Three I sang in and one where I was in the congregation.
One new piece for me in the church Advent carol service (held as usual on the second Sunday in Advent): Nova! Nova! by Bob Chilcott, very catchy but you need your wits about you, especially when the rhythms get subtly altered between verses. Later in the month was the Christmas carol service with two more new items: The Owl by Toby Young (where an apparent need to economise on paper led to a lot of to-ing and fro-ing through the copy to navigate the piece) and In the Stillness by Sally Beamish. That wasn’t the last carol service I sang in the choir for though, as we hosted one for the local hospital the following day.
Back in St David’s for the first time since 2019 we went to the 9 Lessons and Carols at the Cathedral, as well as Midnight Mass and the service on Christmas morning. We were rather taken by the Welsh carol beginning Roedd yn y wlad honno sung at the 9 Lessons. There has been a change of Director of Music since we last came, but standards held up well and the tradition of extravagant organ improvisation continues.