This is the 7th year the choir has been led by Daniel Hyde, who took over in 2019 before the untimely death of Stephen Cleobury (1948-2019).
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. I’m a sentimental traditionalist, but I get that the goal of any music director — and certainly the temporary trustee of this historic treasure — must do things that are novel and creative, or at least mix it up with unfamiliar classics. At the same time, I have often found it jarring when an in-your-face dissonant modernity was thrown in with the most familiar and influential sacred music of the English-speaking church.
This year, as in 2023 under Daniel Hyde, there was both new content but continuity with what made the service so well-loved and influential for more than a century.
This Year’s Music
I looked up all the music in the booklet. Here is what was performed (hymns in bold)
- Once in royal David’s city. Irby. Henry Gauntlett, harm. Arthur Henry Mann†. descant (V6) David Willcocks†
- The blessed son of God. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1967)
- Adam lay ybounden. Boris Ord† (1957)
- Nowell, Nowell, Nowell. Elizabeth Maconchy (1967)
- On Christmas night all Christians sing. Sussex Carol. arr. Philip Ledger† (1978)
- It came upon the midnight clear. Noel. adapt. Arthur Sullivan, descant (V4) John Scott
- The Darkling Thrush. Rachel Portman (2025)§
- The Lamb. John Tavener (1982)
- Ave Maria. Anton Bruckner (1861)
- There is no rose of such virtue. arr. John Stevens (1963)
- A boy was born. Benjamin Britten (1933/1955)
- Unto us is born a Son. Puer Nobis. from Piæ Cantiones, arr. David Willcocks†
- Nativity Carol. John Rutter. (1963)
- The Shepherds' Farewell. from Hector Berlioz, L’Enfance du Christ, Op.25.
- Dormi, Jesu! John Rutter (1999)§
- I saw three ships. arr. Stuart Nicholson
- O come, all ye faithful. Adeste, fideles. John Francis Wade. arr. and descant (V6) David Willcocks†, descant (V7) Daniel Hyde†
- Hark! the herald-angels sing. Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn. descant (V3) David Willcocks†
† KCC composer. § KCC commissioned
Reflections
For congregational singing, the most important thing was that (as in normal years) there were five congregation hymns for those lucky enough to attend. This year, the melody is printed in the booklet (but as always in England, no harmony for the congregation). Four of the five had a descant, including the double descant for “O come all ye faithful.”
"Unto us is born” had revised harmony in the final verse rather than pure descant; I realize that the Willcocks arrangement is a local favorite, but I don’t care for V3 and don’t find it an improvement over the original. Ditto for the Nicholson arrangement of “I saw three ships.” OTOH, the Ledger arrangement of Sussex Carol was and is a keeper, as is Stevens’ adaptation of “There is no rose.”
First, the elephant in the room. The new carol by Rachel Portman (OBE) from a text by Thomas Hardy was surprisingly good — something worth considering for a parish service. Unlike the normal transgressive modern music by “proper” composers, this Academy Award-winning film score composer has an ear for harmony and thus found a reasonable medium between noveaux and familiar. Similarly, the 1967 carol by Elizabeth Maconchy was unfamiliar but definitely fun. I’ll take both of these over Judith Weir any day.
Another surprise was the prominence of Sir John Rutter, who turned 80 in September. I love much of his work, particularly the Requiem. However, on an unfamiliar piece, I just never know which Rutter will show up: like Mahler or Stravinsky, it can be a tonal piece with novel and sparing dissonances, or it can be so out there that I’ll flip the station. I already knew and loved “Dormi Jesu,” which was written for KCC but not for Lessons & Carols; his Nativity Carol was also quite nice. I generally find Britten even less tonal, and so “A boy was born” was also pleasant surprise.
It was also great to get back the Boris Ord version of “Adam lay ybounden,” the one I sang as a choirboy in the 1960s with the St. Paul’s Choristers in San Diego. I’m certainly glad to be rid of the Peter Warlock (1894-1930) version — sung by KCC in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2022 — which was written by a composer with an affinity for the demonic.
The other type of surprise (disappointment) was the classical music. I spent four years as a music minor in college (across three majors) and it was a very formative period of my life. Tavener is a brilliant composer, but I guess like Britten I like (grok) some of it and not others; today was the latter. In contrast, I rarely like Bruckner and today was no exception.
What was really surprising was the Berlioz: I love Hector stocked up on his key works my freshman year, and took a 4-person seminar on him my senior year. This particular carol is lyric, but the melody from his sacred oratorio L’Enfance du Christ doesn’t seem any more sacred than “White Christmas.”
I enjoyed the works by two other English composers. I had never heard “The blessed son of God,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), but it was tasteful, solemn and reverent. But it felt odd to hear it four pieces before Noel — the British tune for this American text and the second most famous hymn of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) — given RVW’s (largely successful) effort to banish Sullivan. (I just finished an article on Sullivan’s hymns and will say more when it is published).
References
- Peter Relph, "A list of carols commissioned for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, 1983 - Present,” updated Dec. 8, 2025, https://www.peterrelph.com/post/a-list-of-new-music-commissioned-for-the-festival-of-nine-lessons-and-carols-at-king-s-college-camb
- David Sinden, “Carols”, updated Dec. 24, 2025. https://www.sinden.org/carols (the definitive resource for comparing the recent KCC and St. John’s carol service music)
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