For many of us, it is the moment when Christmas really starts: the soaring voice of a boy soloist at King’s College, Cambridge opening its iconic Christmas Eve service with Once in Royal David’s City.
As usual, this year – remarkably, given the pandemic – the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4. But there will be a major difference: instead of hundreds of people packed into the medieval chapel, its pews will be empty.
“The congregation normally joins in with full-throated singing at verse three [of Once in Royal David’s City] – all those people, squeezed in, sharing this magical moment,” Stephen Cherry, the dean of the chapel, told the Observer.
This year, instead of the congregation physically present, “they will be in their kitchens or in their cars or wrapping presents. We hope that, wherever they are, people will join in with the carols.”
On Advent Sunday, the start of the Christian countdown to Christmas, churches across England are still prohibited from holding congregational services. But following protests from leaders representing all major faiths, new rules coming into effect this week allow the resumption of collective worship.
Congregations must observe social distancing and wear masks, and indoor communal singing will still be prohibited. But outdoor carol singing and children’s nativity plays will be permitted “in accordance with the performing arts guidance”, MPs were told last week.
The move was welcomed by those responsible for the nation’s pre-eminent carol services. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without carols,” said John Rutter, the world-renowned composer and conductor. “Turkey and Christmas pudding are fine but, for me, what makes Christmas perfect is the music.
“For a lot of people, Christmas is the only time they get to sing. I hope we’ll see carol sessions in shopping malls and on the streets. Singing is a natural impulse, part of the fabric of our human corporate life, and we mustn’t discard it just because there are difficulties.”
Instead of his traditional carol festival at the Royal Albert Hall before an audience of 5,000, this year Rutter is streaming a Christmas celebration recorded at St Albans cathedral with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and readings by actor Simon Callow.
“The cathedral is huge but sadly we still weren’t able to have a large choir, and we could only have less than half of the orchestra. We took every possible care while being determined not to let the music be compromised,” he said.
St-Martin-in-the-Fields, the church on the edge of Trafalgar Square in central London, is “normally buzzing with music and people at this time of year”, said musical director Andrew Earis.
About 800 usually attend its carol concerts, but this year numbers will be restricted to 100-120, and singing will be confined to choirs. St Martin’s Christmas Day service, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, will be pre-recorded.
“Normally we have a donkey from a city farm come to St Martin’s to be part of our nativity scene. That wasn’t possible this year so we went to the donkey instead to record a socially distanced version,” said Earis. “We hope we’ve captured a little bit of what Christmas usually is.”
At King’s, Christmas Eve services have been held without interruption for more than 100 years, and broadcast almost every year since 1928. “We broadcast all the way through the second world war,” said Cherry. “The location wasn’t disclosed but it was an open secret that it was King’s, partly because people said they could hear paper flapping in the windows where the glass had been removed [in case of bomb damage].”
King’s College choir, founded in the 15th century, is made up of 16 boys aged between nine and 13 who are boarders at the King’s College school, and 14 male undergraduates known as choral scholars.
The identity of the young soloist who will lead Once in Royal David’s City is kept secret – even from the choristers – until just before the service begins. “They all prepare for the role but the name is revealed a few seconds before,” said Cherry.
The pandemic had presented a “particular challenge for the director of music to help the boys focus on their musicianship and excellence without the adrenalin of an audience. It’s desperately sad there’ll be so few of us – but everyone, not just us, has felt the absence of proximity this year.”
