Picture dated December 7th shows choristers from the King’s College choir in Cambridge preparing the final rehearsal for the recording of the Christma
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Contributor:
Geoffrey Robinson / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2WC6G1WFile size:
128.1 MB (12.5 MB Compressed download)Releases:
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8192 x 5464 px | 69.4 x 46.3 cm | 27.3 x 18.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
7 December 2023Location:
CambridgeMore information:
Picture dated December 7th shows choristers from the King’s College choir in Cambridge preparing the final rehearsal for the recording of the Christmas Eve carol service that is broadcast on December 24th. Choristers at King’s College in Cambridge are busy rehearsing for the world’s most famous carol service. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will take place at King’s College Chapel on Christmas Eve. Attendees will have to queue early for seats on Christmas Eve for the service, which was first held in 1918. The idea originated in Truro, Cornwall, where a service consisting of nine carols alternating with nine lessons had been held since 1880 with the intention of keeping the men out of the pubs on Christmas Eve. It was later introduced to King’s by the college’s new Dean, Eric Milner-White, who wanted to make worship more imaginative. Since 1930 it has been broadcast live on BBC Radio and since 1919 the service has always begun with a lone choirboy singing Once in Royal David’s City, but he is not chosen until the last moment to prevent unnecessary nerves. It promises to be the performance of his life for the young chorister who could be aged between nine and 13. The boys line up in King’s College Chapel in front of the choral scholars, made up of altos, tenors and basses, who are all undergraduates, shortly before 3pm on Christmas Eve. A new carol has been commissioned for the Christmas Eve service every year since 1983 and this year’s is by composer and Cambridge alumna Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Her carol, The Cradle, is a setting of an English translation by Robert Graves of an anonymous seventeenth century Austrian text. Cheryl said: “I wanted to set myself the challenge of writing a gentle carol, and it took many attempts to come up with something that I hope is catchy yet not clichéd, and heartfelt yet not syrupy. “The vivid imagery of this anonymous seventeenth century Austrian text in an English translation by Robert Graves was a joy to set, and