Nine Lessons and Carols Thurs, 24th Dec 2015

[Alison]

I rather like it as it is!

[Nick Armstrong]

I rather like it as it is!

[DracoM]

My house has been and is currently about to be besieged by flood water and gales. Apologies for being just a bit distracted.

[Petrushka]

I would so love to go to this service one Christmas Eve but queuing up for several hours in bad weather and travel problems (getting back) more or less rule it out, So the radio it is.

Regarding the queuing I really don't see why King's can't institute a ballot system similar to that carried out for the Last Night of the Proms or Trooping the Colour.

Anyway, that digression over, I'm very glad to see so many of the Willcocks arrangements and descants included and so beloved of choirboys up and down the land over the past 50 years. It's a possibly unique opportunity to hear them all together and the recorder will be at the ready.

[Flay]

My house has been and is currently about to be besieged by flood water and gales. Apologies for being just a bit distracted.

Really sorry to hear about that. I hope you can escape the flood.

[teamsaint]

My house has been and is currently about to be besieged by flood water and gales. Apologies for being just a bit distracted.

Best wishes Dracs, hope you somehow manage to escape the worst of it.

[Keraulophone]

I'm very glad to see so many of the Willcocks arrangements and descants included and so beloved of choirboys up and down the land over the past 50 years.

So am I.

Isn't it premature to sing the last verse of Adeste Fideles 'Yea, Lord, we greet thee / Born this happy morning' (p41 of the Order of Service), when He wasn't born until the next day? Sometimes 'this' is replaced by 'that', or, more usually, 'Sing, choirs of angels' becomes the final verse, so that that Willcocks chord on 'Word of the Father' is only sung on Chritmas Day.

Shameless (indeed, proud) plug alert! Anyone interested in the 1880 original form of the service, as well as the 2014 9L&C from Truro, can now invest in our new DVD + CD on the subject, including a documentary by Jeremy Summerly, just released by Regent Records:

http://www.regent-records.co.uk/product_details_316.htm

[Keraulophone]

An appreciation of Sir David and that chord...

http://theconversation.com/the-choirmaster-whose-carols-became-the-sound-of-christmas-51921

[DracoM]

Best wishes Dracs, hope you somehow manage to escape the worst of it.

Boxing Day could be interesting.

[Petrushka]

An appreciation of Sir David and that chord...

http://theconversation.com/the-choir...hristmas-51921

Many thanks for the link. My choirboy treble years were from 1965 to 1969 when I was 10 to 14 (and thenceforth as an poor tenor) and I vividly remember unpacking brand new copies of Carols for Choirs 1 from the box in which they arrived. What is strange to me, though, is that although I had very little musical knowledge at that tender age I was somehow aware of the spine-tingling effect of that chord on 'Word' which thrilled me every Christmas. It wasn't until I came on to this Forum nearly 50 years later that I realised that I wasn't the only one!

[Pulcinella]

Isn't it premature to sing the last verse of Adeste Fideles 'Yea, Lord, we greet thee / Born this happy morning' (p41 of the Order of Service), when He wasn't born until the next day? Sometimes 'this' is replaced by 'that', or, more usually, 'Sing, choirs of angels' becomes the final verse, so that that Willcocks chord on 'Word of the Father' is only sung on Chritmas Day.

Isn't this no different from celebrating feast days with a First Evensong for the Feast of..... on the previous evening?
Once the sun has gone down (not that it will ever appear to come up today, I fear, for many like Draco) that feast day starts.
Christmas for me and many others starts at 3 pm on Christmas Eve!

[Keraulophone]

Isn't this no different from celebrating feast days with a First Evensong for the Feast of..... on the previous evening?

You could use that argument, although the word 'this' refers so specifically to the feast day itself that the expectant thrill of singing that final verse is all the greater when it is reserved for Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You could use that argument, although the word 'this' refers so specifically to the feast day itself that the expectant thrill of singing that final verse is all the greater when it is reserved for Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services.

But doesn't that apply to the whole carol? (Those choirs that change "Born this happy morning" to "that happy morning" - do they also add "When He gets here" to the line "Come and behold Him"?)

[Pulcinella]

You could use that argument, although the word 'this' refers so specifically to the feast day itself that the expectant thrill of singing that final verse is all the greater when it is reserved for Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services.

Or you could think of it as this coming morning?

[mangerton]

Isn't this no different from celebrating feast days with a First Evensong for the Feast of..... on the previous evening?
Once the sun has gone down (not that it will ever appear to come up today, I fear, for many like Draco) that feast day starts.
Christmas for me and many others starts at 3 pm on Christmas Eve!

Yes, I concur. My church sings "that" at the Carol Service on the Sunday before Christmas. This evening - or more likely very early on Christmas morning - we shall sing "this".

Keraulophone, thanks for that link, and Draco, best wishes. I hope you remain as dry as possible.