This particular piece was inspired by the Virgin Mother's passion at the creche; she who wraps the infant king in swaddling clothes on her knee, observes him gently sleeping on the manger-wood and thus becomes a living icon that prefigures the "pieta" of Good Friday. I took pieces of the Medieval "Dormi Jesu" lullaby text, as well as the nativity related texts of the hymn Crux Fidelis and wove them gently around the Stabat Mater as a cantus firmus. This first appears in the bass in m21, and is heard again more clearly in duet with a high soprano descant starting in m 45. There is a brief Gloria section as the lullaby is taken up by the angels, before coming to a lilting close.

Compositional advice is always welcome!