The popular choral repertoire for the Christmas season cannot be imagined without the motet Angelus ad pastores ait. Nevertheless, its composer, Nikolaus Zangius from Brandenburg, is to a large extent unknown. He lived on the cusp of the 16th to the 17th century as musicus and poeticus and worked at various European courts from Berlin via Danzig through to Prague. In Angelus ad pastores ait he set into music a favorite Bible passage from the Gospel based on Luke: The Angle of the Lord proclaims Christ’s Birth to the shepherds. Skillfully and in a diversified manner Zangius deals with the elements compositional technique, time and grouping of the parts and yet thereby he achieves a composition of great musical unity.