Much Christmas programming must have included something by the late John Tavener. Our carol service included God is with us near the end. This piece has been on my wishlist for a few years, despite the fact that it is quite punishing to sing. It wasn’t the only new piece, as I’d also not come across Bob Chilcott’s Shepherd’s Carol. We have a set of the Christmas at King’s books which contain this and a lot of the recent commissions for the King’s 9 Lessons service.
I haven’t sung a choral service on Christmas Day (or for that matter Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve) for years, but as usual went out carol singing on Christmas Eve. We were a larger group than in some recent years and perhaps because we made more noise, we raised more money. However there was no live carols at the Bath Christmas Market this year; instead there were piped ones, albeit of high quality.