Sinden.org

Early!

Kings College, Cambridge, England, has just posted the order for this year's Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. You can get it in PDF format on the Nine Lessons and Carols page.

My initial reactions:

Evacuation Routes and Procedures on Page 2. Very hot.

Flor Peeters makes an appearance in the Prelude. That seems new.

Who's R. Jaques? Has King's done that In Dulci Jublio before?

O. Goldschmidt? That's not familiar either. The lack of first names is getting annoying already.

The medieval carol, "Edi beo thu" looks like fun.

Ahh! Warlock I don't know! That should be fun.

The author's last name is Ballet? Weird. And who is D. Blackford?

I love the Gardiner. It will be nice to hear King's sing it. I think perhaps a chart of recent services should be prepared so that we can see if they have sung any of these pieces before.

WOW! A Tavener setting of "Away in a manger." An unusual text for him. The commissioned carol this year. This should be very interesting.

And new Cleobury, "Be merry, be merry . . ."

The Bach setting interests me. I don't know about the pairing of the Magnificat BWV 243 with this text. Heck, there's a lot I don't know. Maybe I should move to England.

Postlude: Francis Pott?

Okay. Lots of names I don't know, and some things I am really excited about hearing. This service represents the best of liturgy, I think. Something that is grounded in history and tradition and yet always adapted to the time at hand.

This is really poorly written, I know. But at least you know the document is available, and maybe you're wondering about the same things I am.

Labels: King's College (Cambridge)