I would have completely forgotten about this if
I hadn't taken a look at
WNYC's home
page.
The King's College chapel choir's Festival of Nine Lessons and
Carols will be
broadcast
live later this morning, beginning at 10 a.m. EST. There's no
way I would ever claim to be an authority on song, but this yearly
performance is glorious.
King's College has a
site on the annual
performance, which takes place in the building whose foundation
stone was laid in the reign of Henry VI, and whose glass was
removed during World War II for safety.
Traditionally, the service begins with one of my favorite hymns:
Once in royal
David's city
Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven,
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall;
with the poor, the scorned, the lowly,
lived on earth our Savior holy.
And, through all his wondrous childhood,
he would honor and obey,
love and watch the lowly maiden
in whose gentle arms he lay:
Christian children all must be
mild, obedient, good as he.
For he is our childhood's pattern,
day by day like us he grew;
he was little, weak and helpless,
tears and smiles like us he knew.
and he feeleth for our sadness,
and he shareth in our gladness.
And our eyes at last shall see him,
through his own redeeming love;
for that Child who seemed so helpless
is our Lord in heaven above;
and he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable,
with the oxen standing round,
we shall see him; but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high;
when like stars his children crowned,
all in white shall wait around.
WUNC doesn't seem to have it.
Barbarians.