A special church service

A Festival Of Nine Lessons And Carols; Choir of King's College, Cambridge; Stephen Cleobury, conducting

In June of 1995, my sister K. and I helped to chaperone a group of young musicians through Europe. A symphonic band and a concert choir comprised of these young travelers visited London, Paris, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, performing concerts for the local folk in concert halls, churches, parks and tents along the way. I had taken this trip twice before and K. had gone once. On a Sunday afternoon while our wards enjoyed a bus tour of London, K. and I joined a few other travelers on a train trip out in the English countryside to visit the stunning city of Cambridge. We all enjoyed every aspect of the little side trip, but we had set our sights and enthusiasm on a mini pilgrimage to King’s College and her splendid Gothic chapel.

King Henry VI founded King’s College in 1441 and she now serves as one of thirty-one constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college began construction of its chapel in 1446 and finished it in 1531. It features the largest fan vault in the world while the stained glass windows, some of the finest in the world from its era, date from 1515 to 1531. The impressive structure has outstanding acoustics.

The King’s College Choir, made up of choral scholars (male students from the college) and choristers (boys educated at the King’s College School), have established a name for themselves over the centuries, serving, naturally, as the resident choir for chapel services on most days during each scholastic term. Fame started in 1918 when they sang the nine carols in the very first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. And world-wide fame came when the BBC began airing the Festival service as part of their Christmas Eve broadcast in 1928. With the exception of 1930, the Festival has been broadcast on BBC radio every year since that time, even during the World War II years when they had removed the stained glass from the windows of the chapel and couldn’t keep the place heated.

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols begins with “Once In Royal David’s City” and, after some prayers and a carol, a parade of readers advance toward the podium to recite a scripture or “lesson” with a carol or two sung by the choir between each reading. The readers approach the reader’s podium in the following order: a chorister, a choral scholar, a member of college staff, a representative of the City of Cambridge, the Master over the Choristers, the Chaplain, the Director of Music, the Vice Provost and the Provost.

Since 1982, the current Director of Music at King’s College Chapel, Stephen Cleobury, has commissioned a new carol from a different contemporary composer each year for the Festival service, ensuring a sizable contemporary repertoire from which to choose carols for the service.

Our visit to Cambridge lasted about an hour and a half. After the arrival of our train, we walked to visit King’s College and her handsome Chapel. The term had just come to close and the famous choir enjoyed the rare Sunday off. A very gracious chap provided us with a quick walkthrough of the chapel and a rapid off-the-cuff discourse of the historical significance of the grounds and their buildings.

“Once In Royal David’s City”, in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, traditionally starts with the one small voice of a single chorister, no accompaniment. The choir has started a custom of having all of the choristers learn the first verse to “Once In Royal David’s City”. They then choose the soloist (name out of a hat, maybe?) just one minute before the Festival and the broadcast begins, granting virtually no time for the chorister to get nervous, only excited.

Credits: To King Henry VI, for having the vision of a college, the fortitude to have it built, and the eye for beauty to instill in a chapel.