Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Chapel of King's College, Cambridge

[Petrushka]

Well said! Completely agree with you. I thought the care and attention to detail was of the highest standard as ever. Stephen Cleobury is a very good incumbent of this hallowed post, imo. I missed hearing the Sir David Willcock's arrangement of O Come all ye Faithful, with those descants. That's my only quibble.

Sorry, BBM, but O Come all... was in the Willcocks arrangement as per usual. Agree with comments above about the organ/organ scholars though. Like policemen, they seem to get younger every year. The organ sounded thrilling through my system and the engineers did a very fine job.

[oddoneout]

It would be interesting to know what the 'ordinary' congregation/audience thinks/thought of alternative descants, or indeed descants in general. Conversation over the years with friends and chance folk suggests that for 'Hark the Herald' and certainly 'O come all ye faithful' the(Willcocks) descants are expected and welcomed as part of the whole Christmas thing, and are missed when for whatever reason they don't appear.

[BBMmk2]

Sorry, BBM, but O Come all... was in the Willcocks arrangement as per usual. Agree with comments above about the organ/organ scholars though. Like policemen, they seem to get younger every year. The organ sounded thrilling through my system and the engineers did a very fine job.

Was it Pet? Oh crumbs!

[Triforium]

Was the voluntary subsequently announced as 'El Duce' Jubilo?

[DracoM]

Am NOT trying to imply that trebles were poor etc, au contraire, BUT as one poster put it upthread they were asked to scale heights fff from the start and then pretty regularly against massive ffff textures round them. Would be testing for ANY trebles, and the KCC trebs - yes, brilliant - BUT they also know they truly have to deliver particularly in 'that service' - so, of course, no pressure! And, as I say, they would have been very hard at this and similar repertoire for weeks on and offstage as it were. For my money, that is a tough ask, pro or not.

[Wolsey]

Ledger and Willcocks cornered the market in Christmas descents and have never been seriously challenged.

I beg to differ, and use Christopher Robinson's for 'O come' and 'Hark! the herald angels sing'. As for 'descents': was that a Freudian slip?

[jonfan]

[Quote]I beg to differ, and use Christopher Robinson's for 'O come' and 'Hark! the herald angels sing'. As for 'descents': was that a Freudian slip?[Quote]

Oops no, my carelessness. I’ll investigate Robinson’s descants, thank you. There’s a fascinating interview in the December Organists’ Review where he’s speaking about his life and influences. Especially his methods of training choristers.

[Gabriel Jackson]

One of the alternative carols was Bob Chilcott's Shepherds' Carol. The bar lengths change between 2/4 and 3/4. I sang it in a choir I belonged to in North Yorkshire. The sopranos would stretch the 2/4 bars to equal the 3/4 bars, and the conductor didn't appear to notice. So when the tenors had a similar passage on the following page, they were reprimanded for rushing, even though they were the ones who were rhythmically correct.

So listening to KCC Choir, I was aghast to hear them stretching the 2/4 bars too. Maybe it's one of those passages, specified by a composer, but everyone ignores it

Bob Chilcott's The Shepherds' Carol is mostly in 6/8, with the odd 2/4, 9/8, 3/4 etc.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Bob Chilcott's The Shepherds' Carol is mostly in 6/8, with the odd 2/4, 9/8, 3/4 etc.

I'm sure you are right. My memory is a little faulty. But the issue of the 2/4 bars being stretched into 6/8 is the issue.

[BBMmk2]

Bob Chilcott's The Shepherds' Carol is mostly in 6/8, with the odd 2/4, 9/8, 3/4 etc.

Quite enjoyed that!

[Finzi4ever]

Was the voluntary subsequently announced as 'El Duce' Jubilo?

Yes it indeed was, or possibly 'Il Duce'! That's Radio 4 announcers for you - can't help let their political leanings show

[bluestateprommer]

Just saw this in today's NYT on line, an attempt to educate us benighted Yanks on the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/23/arts/music/carols-from-kings-lessons-and-carols.html

I never knew, for one, that the solo singer for "Once in Royal David’s City" doesn't know until the microsecond before that he will kick off the proceedings. Anyway, as good an excuse as any to revive this thread for this year. Speaking of which, this year's program:

http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/chapel/9lc_order_of_service_2018.pdf

[Nick Armstrong]

I never knew, for one, that the solo singer for "Once in Royal David’s City" doesn't know until the microsecond before that he will kick off the proceedings.

If this BBC documentary is broadcast in the US (I bet it will be / has been on BBC Worldwide) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...f-kings-carols - then you can see, "for the first time ever", that process actually happening at the 2017 service... complete with interview with the chorister thus singled out...

[DracoM]

The 2018 Service details are posted at:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?19672-Chapel-of-King-s-College-Cambridge-R-2-p-m-25-xii-2018

[Vox Humana]

If this BBC documentary is broadcast in the US (I bet it will be / has been on BBC Worldwide) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...f-kings-carols - then you can see, "for the first time ever", that process actually happening at the 2017 service... complete with interview with the chorister thus singled out...

I don't think the BBC programmes are viewable outside the UK - or are they? Anyway, it was interesting to see this being done - and to note that there are good, practical reasons for doing it this way; it's not a mere party trick.