efforts to assure him, constitute the body of the verses.

Tavener's musical setting aptly follows this outline. He sets the first verse as a unison melody over a drone in the basses. This general texture is maintained throughout, though some variations in the specific scoring occur from verse to verse. The refrain receives a strikingly different treatment, but one that is not at all unfamiliar to the music of Tavener. Many of the composer's works involve palindromic structures; but while his hypersymmetry usually serves as a tool for introspection or meditation, or a symbol for deific perfection, here the palindrome has a kind of motoric effect, one that drives the piece from verse to verse and infuses it with energy. The refrain melody is sung by the women, while the men execute its perfect mirror image below. This musical gesture becomes particularly exaggerated at the end of each refrain at the "Alleluia." The first "Alleluia" is given a descending scale ending with a triumphant leap back up to its point of origin (countered with its inversion in the men's voices). With each subsequent refrain, another descending figure is added, so that by the end of the piece the "Alleluia" is a deliriously long series of rapid scales and leaps.

Underscoring the interplay between the drone and melody textures and the palindromic structures is the driving rhythm with which Tavener sets Mother Thekla's text. Any sense of consistent rhythmic pattern submits itself to the semantic and grammatical whims of the text, resulting in a playful mix of rapidly alternating meters. Adding to the variety are the constantly changing verse lengths in Mother Thekla's poetry: the first verse contains only two lines, the second, five, and so on. The changes in meter and verse length send the melody through lively twists and turns, so that even in the alternation between Joseph's worry and Mary's confidence, a compelling jubilance runs underneath the surface. The final verse is only three lines long, and contains an abrupt change to third person voice, turning the verse into a sort of credo: "Warned by the Angel we believe / That Mary gives birth inexplicable / To the infant, Christ our God."

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