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Christmas Day
Dec. 26th, 2008 08:21 amI went to Mass at King's College yesterday. Despite having lived in Cambridge for a number of years, I'd never been to the Christmas choir service before. Michael's away and I was due at Naomi's for Christmas lunch, so it seemed an ideal opportunity. One of my friends from rowing had assured me that I would get in, but by the time I actually joined the queue (at ten to eleven, due to faffing about) I was expecting to have to stand at the back. In fact they had filled the chapel with folding seats, and the last few rows were empty.
I had barely sat down before the choir procession started, and we had to stand up again. All the choristers wore red cassocks, with white surplices over them, and some of the boys were very tiny indeed. The tiny ones were followed by tall young men, and then at the end a small group of choir girls and ladies. They all gathered at the back with candles, incense and the processional cross, and sang Hodie Christus natus est, before processing to the front, and past the screen, so that they were lost to view.
King's Chapel is a great long building, and there was no amplification, so that although we could hear the music and singing perfectly well, the words of the service were mostly inaudible. Fortunately we were provided with comprehensive orders of service, including the words of the sermon. But mostly, when there was no music, I sat and let my eyes wander over the building. Stone dogs and griffins support the royal coats of arms, the three lions quartered with fleurs de lys. Crowns, roses and portcullises adorn the walls. Slender columns run up the walls and branch out above into graceful fan vaulting, like an alley of stone trees in a stone forest. On a grey day, muted light leaches through the stained glass windows, blotting the stone with mottled blues and yellows.
And the music! It was a full sung mass with Latin and everything. The setting was Mozart's Missa Brevis (in F, K192), so there wasn't just organ music but violins as well, which seemed a little strange in the medieval chapel, but it was very beautiful. We the congregation got to sing too; Oh come all ye faithful, Once in Royal David's City, all the old carols, and at the end my favourite, Hark the Herald Angels, just at the upper end of my range, so that I had to let go and fling my voice upwards and let it fly up towards the great spaces under the roof, hoping it would fly true. Because of the length of the chapel, the carols had to be sung at a very stately pace, otherwise the time delay between the people at the front and at the back would have been too noticeable. Even so, the timing felt a bit odd at times, and I found myself guessing where to come in somewhere around the note.
The choir sang descants, which I also love, although they weren't the traditional ones but written by the choir master. I do love that great shrieking descant to Hark the Herald Angels, with the notes that I could never reach even when I used to sing in the church choir. Never mind, it was still lovely. And I came out feeling as though I'd done a proper Christmas thing.
I had barely sat down before the choir procession started, and we had to stand up again. All the choristers wore red cassocks, with white surplices over them, and some of the boys were very tiny indeed. The tiny ones were followed by tall young men, and then at the end a small group of choir girls and ladies. They all gathered at the back with candles, incense and the processional cross, and sang Hodie Christus natus est, before processing to the front, and past the screen, so that they were lost to view.
King's Chapel is a great long building, and there was no amplification, so that although we could hear the music and singing perfectly well, the words of the service were mostly inaudible. Fortunately we were provided with comprehensive orders of service, including the words of the sermon. But mostly, when there was no music, I sat and let my eyes wander over the building. Stone dogs and griffins support the royal coats of arms, the three lions quartered with fleurs de lys. Crowns, roses and portcullises adorn the walls. Slender columns run up the walls and branch out above into graceful fan vaulting, like an alley of stone trees in a stone forest. On a grey day, muted light leaches through the stained glass windows, blotting the stone with mottled blues and yellows.
And the music! It was a full sung mass with Latin and everything. The setting was Mozart's Missa Brevis (in F, K192), so there wasn't just organ music but violins as well, which seemed a little strange in the medieval chapel, but it was very beautiful. We the congregation got to sing too; Oh come all ye faithful, Once in Royal David's City, all the old carols, and at the end my favourite, Hark the Herald Angels, just at the upper end of my range, so that I had to let go and fling my voice upwards and let it fly up towards the great spaces under the roof, hoping it would fly true. Because of the length of the chapel, the carols had to be sung at a very stately pace, otherwise the time delay between the people at the front and at the back would have been too noticeable. Even so, the timing felt a bit odd at times, and I found myself guessing where to come in somewhere around the note.
The choir sang descants, which I also love, although they weren't the traditional ones but written by the choir master. I do love that great shrieking descant to Hark the Herald Angels, with the notes that I could never reach even when I used to sing in the church choir. Never mind, it was still lovely. And I came out feeling as though I'd done a proper Christmas thing.
