Looking toward the choir stalls in King's
photo by the author
As always, the service begins with "Once in royal David’s city". This carol has opened the service at King's since 1919. Other than this carol and the final two hymns "O come, all ye faithful" and "Hark! The herald angels sing" (which are also sung every year) there are no repeats of any of the music sung in the 2008 service.
An encore of a relatively new carol appears after the Bidding Prayer: "Ding dong! merrily on high" arranged by Mack Wilberg. Peter Stevens, the senior organ scholar at King's, arranged the organ part. This carol was first performed in 2007 when it was immediately before the ninth lesson. Mack Wilberg is the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
This is the third consecutive year that the Bidding Carol has been a recent composition. Prior to this sequence, the bidding carol had been a somewhat more established piece of the repertory.
After the first lesson is "Jesus Christ the apple tree" by Elizabeth Poston. This carol has only been performed in this location in recent memory, and was last sung in 2004.
The carol "Adam lay ybounden" often is sung after the first lesson and it has been sung as the second carol after this lesson since 1998. The setting of this carol text is most popularly the unaccompanied one by Boris Ord (Director of Music at King's 1929-1957) or the accompanied setting by Peter Warlock. Philip Ledger (Director of Music 1974-1982) who immediately preceded the current Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury, is the composer of this year's carol. Ledger's setting was last sung in 2000.
Robert Lucas Pearsall's arrangement of "In dulci jubilo" remains popular. It is sung this year immediately after the second lesson. This is is the sixth time it has been sung in the last ten years.
"One star, at last" by Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned for the service in 1984. It has not been sung in recent years, though it was recorded on the King's College Choir's "On Christmas Night", a 2-CD compilation of these commissioned carols.
After the third lesson we encounter one of several carol treatments by David Willcocks (Director of Music 1957-1973). Having paid homage to Willcocks successor, Philip Ledger, it is particularly fitting that Cleobury include a number of pieces of music by Willcocks this year as he will celebrate his 90th birthday less than a week after the service.
After Willcocks's "Sussex Carol", Cleobury interrupts his rotation the hymns prior to the fourth lesson ("Unto us is born a Son", "It came upon a midnight clear", "O little town of Bethlehem") with "God rest ye merry, gentlemen".
After the fourth lesson follows that famous medieval trio "There is no rose". A medieval carol was also sung last year, but prior to that one had not been heard since 2000.
Jan Sandström's transcendent treatment of Praetorius's "Det är en ros utsprungen" for 12 voices (3 SATB choirs) follows. The work was first performed at this service two years ago.
After the fifth lesson is sung:
Mary’s Magnificat by Andrew Carter. This video dates from 1995, but I am only aware of the carol being sung at this service in 2004.
In 2004, the carol was preceeded with one by Cleobury. Here a different Cleobury carol "Joys Seven", perhaps my favorite of his carol treatments, follows.
The carols after the Sixth lesson, "Infant holy" and "Il est né," are both Willcocks arrangements. Stephen Cleobury's setting of "Infant holy" was sung last year.
This year's commissioned carol, "The Christ Child" by Gabriel Jackson follows the seventh lesson.
This year the composer Gabriel Jackson has used G K Chesterton's 'The Christ Child Sat On Mary's Lap' as the text for his carol. Gabriel is a leading composer of choral music who has written pieces for the BBC, the Tate Gallery and the National Centre for Early Music.He said: 'While writing the piece I was thinking all the time about the wondrous space that is the King's Chapel, the special atmosphere of the service, the acoustic of the building, and the unique sound of the King's choir in that building. Now that it is finished I cannot wait for Christmas Eve, to be there in the Chapel at King's and to hear my piece quietly take its place in the age-old rite, as Stephen and his choir work their magic once again.'
The hymn "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" follows. Interestingly, "God rest ye merry, gentlemen" (see above) when it was sung, occupied this post.
Two classics follow the eighth lesson: "In the bleak midwinter" by Harold Darke and "Personent hodie" by Gustav Holst. Darke was Boris Ord's substitute during the war (1940-1945). "In the bleak midwinter" was last sung in 2003; "Personent hodie" was last sung in 1998.
The service ends in the traditional manner. The second organ postlude is Toccata-Gigue on the Sussex Carol by George Baker.
Labels: Christmas, Gabriel Jackson, King's College (Cambridge)
A major "score" for American composer Eric Whitacre: having his "Lux Aurumque" sung in the Chapel of King's College Cambridge in December. The piece was sung as a part of Carols from Kings (a separate service from the popular Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols).
Watching this performance with the evening light and the retiring procession, it seems as if this piece must have always been sung in this place.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), Whitacre
Before we preview the 90th service in its entirety, let's check in with yesterday's predictions:
The service will begin with "Once in Royal David's City"
True, it does.
The Peter Warlock setting of "Adam lay ybounden" will be the second carol after the First Lesson
We were close. It's the Ord setting instead
Pearsall's "In dulci jubilo" will follow the Second Lesson
We were close again. It's the Praetorius version.
After the third lesson will be sung the hymn "Unto us is born a Son"
True.
There's a good bet that Howells's "A spotless Rose" will make an appearance after the Fourth Lesson
Yes, that bet is a winner.
The commissioned carol, by Dominic Muldowney, will likely follow the Fifth Lesson
True.
After the the Seventh Lesson, the hymn will likely be "God rest ye merry, gentlemen"
True, it is "God rest ye merry, gentlemen".
Now, a preview of the service as a whole.
The carol after the Bidding Prayer is "If ye would hear the angels sing" by Peter Tranchell. It seems that this carol was just made available by the Church Music Society this year, as it bears a copyright date of 2008. You can view the first page of this carol [PDF - 74 KB] from Oxford University Press.
After the First Lesson appears "Remember, O thou man" by Thomas Ravenscroft. This has become popular as of late, being in three of the last four services. From here we are thrown a curve with the Boris Ord setting of "Adam lay ybounden". We predicted yesterday that this would be Peter Warlock's composition due to a seven year alternation between the two pieces. This slot of the service is the only one to remain completely unchanged from last year.
Following the Second Lesson are Philip Ledger's "Angels from the realms of glory", last sung in 2006, and Praetorius's "In dulci jubilo", last sung a decade ago.
After the dramatic prophecy of the Third Lesson are the medieval carol "Nowell sing we now all and some", last sung in 2000, and the hymn "Unto us is born a Son", last sung in 2005. This hymn selection upholds our theory that Stephen Cleobury has decided to rotate this hymn with "It came upon a midnight clear", last sung 2006, and "O little town of Bethlehem", sung last year. If this theory proves correct, 2008 marks the beginning of the fourth cycle, and the hymn will be next sung in 2011.
Following the Fourth Lesson will be sung "The Lamb" by John Tavener, last heard in 2001, and Herbert Howells's "A spotless Rose", last enjoyed in 2005.
After the Fifth Lesson are the Marian carols. First, Lennox Berkeley's "I sing of a maiden". Berkeley was the first to be commissioned by the college to write a carol specifically for this service in 1983. The last of his carols to be sung was "Look up sweet Babe" which appeared after the Eighth Lesson in 2003. To the best of our knowledge, his "I sing of a maiden" has not been previously sung in this service. The 30-second preview in the iTunes store is enticing.
Next comes the commissioned carol by Dominic Muldowney: "The night when she first gave birth". Muldowney's compositional pedigree is right for this honor. He has studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, who wrote 1994's brooding "The Angels", and Harrison Birtwhistle, who wrote 2003's shimmering "The Gleam". The last commissioned carol to appear after the Fifth Lesson was Robin Holloway's "The Angel Gabriel" in 2002. No commissioned carol has not been sung as the second carol after the Fifth Lesson in at least eleven years.
With the reading of the Sixth Lesson Jesus is born, and he is urged to sleep with Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Wither's Rocking Hymn". Vaughan William's "This is the truth" appears frequently after the first lesson, but this is the first time another work of his will be sung in recent memory. The 50th anniversary of Vaughan Williams's death was commemorated by the King's College Choir throughout this calendar year. This is followed with the 1987 commission, "What sweeter music" by John Rutter, last sung as the bidding carol in 2005. Rutter's "Virgin's Cradle Hymn" was heard last year.
After Stephen Cleobury reads the Seventh Lesson, the choir will sing his arrangement of the Polish carol "Infant holy, Infant lowly". Though this arrangement has not been sung in the past eleven years (and is possibly new), Cleobury has programmed one of his settings every year since 1998. They most often follow the Fifth Lesson, and this will be the first that his arrangement will be sung in the period after his reading. "God rest ye merry, gentlemen" will be the hymn, which was last sung in 2004.
With the Eighth Lesson, the three kings from the east arrive, and the third carol to be commissioned by the college, the first by a female composer, Judith Weir's "Illuminare Jerusalem" is sung. Then, the carol introduced after last year's Bidding Prayer, Alan Bullard's "Glory to the Christ Child", brings the bulk of the service to a rousing finish.
Labels: Christmas, King's College (Cambridge), Muldowney
After a couple good years of early PDF release online, the King's College site has not delivered the goods we were hoping for this year . . . yet.
That being said, there's no time like the present for idle speculation.
We at Sinden.org predict the following:
The service will begin with "Once in Royal David's City", just as it has since 1918. (odds: 4,328,752 to 1)
The Peter Warlock setting of "Adam lay ybounden" will be the second carol after the First Lesson. A setting of this text has occupied this position every year since 1998. Since 2001, the settings have alternated between Warlock and Boris Ord. If the pattern holds, 2008 would appear to be a Warlock year.
Pearsall's "In dulci jubilo" will follow the Second Lesson most likely as the second carol. We could be wrong on this, but a setting of this text has been sung after the Second Lesson in seven out of the past eleven services (63.6% of the time). Six of those (85.7%) been composed by R. L. de Pearsall; the remaining setting was by Michael Praetorius.
Other possible locations for "In dulci jubilo" would be after Eric Milner-White's bidding prayer, the Third Lesson, or the Sixth Lesson.
After the third lesson will be sung the hymn "Unto us is born a Son". Starting in 1999 Stephen Cleobury seems to have begun a three-year pattern of hymns at this point, the other two hymns being "It came upon a midnight clear" and "O little town of Bethlehem". This year, the cycle begins again at the beginning. Or, if this trend was a coincidence, we may have no idea what we're talking about.
There's a good bet that Howells's "A spotless Rose" will make an appearance after the Fourth Lesson. The piece last appeared in 2005. Although a three-year "spotlessless" interval would not be unheard of as one occurred from 2002-2004.
A carol mentioning "rose" in the first line has been included at this point in the service at every service in recent memory, including an "A spotless Rose" setting by Philip Ledger, a former Director of Music at King's.
Notably, this Howells carol-anthem is the only one his his to appear in the service recently. The other two Howells has composed are "Here is the little Door" and "Sing lullaby".
The commissioned carol, by Dominic Muldowney, will likely follow the Fifth Lesson, as we have previously reported.
The carols after the Sixth Lesson seem to have the most variability. In the past eleven years, only one carol has been repeated, Roxanna Panufnik's "Sleep little Jesus".
After the the Seventh Lesson, the hymn will likely be "God rest ye merry, Gentlemen", but it could also be "While shepherds watched their flocks by night". We find the latter choir unlikely since it would mark the fourth year in a row this hymn would be sung. These two hymns seem to be the only two possibilities at this point.
Labels: Christmas, Howells, King's College (Cambridge)
The order of service for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge is likely to be released this week. Last year, Sinden.org was able to bring you a run down of the service on Tuesday 11 December.
While the service was not online as of this printing, the following information about this year's commissioned carol has been released:
This year the commission has gone to the British composer Dominic Muldowney. Muldowney has written extensively for film and television, including scores for 1984 (1984), Sharpe's Eagle (1993) and King Lear (1997). He has also written concert pieces, including a piano concerto and a saxophone concerto, and he has worked with pop musicians such as Sting and David Bowie. For this year's carol Muldowney has used an early text by Berthold Brecht about the Virgin Mary.
Wikipedia has a Muldowney article.
As a carol with a Marian text, it is highly likely that this work will follow the Fifth Lesson. In 2002, a carol commissioned from Robin Holloway beginning with the text "The angel Gabriel descended to a Virgin" immediately followed the Fifth Lesson. This was the last commissioned carol utilizing a Marian text.
In that same service, the Holloway carol was followed by the popular "Bogoroditse Djevo" by Arvo Pärt which was commissioned by King's College in 1990. It has been performed three times in the past eleven years, most recently at last year's service.
Also in Wikipedia since August of this year: an article entitled "list of carols performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College Chapel, Cambridge".
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), Muldowney
Brett Dean, the composer of last year's commissioned carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge has just been awarded the Grawemeyer Music Prize.
The order of service for this year's service is expected to be published online in the next two weeks.
Labels: Brett Dean, King's College (Cambridge)
Many astute organists (Stephen Cleobury and his minions at King's College, Cambridge, England; John Scott and his assistants at St. Thomas, New York; and Rob Lehman at St. Michael and St. George, St. Louis . . . surely there are others . . .) have remembered to play Howells's marvelous "Sarabande for the Twelfth of any October" today.
Howells included this movement in his Partita for organ as a tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was born on this day.
Alas, alack, I do not play this piece as of yet, though it is my life's goal to perform all of the organ music of Howells.
Sunday, October 12, 2014 here I come.
Update 14 Oct 2008: Osbert Parsley does the math and finds that 2183 is the next Vaughan Williams anniversary year where the Twelfth of October falls on a Sunday
Labels: Howells, King's College (Cambridge), St Thomas (New York)
Ord -- no, not the airport in Chicago -- was born on this day in 1897.
His one published composition is Adam lay ybounden
In the last decade, it has been performed at 60% of the Festivals of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), Ord
This afternoon is the eve of the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. John is the man who heralded Jesus' coming.
Today is also just about as far away as we can get from Christmas. The festivities of Christmas 2007 seem a distant memory, while Christmas 2008 is surely a long way off.
So what better day to announce a bit of Nativitytide fun in spreadsheet form:
The King's College Festival of Lessons and Carols (1997-2007)
YELLOW - hymns
PINK - In Dulci Jubilo settings (because there's at least one a year, right? but they move around)
asterisk (*) - denotes a commissioned carol
Labels: King's College (Cambridge)
The Choir of King's College Cambridge stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio last week to sing a concert at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral. Interestingly, this Roman Catholic edifice stands across the street from the Isaac M. Wise temple, which Sinden.org visited and photographed in March 2006.
Web site tangent: The cathedral website looks pretty nice on first blush but contains some pretty glaring errors. Spelling-wise "Calender" and "alter" come to mind. More to the point, I couldn't order my ticket to the concert online, because the order form was not secure
Being the most famous choir of men and boys in the world, it is not surprising that the 1,000-seat cathedral was filled to capacity. What was surprising is that the front half of the cathedral was militantly reserved for cathedral music "patrons". While this was mildly offensive at first, I soon realized that the strict ushers guarding white ribbons dividing the cabin into first-class and coach sections were simply reminding us of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.
So, listening from about halfway down the nave in a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Midwestern United States, I heard one of my favorite choirs in person for the first time.
The concert began with Tudor works by Gibbons, Weelkes and Tompkins which were ably, but not memorably sung.
The choir then processed back out leaving Tom Kimber, the junior Organ Scholar to perform Verset pour la Fête de la Dédicace (1960). The audience, however, would have none of it -- at least not during the performance. The atmosphere during this first organ piece was one of excited chit-chat before Sunday morning church, and not that of an audience enjoying a performance at $45 a pop. I found this kind of disrespect for the organ performance reprehensible, and I hope that this kind of behavior did not manifest itself on the rest of the choir's tour.
a spoonful of Tudor makes the Messiaen go down
That being said, the Verset is perhaps not the most well known of Messiaen's music (is any of Messiaen's music really well known?), but in a centennial year (noted in the program notes) I think concert goers, especially those moving in ecclesiastical circles could expect to encounter a bit more of his music this year. Even if King's programming of this work skews toward the more "academic" approach, well, why shouldn't it? After all, a spoonful of Tudor makes the Messiaen go down, or it least it should have. Shame on the duplicitous Cincinnati audience, who essentially ignored the performance, and then applauded it heartily.
The choir returned in a Lenten mood to sing a sumptuously evocative "O vos omnes" of Pablo Casals. The peneitential motets of Poulenc, aside from fleeting uncertainties in the opening "Timor et tremor", were remarkable for their powerful dynamic range.
Intermission provided ample opportunity to gawk at another choir in the audience: the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Terrace Park, Ohio. The trebles of that choir were clearly star-struck.
From the opening notes of Bach's motet "Lobet den Herrn", one Terrace Park treble in particular, exhibited what can only be described as a sympathetic bounciness. While he must have felt that the energy of that performance was palpable, the King's trebles at the front of the room were having a harder time feeling the beat. The culprit in this case being the organ, which was consistently behind the beat in this work. At one point toward the end of the first section the trebles, a particularly young looking group, were so confounded by the conflicting beats that they dropped all of their notes for about a bar before being able to recover.
A much more refreshing Bach was then heard from the organ alone: the hearty E-flat Major Prelude performed by Peter Stevens, the senior Organ Scholar. I can only infer that Stevens's elegant performance is a testament to the rigors of his training and daily performance at King's Chapel. The prelude was decidedly accurate and musical, a model of British refinement.
The choir redeemed their unfortunate Bach motet with powerfully resonant renditions of works by British composers. The dense harmonies of the Michael Tippet's Plebs angelica and modern rhetoric of the Britten "Antiphon" proved no match for this truly Anglican choral ensemble. The crowning achievement of this set, and the evening, was Vaughan Williams's visceral "Lord, though hast been our refuge", which sufficiently brought the house down so as to reveal Walton's intimate "Set me as a seal" as an encore.
Throughout the evening, the audience craned their necks en masse at every treble solo, endeavoring to see what innocent, angelic soul had been chosen to produce such sweet sound. It seemed that the neck-craners were, to a man, the same people who couldn't keep their mouths shut for the Messiaen, with one exception.
Remember that bouncy Terrace Park treble? He returned from intermission cradling his new, shrink-wrapped compact disc of Purcell and literally stood up on his pew to see the first treble soloist.
His wide-eyed awe and enthusiasm reminded me that he wasn't just listening to a concert, he was also listening to a tradition, one in which he does his best to take part.
As it turns out, I almost had the best seat in the house.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), review
For the last few years about this time (two weeks before Christmas), King's College in Cambridge, England, quietly posts the leaflet for their Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
The 2007 leaflet [PDF - 247 KB] was posted today.
The bidding carol, "Glory, alleluia to the Christ Child!", is by Alan Bullard (b. 1947). You can view the first page of this carol [PDF - 50 KB] from Oxford University Press. An MP3 sample [785 KB] reveals a little more.
The first carol after the Second Lesson is accompanied by a note indicating that it was transcribed by Emma Disley while the choir was on tour.
The College's commissioned carol follows the Third Lesson. It is "Stardust and vaporous light" composed by Australian composer Brett Dean. The carol probably will not be available from Boosey & Hawkes until some time next year.
An Arvo Part commission from 1990 surfaces after the Fifth Lesson.
After the Sixth Lesson is Elgar's "I sing the birth was born tonight". We'll have to check past leaflets, but we think it has been some time since this carol has been part of the service. Perhaps its inclusion has to do with the sesquicentennial of Elgar's birth?
The new material doesn't stop with choral music. The second concluding voluntary is a "Sortie on 'In dulci jubilo'" composed for the service by David Briggs.
Labels: church music, King's College (Cambridge)
William Crotch has a funny name. I know this because choristers laugh when you say it. Also, on a few copies of the choristers' music, his last name is circled.
So, ha ha. Very funny. But who is this William Crotch exactly? Well, turns out his name may be funny, but Crotch was a serious musician.
The son of a carpenter (like Jesus?), Crotch was a musical child prodigy. At 18 months, he was already picking out tunes on the family house organ (also like Jesus?)
Now, back in the time of Crotch (is that a good name for a band, or what?), the circus was a popular form of entertainment. Unlike today, however, circuses (pronounced: SIR-cuh-sees) consisted not of animal entertainment, but mostly child entertainment. It is for this reason that persons with Dwarfism were often employed by later circuses: they were the new "children" in an era of oppressive child-labor laws.
HIDDEN (a Crotch size clarification): There's nothing small about our Crotch. He eventually reaches full size.
In the circus, William Crotch resided in a tent that contained an organ, whereupon he would bedazzle his listeners with his improvisations. These were probably not great musical feats, but for a two year old to improvise chords to a melody learned by ear is certainly something. Also, he got free cotton candy.
HIDDEN (inappropriate remark): One wonders if this tent had a fly, and whether it was open or closed.
Today's "soccer moms" descend from a league of overbearing "circus moms" who enlisted their young children in these precocious presentations of prodigy. Crotch's mother, Isabella, accompanied Crotch and the circus on a grand world tour.
HIDDEN (another one): It was in this way that her young Crotch gained much exposure.
Anyway, long story short. Crotch the freak-show boy-wonder grew up to be Crotch the mildly adequate composer. Though he did play the organ at Kings College, Cambridge, which is pretty cool.
Incidentally, when I program my own concerts, I want to end up with a poster that looks like this:
Crotch
selections from Palestine
also, music by Bach, including his
Air on the G String
Crotch also may have provided the basis for Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster if he did indeed design the Westminster Chime.
Crotch the painter: Crotch's talent didn't limit itself to music. He was also a painter.
Alma mater tangent: It is with not a small amount of pride and a tinge of nostalgia that I note that an image search for crotch brings up a number of unflattering pictures of Paris Hilton and photo taken in an Oberlin music theory classroom.
Labels: Advertising, funny names, King's College (Cambridge), Oberlin, organ, William Crotch
Early!
Kings College, Cambridge, England, has just posted the order for this year's Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. You can get it in PDF format on the Nine Lessons and Carols page.
My initial reactions:
Evacuation Routes and Procedures on Page 2. Very hot.
Flor Peeters makes an appearance in the Prelude. That seems new.
Who's R. Jaques? Has King's done that In Dulci Jublio before?
O. Goldschmidt? That's not familiar either. The lack of first names is getting annoying already.
The medieval carol, "Edi beo thu" looks like fun.
Ahh! Warlock I don't know! That should be fun.
The author's last name is Ballet? Weird. And who is D. Blackford?
I love the Gardiner. It will be nice to hear King's sing it. I think perhaps a chart of recent services should be prepared so that we can see if they have sung any of these pieces before.
WOW! A Tavener setting of "Away in a manger." An unusual text for him. The commissioned carol this year. This should be very interesting.
And new Cleobury, "Be merry, be merry . . ."
The Bach setting interests me. I don't know about the pairing of the Magnificat BWV 243 with this text. Heck, there's a lot I don't know. Maybe I should move to England.
Postlude: Francis Pott?
Okay. Lots of names I don't know, and some things I am really excited about hearing. This service represents the best of liturgy, I think. Something that is grounded in history and tradition and yet always adapted to the time at hand.
This is really poorly written, I know. But at least you know the document is available, and maybe you're wondering about the same things I am.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge)
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