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Epithalamion (which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as ''A nuptial song or poem in praise of the bride and bridegroom'') is a large-scale cantata from 1957 based on Edmund Spenser's love-poem of the same name: musically, it draws extensively on material used in Vaughan Williams's 1938 masque, The Bridal Day, and its emotional centerpiece, ''The Lover's Song'', boasts a viola solo of exquisite beauty.

Epithalamion consists of 11 movements: The Prologue, Wake now, The Calling of the Bride, The Minstrels, Procession of the Bride, The Temple Gates, The Bell Ringers, The Lover's Song, The Minstrel's Song, Song of the Winged Loves, and Prayer to Juno. As he often did, Vaughan Williams incorporated the flavor of English folk songs into these songs.