By Richard Gray, Director of Music
One of my favorite times during the Advent season, both as a church musician and as a churchgoer, is the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. It is a wonderful way to worship and look ahead to the season of Christmas.
Lessons and Carols began on Christmas Eve in 1918 at King’s College Cambridge for the purpose of providing an additional, unique, and creative worship service. Included are nine readings and each are paired with related congregational hymns and choral anthems.
The Lessons and Carols service at King’s is still broadcast every year on Christmas Eve. Millions watch worldwide to hear the beautiful choir and the elegant sounds of the organ, and to see the beauty of King’s Chapel.
Eric Milner White, Dean of King’s College when Lessons and Carols originated and the person responsible for planning the service, made a point to emphasize that the service focus is not on the music but on the readings, and that the musical selections are simply derived from the readings. I believe that is what makes it such a fantastic experience: to hear a reading and then to hear it again through a musical form.
The readings that you will hear coming from the books of Genesis and Isaiah and the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, describe events leading up to the birth of Jesus and those that happen just after. After the fifth lesson, for example, which talks about the Angel Gabriel visiting the Blessed Virgin Mary, the choir will sing an anthem called “Gabriel’s Message,” to a tune that will probably be familiar to you!
You can experience Lessons and Carols here at St. John the Evangelist on December 16 at 4pm. All of our choirs will be featured including our adult, youth, children and handbells. The music that you will be hear will range from music of the Anglican tradition by composers such as David Willcocks and John Rutter, American repertoire through music of Morten Lauridsen and Paul Manz, and spirituals by acclaimed conductor and composer André Thomas. Some of your favorite carols will be featured including “Once in Royal David’s City,” sung at the opening of the service by one of our youth choristers, and the beloved “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is truly a special event and one that can joyfully prepare us as we await the Christ child. As Episcopalians, we are so blessed to be a part of a beautiful liturgical tradition year-round and special services such as these are ones that beautifully emphasize that. I hope that you will join me in looking forward to this annual event that opens the scriptures to us in a creative and powerful way!
Originally published in the November-December 2018 Evangelist.
