Order of Service
- Processional: “Once in Royal David's City”
- Bidding Prayer (read by the dean)
- Sussex Carol (arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)
- First lesson: Genesis 3, vv. 8-19 (read by a chorister)
- “Adam Lay Ybounden” (Matthew Martin)
- Second lesson: Genesis 22, vv. 15-19 (read by a college student)
- “Nowell, Nowell, Nowell” (Elizabeth Maconchy)
- Third lesson: Isaiah 9, vv. 2, 6-7 (read by a member of college staff)
- “A Great and Mighty Wonder” (arr. James Whitbourn)
- “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”
- Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11, vv. 1-9 (read by the master over the choristers)
- “The Lamb” (John Tavener)
- “Gabriel’s Message” (arr. David Willcocks)
- Fifth lesson: Luke 1, vv. 26-38 (read by a fellow)
- “Ave Regina Caelorum” (Orlandus Lassus)
- “Nativity Carol” (John Rutter)
- Sixth lesson: Luke 2, vv. 1-7 (read by the mayor of Cambridge)
- “Hereford Carol” (arr. Christopher Robinson)
- “While Shepherds Watched”
- Seventh lesson: Luke 2, vv. 8-20 (read by the director of music)
- “Three Points of Light” (Grayston Ives) - 2024 commission *
- “I Saw Three Ships” (Simon Preston)
- Eighth lesson: Matthew 2, vv. 1-12 (read by the vice-provost)
- “Lullay, Dear Jesus” (arr. Arnold Bax)
- “Benedicamus Domino” (Peter Warlock)
- Ninth lesson: John 1, vv. 1-14 (read by the provost)
- “O Come, All Ye Faithful” (arr. Willcocks/Daniel Hyde)
- Blessing
- “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” (Felix Mendelssohn, arr. Willcocks)
Organ voluntaries
- In Dulci Jubilo (Johann Sebastian Bach)
- Finale from Symphony No. 6 (Louis Vierne)
Credits
- Rev. Stephen Cherry, dean
- Daniel Hyde, director of music
- Rev. Mary Kells, chaplain
- Harrison Cole, assisting organist
A new work has been commissioned for the Christmas Eve service every year since 1983, and this year Grayston Ives has set a poem by Peter Cairns, a choral scholar at King's in the 1960s — “Three Points of Light.” The composer says: “The Star in the East is well known as an integral part of the Christmas story. But the poem extends that idea of light: the shepherd's fire and the glow from the inn. It conjures a compelling picture of the birth of Jesus, viewed from an unusual angle. The music aims to reflect the atmosphere of that scene: the cold, the stillness, the drama and the joy.”
More information about this year's broadcast
Follow musicologist Imani Mosley's live reactions to the broadcast
Since 1918, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has offered listeners an opportunity to share in a live, worldwide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of biblical readings, carols and related seasonal classical music. This special event is presented by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys, and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue, the college’s 500-year-old chapel.
