For many people in Great Britain and elsewhere, Christmas
really begins at 3pm on Christmas Eve with the BBC’s live radio broadcast of
the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the magnificent chapel of King’s
College, Cambridge. For about an hour
and a half, the chapel choir sings carols old and new, interspersed with Bible
readings that tell the Christmas story.
The tradition dates back to 1918 when the College Dean, Rev
Eric Milner-White, first modified an idea that originated in 1880 at Truro
Cathedral. The format has been virtually unchanged since the 1919 service, when
the order of lessons was established, as well as the custom of beginning with
“Once in Royal David’s City” with the first verse sung by an unaccompanied boy
treble.
The Festival was first broadcast by the BBC in 1928 and it
has been heard every year since then, with only one exception (1930). Even
during the war years, when the stained glass windows had been removed from the
unheated chapel, listeners to the BBC and its World Service were able to hear
the Festival.
Many great ideas are simple ones, and the “Nine Lessons”
format is one such idea. It has therefore been copied in churches of all
denominations throughout the Christian world, with many such services being
held at Christmas time, the chosen carols being ones that suit particular
choirs and congregations. It is an occasion on which a church or cathedral
choir can show off its skills, and many choirmasters work long and hard to
achieve perfection on the day, especially when introducing carols that may be
new to the choir in question.
The nine lessons, at King’s College and elsewhere, are each
read by different people, including lay people and clergy. It is traditional
for the first lesson to be read by a young person, such as a treble from the
choir, and for the ninth to be read by the priest or minister in charge, with
the congregation standing.
Each lesson is introduced by a standard line (the first
being “God announces in the Garden of Eden that the seed of woman shall bruise
the serpent’s head”) and concluded with “Thanks be to God”.
Although the first three lessons and the last three are
virtually sacrosanct, for the middle three there are alternative readings that
can be given. For example, the Annunciation (from Luke’s Gospel) can be
substituted by “Arise, shine, for thy light is come” from the Book of Isaiah.
The readings are always from the 1611 Authorised (or “King James”) Bible.
The purpose of the lessons is not only to tell the familiar
story of the Nativity from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but to set it in
its full context, beginning with the Fall of Man in Genesis and including the
prophecies of Isaiah that foretell the coming of the Messiah. The ninth lesson
is always the opening of the Gospel of John that explains how “In the beginning
was the Word” and “the Word was made flesh”.
As mentioned above, the service begins with “Once in Royal
David’s City” that (at King’s College and elsewhere) is used as a processional
hymn, begun in candlelight, as the voice of the boy treble breaks the silence.
It is traditional at King’s for the boy chosen to sing the opening verse not to
be told this until shortly before the service, so that he does not become
unduly nervous.
The rest of the opening hymn is sung by the full choir and
congregation, at the conclusion of which the Bidding Prayer is given, followed
by the Lord’s Prayer, after which the first choir carol is sung.
It should be pointed out that “Nine” refers to the lessons
and not the carols, of which somewhat more than nine can be expected. At King’s
College it is usual for there to be one carol before the first lesson and two
between each of the next lessons, with “O Come All Ye Faithful” following the
ninth lesson and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” concluding the service after the
final Collect and Blessing. At least two of the carols will in fact be hymns
for the full congregation to sing, as well as the two final hymns mentioned
above.
The carols are usually a good mixture of traditional ones
and those that are less familiar, and it has been customary at King’s College
to include a completely new carol that has been specially commissioned. These brand new carols are often challenging
for both the choir and listeners, and it has to be said that many are heard
once during the service and almost never again!
The Director of Music at King’s College from 1982 to 2018 was Stephen Cleobury, who arranged a number of traditional carols for
performance at the Festival. Other arrangements have been by David Willcocks,
who held the Director of Music post from 1957 to 1974. These two master
musicians have ensured that the music heard at the Festival is ideally suited
to both the choir and the remarkable acoustics of the Chapel.
The Christmas Eve Festival at King’s College is extremely
popular with the local population in Cambridge, and people have been known to
camp overnight in hope of getting one of the 650 seats in the Chapel, which are
always allocated on the basis of first come, first served.
As well as the Christmas Eve broadcast, which is recorded
and repeated on Christmas Day and on other networks, including in the United
States, a televised programme called “Carols from King’s” is recorded earlier
in December and broadcast on BBC 2, but this is not the full “Nine Lessons and
Carols”.
The tradition of presenting the Christmas story in this
format has now become deeply entrenched among choirs and churches all over the
world, and looks set to continue for many years into the future.
© John Welford
