Besides being a remarkable choral work by any standards (let alone that of a 19-year-old) this half-hour work sees the beginning of many later trends in Britten's career. Foremost, it is his first major work for voices, appearing during a decade in which his chief interest was instrumental and orchestral music. Secondly, it is his first work on a religious theme. Then, in form it is the first of the great series of "poetic anthology" works: That is, it comprises a series of poems drawn from various sources on a given theme, shaped by Britten into a single integrated work. In this case the poems are, with two exceptions, all 15th- and 16th-century verses concerning the birth of Christ. Most are anonymous. The exceptions to the origin of the poem are a single verse by Christina Rosetti and a poem by Francis Quarles, who lived in the first half of the 17th century.

Formally, the work is a large set of theme and variationis, equally well described as being based on the opening setting of a poem beginning with the line that names the work as a whole, or as being on a four-note cell that permeates the opening theme as well as the work as a whole. Throughout the work Britten displays amazing compositional skill, employing such devices as augmentation, diminution, and inversion with all the élan of the Viennese atonal composers (although, of course, A Boy Was Born is a tonal work).A drawback to this approach is the exceptional difficulty of the choral parts, which has made performances rather infrequent. (Britten added an optional organ part in 1955 to make it easier on the choristers.) In later works, Britten tended to be more cognizant of the expected skill level of his intended performers, generally writing parts difficult enough to be challenging but not beyond their level.

It is more than a piece showing great promise for the future; it is a noble addition to the choral repertoire altogether.

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