Carols at Christmas The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge Vinyl

For many people, myself most certainly included, one of the central events of Christmas is the televised service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s. As soon as that solo of the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City begins you know that the big day is just hours away. You may imagine that the service and the singing has been pretty much the same for decades. Is that true though? For many years the choir has actually been honing and adjusting under their directors of music. In the 50s and 60s that director was Sir David Willcocks, and that is the era from which these recordings are taken. Even though this Reader’s Digest vinyl is dated 1983, if you look at the dates of the recordings, they come from a six year span between 1959 and 1965. As you can see from the track list the usual crowd pleasers are there. As the carols themselves need no introduction, I will concentrate on the singing and the atmosphere of the season they evoke. So, let’s have a listen.

Side 1

Once in Royal David’s City starts with the solo which is almost too quiet to hear, even with the volume turned up higher than usual. It accentuates the ethereal, haunting nature of the solo which affects me anew every time I hear it. It is one of those musical set pieces that does not get old, however many times you hear it. By the time the full choir comes in and the music from the organ swells along with the voices, it has worked its yearly magic once again. I think it is The First Nowell that really gives you the clue as to the difference between the choir 60 years ago and now. There are very few of the descants and variations of voices that today epitomises the way that modern choirs express their musical virtuosity. The First Nowell, for example only delivers a descant on the final verse. Instead, you have a straightforward but beautiful choral rendition of favourite carols that sound like those you would sing yourself in a church service. I think that was expected in a time when a very large proportion of the population would have attended carol services and would know what they expected of a song. O Little Town of Bethlehem is quite simply a beautiful tune and it is delivered in a multi-layered style where the boys voices are joined softly and subtly by those of the older choristers. Yet again, only the last verse branches out into the descant. As a variation, While Shepherds Watched has the alternation of the descant, which appears on the second and fourth verses, and the familiar tune, and works very well. In Dulce Jubilo is slow, stately and simply beautiful. O Come All Ye Faithful is sang with style and grace and sounds very different to when I belt it out! However, it is easy to imagine yourself comfortably singing along with this, despite your relative lack of vocal prowess. In that sense it is different from, say, the use of sopranos to sing the anthems at rugby matches meaning that the crowd, who are very definitely not sopranos in the main (!) find it almost impossible to sing along with any comfort.

Side 2

The second side, which I would characterise as largely a choir only side where the choir demonstrate their versatility, starts with the rarely sung I Saw Three Ships. At least my perception is that it is more rarely sung. The alternate verses taken by boy choristers and adult choristers just works perfectly for a carol that the congregation itself usually just listens to. The first unfamiliar carol to me is There Is No Rose, a traditional carol that sounds as though it originates in the 16th or 17th Century. It is a beautiful carol that simply washed over me. The other carols follow a similar pattern as they demonstrate the breadth and depth of the choir’s singing. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is one of my favourite carols due to its association with A Christmas Carol, and rarely have I heard it more beautifully delivered than it is here. After six carols that you can just listen to and admire, the final one is my absolute favourite, the fantastic Hark the Herald Angels Sing. For me, it is the epitome of the crowd pleasing nature of any carol service. Whenever I sing it, I do so loudly and extremely enthusiastically! This final tune finishes off an album of carols that for me cannot be improved upon.

Should your appetite be whetted by my review, you can find it on Discogs !