Nine Lessons and Carols

Nine Lessons and Carols, also known as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, is a service of Christian worship traditionally celebrated on or near Christmas Eve in England. The story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings or lessons from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir anthems.

History
Although the tradition of Nine Lessons and Carols is popularly associated with King's College, Cambridge, its origins are attributed to Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. Up to the late 19th century, the singing of Christmas carols was normally performed by singers visiting people's houses, and carols — generally considered to be secular in content — had been excluded from Christian worship. In the Victorian era, the rising popularity of hymnody encouraged church musicians to introduce carols into worship. An 1875 book of carols, Carols for Use in Church During Christmas and Epiphany by Richard Chope and Sabine Baring-Gould, was an influential publication. At around this time, the composer and organist John Stainer was compiling a collection, Christmas Carols New and Old, and during Christmas 1878 he introduced carols into the service of Choral Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Other cathedrals also began to adopt carols at Christmastide that year and the Royal Cornwall Gazette reported that the choir of Truro Cathedral would sing a service of carols at 10:00 pm on Christmas Eve:

"The Choir of the Cathedral will sing a number of carols in the Cathedral on Christmas Eve, the service commencing at 10pm. We understand that this is at the wish of many of the leading parishioners and others. A like service has been instituted in other cathedral and large towns, and has been much appreciated. It is the intention of the choir to no longer continue the custom of singing carols at the residences of members of the congregation."

Two years later, the Right Rev. Edward White Benson, at that time Bishop of Truro, conducted the first formal service of "Nine Lessons and Carols" on Christmas Eve (24 December) 1880. Benson, concerned at the excessive consumption of alcohol in Cornish pubs during the festive season, sought a means of attracting revellers out of the pubs and into church by offering a religious celebration of Christmas. The idea for a service consisting of Christmas music interspersed with Bible readings was proposed by the succentor of the cathedral, the Rev. George Walpole (who later became Bishop of Edinburgh). The cathedral — a Victorian gothic building — was still under construction, and services were being held in a temporary wooden structure which served as a pro-cathedral. The first Nine Lessons and Carols service took place there at 10:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and was attended by over 400 people.

Benson's son, A. C. Benson, later recalled: "My father arranged from ancient sources a little services for Christmas Eve, nine carols and nine tiny lessons. They were read by various officers of the church, beginning with a chorister and ending, through different grades, with the bishop."

Bishop Benson was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1883, and the Nine Lessons service began to gain in popularity across the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, as well as Roman Catholic churches in England and Wales. The original liturgy has since been adapted and used by other churches all over the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. Lessons and Carols most often occur in Anglican churches. However, numerous Christian denominations have adopted the service, or a variation of it, as part of their Christmas celebrations. In the UK, the service has become the standard format for school carol services.

In 1916, a service of Nine Lessons and Carols was held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; the institution celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Lessons and Carols in 2016.

Notably in 1918, the Rev. Eric Milner-White the new dean of King's College, Cambridge, introduced the service to the college chapel, taking advantage of the established choral tradition of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. It proved highly successful, and began an annual tradition — albeit with some alterations to Benson's original format from 1919 onwards. The BBC began to broadcast the service on the radio from 1928 and on television from 1954, establishing Carols from King's as the most popular and widely recognised presentation of the service.

In North America, the Lessons and Carols tradition spread to other US and Canadian institutions. In 1928, organist and choirmaster Twining Lynes, introduced the service to Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, after being inspired by services in England.

In Canada, the Festival of Nine Lessons and carols is done multilingually at Bishop's College School, Quebec, with the nine lessons read in nine languages or dialects.

In December 2013, Truro Cathedral staged a reconstruction of Bishop Benson's original 1880 Nine Lessons with Carols Service which was attended by a congregation of over 1,500 people.

Service at King's College, Cambridge
The first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, was held on Christmas Eve in 1918. During World War I the dean, Eric Milner-White, had served as army chaplain in the 7th Infantry Division and he was concerned that the distress of the "Great War" had hardened attitudes against religion. Taking advantage of the established choral tradition of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, he introduced Benson's carol service to King's as a means of attracting people back to Christian worship. The first Nine Lessons service in King's College Chapel was held on Christmas Eve, 1918, directed by Arthur Henry Mann who was the organist from 1876 to 1929.

The King's College service was immensely successful, and the following year Milner-White made some changes to Benson's original format, notably introducing the tradition of opening the service with a solo treble singing "Once in Royal David's City". This was then followed by a bidding prayer penned by Milner-White himself, and re-ordering the lessons. The choir had 16 trebles as specified in statutes laid down by Henry VI, and until 1927 the men's voices were provided by choral scholars and lay clerks. Today, 14 undergraduates from the choir sing the men's parts.

Broadcasting of the service
The popularity of the service was established when the service began to be broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1928, and, except for 1930, has been broadcast every year since. During the 1930s the service reached a worldwide audience when the BBC began broadcasting the service on its Overseas Service. Even throughout the Second World War, despite the stained glass having been removed from the chapel and the lack of heating, the broadcasts continued. For security reasons, the name "King's" was not mentioned during wartime broadcasts.

Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College was first televised by BBC Television in 1954, conducted by the director of music, Boris Ord.

Since the Second World War, it has been estimated that each year there are millions of listeners worldwide who listen to the service live on the BBC World Service. Domestically, the service is broadcast live on BBC Radio 4, and a recorded broadcast is made on Christmas Day on BBC Radio 3. In the US, a 1954 service was put into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2008. The broadcast has been heard live on public radio stations affiliated with American Public Media since 1979, and most stations broadcast a repeat on Christmas Day. Since 1963, the service has been periodically filmed for television broadcast in the UK. Presently, each year a programme entitled Carols from King's is pre-recorded in early or mid-December then shown on Christmas Eve in the UK on BBC Two and BBC Four. The programme is weighted more heavily in favour of carols sung by the choir, with only seven readings in total, not all of which are from the Bible.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the service was conducted, for the first time, without a congregation. The service did not take place live, but instead a pre-recorded service produced by King's College was broadcast at the usual time. It was the first time since 1930 that the service had not been broadcast live.

Order of service
The format of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has not changed substantially since 1918. The order of the lessons was revised in 1919, since when the service has always begun with the hymn "Once in Royal David's City". Today the first verse is sung unaccompanied by a solo boy chorister. To avoid putting him under undue stress, the chorister is not told that he will be singing the solo until immediately before the service.

The nine lessons, which are the same every year, are read by representatives of the College and of the city of Cambridge using the text of the King James Version of the Bible published in 1611. The singing is made up of "carols" sung by the choir and "hymns" sung by the choir and congregation. Some services have also included anthems sung between the carols and hymns, such as a performance of "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" in 2004. Since 1983, a new carol has been commissioned by the College and premiered at the service. The carols vary from year to year, although some music is repeated, and the service ends with the hymn "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". The order of service in 2023 was as follows:


 * Organ preludes
 * "Fantasia in C, BK 25" – music by William Byrd (c. 1540−1623)
 * 'La vierge et l'enfant' from "La Nativité du Seigneur" – music by Olivier Messaien (1908−1992)
 * "Prelude in D, BuxWV 139" – music by Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637−1707)
 * 'Les anges' from "La Nativité du Seigneur" – music by Olivier Messaien
 * "Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 550" – music by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685−1750)
 * "In dulci jubilo, BuxWV 197" – music by Dieterich Buxtehude
 * Processional hymn: "Once in Royal David's City" – words by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818−1895); melody ('Irby') by Henry Gauntlett (1805−1876); harmonised by Arthur Henry Mann (1850−1929); descant by Philip Ledger (1937−2012)


 * Bidding prayer, concluding with the Lord's Prayer
 * Carol: "Out of your sleep arise and wake" – words, anonymous 15th century English, modernised by Eleanor Parker; music by Robin Nelson


 * First lesson from Genesis 3: 8–15, 17–19 (read by a chorister of King's College)
 * Carol: "Adam lay ybounden" – words, 15th century English, modernised by Edith Rickert (1871-1938); music by Matthew Martin


 * Second lesson from Genesis 22: 15–18 (read by the Chaplain of King's College)
 * Carol: "Illuminare Jerusalem" – words, 16th century Scots, modernised by Eleanor Parker; music by Judith Weir


 * Third lesson from Isaiah 9: 2, 6–7 (read by a member of the King's College staff)
 * Carol: "O Radiant Dawn" – words from Liber Usualis, based on Isaiah 9:2; music by James MacMillan
 * Hymn: "O Little Town of Bethlehem" – words by Phillips Brooks (1835−1893); melody ('Forest Green'), English traditional; arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872−1958); descant by Thomas Armstrong (1898−1994)


 * Fourth lesson from Isaiah 11: 1–4a, 6–9 (read by a representative of Eton College)
 * Carol: "King Jesus hath a garden" – words and music, traditional Dutch; translated by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848−1934); arranged by Stephen Cleobury (1948−2019)
 * Carol: "A Spotless Rose is Blooming" – words, 14th century German, translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827−1878); music by Philip Ledger


 * Fifth lesson from Luke 1: 26–35, 38 (read by a Fellow of King's College)
 * Carol: "Gabriel's Message" – words by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834−1924); music, Basque carol, arranged by David Willcocks (1919−2015)
 * Carol: "Come all you faithful Christians" – words, English traditional; music by Christopher Robinson


 * Sixth lesson from Luke 2: 1–7 (read by the Mayor of Cambridge)
 * Carol: "Sir Christèmas" – words, 15th century English; music by William Mathias (1934−1992)
 * Hymn: "The First Nowell" – words and melody ('The First Nowell'), Cornish traditional; arranged by David Willcocks


 * Seventh lesson from Luke 2: 8–16 (read by the Director of Music of King's College)
 * Carol: "The Cradle" – words, 17th century Austrian, translated by Robert Graves (1895−1985); music by Cheryl Frances-Hoad (commissioned for the 2023 service)


 * Eighth lesson from Matthew 2: 1–12 (read by the Vice-Provost of King's College)
 * Carol: "The Christ-Child lay on Mary's lap" – words, 'A Christmas Carol' by G. K. Chesterton (1874−1936); music by John Rutter (written in memory of Stephen Cleobury)
 * Carol: "Procedenti puero" – words, 15th century English; music by Peter Warlock (1894−1930)


 * Ninth lesson from the Gospel of John 1: 1–14 (read by the Provost of King's College)
 * Hymn: "O Come, All Ye Faithful" – words, translated by Frederick Oakeley (1802−1880), William Thomas Brooke (1848−1917), et al.; melody ('Adeste, fideles') by John Francis Wade (1711−1786); arranged by David Willcocks; descant by Daniel Hyde


 * Collect and blessing
 * Hymn: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" – words by Charles Wesley (1707−1788), et al.; melody ('Mendelssohn') by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809−1847); descant by David Willcocks


 * Organ voluntaries
 * "In Dulci Jubilo, BWV 729" – music by Johann Sebastian Bach
 * 'Dieu parmi nous' from "La Nativité du Seigneur" – music by Olivier Messaien

Commissioned carols and organ postludes
The table below shows the new carols commissioned by King's College, Cambridge, since 1983.

Organ postludes have also been commissioned in certain years, as shown in the table below.

Attendance at the service
Attendance at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held on Christmas Eve is now by ticket only, many of which are allocated by public ballot; standby tickets are also made available to those who applied for in the ballot. Owing to the service's popularity, demand for seats greatly exceeds the number of tickets available. In previous years, when tickets were available at the door, some people began queuing the night before, but now only those with standby tickets are permitted to stand in the queue.