Back in St David’s for Christmas again, and this time we arrived at the Cathedral for 9 Lessons and Carols soon after the doors opened and were able to sit at the back of the nave (next to someone who had apparently been parked there by some fitter companions who sat elsewhere).
I’m happy to report no electrical mishaps interfering noisily this year, although at this and other services I noticed that the heaters near the crossing still intermittently hum noisily. I didn’t fare quite so well with the candle because of a draught from the direction of the West door, so it only lasted till the Seventh Lesson. I thought I’d be all right in the dark with the remaining hymns (all in English), but got slightly floored by one of the less frequently sung verses of O Come All Ye Faithful: ‘Child, for us strangers/Poor and in the manger,/erm er umm umm….’
What of the choir? Along with some standards we had some pieces with Welsh connexions such as a setting of a translation of Es ist ein Ros’ by Meirion Wynn Jones and George Guest’s beautiful arrangement of Suo Gân. I’m sure the Guest would be better known if choirs could get over the language barrier (it wouldn’t be the same in English).
The extravagant improvisations this year took some of their material from L’Arlésienne, or to be precise from the Provençal carol La marche des rois used by Bizet. St David’s clearly sticks to the same Mass settings for the Christmas services each year.
Meanwhile earlier in December we’d included two ambitious pieces in our own Advent carol service: Anthony Piccolo’s I look from afar and I am the day by Jonathan Dove (he likes setting texts about stars!). And I sang one of the O antiphons – gradually working my way round them all.