The 1948 Vaughan Williams motet, Prayer to the Father of Heaven, has a gossamer, vaporous atmosphere throughout its brief duration. Actually, that description could apply to most of the composer's motets, the chief exception being A Vision of Aeroplanes (1956), his longest, grandest, strangest, but perhaps most compelling. With the exception of this latter piece and Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge (1921), his motets are scored for unaccompanied chorus, though Valiant for Truth (1940) and O Taste and See (1952) offer optional organ (or piano) parts.

"Prayer to the Father of Heaven" was the name of a poem by John Skelton, and it was this work that Vaughan Williams chose to set for this motet. The text begins, "O radiant luminary of light interminable/Celestial Father, potential God of might." These words certainly have both a majestic and ethereal manner, as does the remainder of the poem. And Vaughan Williams, agnostic though he was, deftly captures the profoundly spiritual nature of Skelton's poetry with choral writing that favors the female voices, imparting to them a sense of flotation amid celestial clouds. Tenor and bass singers largely provide harmonies that give the music a lonely, even eerie atmosphere. Like most of Vaughan Williams' motets, this approximately four-minute one has a depth and beauty that may take several hearings to fully appreciate.

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