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It's Christmas time. And what better time to take a look at the Christmas hymns in The Hymnal 1982? In particular, we will be looking at the less commonly sung hymns in the Christmas section. You may wish to begin with part 1 of this series, or get caught up on part 2 or part 3

We're using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. (On this scale, we cranked it up to 11 for hymns which are unbelievably popular.) Here we look at hymns that fall right in the middle, first the 5's, and then the one hymn we scored as a 4.

Code 5: Middle ground

• Hymn 80: "From heaven above to earth I come". It's a great little tune, but I don't think it's sung much in the Episcopal Church. With our Lutheran brothers and sisters, however, it's a different story. It ranks a 5 mainly due to ecumenical residue.
• Hymn 84: "Love came down at Christmas". The popularity of this hymn, at least in my experience, is on the rise. It's a newer text-tune pairing, originating from 1927. If memory serves, I've even heard this little tune in an instrumental version in the month of December on the public radio program Performance Today.
• Hymn 104: "A stable lamp is lighted". An even newer composition (new text, new tune, both by Americans) is found in this hymn. The author is a former Poet Laureate of the United States. One cannot help but be struck by the integrity of the elements of this hymn, and the synergy they have together. My sense is that while this is not yet universally popular in the Episcopal Church, it is adored by many in the congregations where it is known.

  Code 4: An oddball

• Hymn 91: "Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light". This is a difficult one to rank, or to sing in a service. One problem: it's only one stanza. Where do you use it? The rich harmonization by Bach also requires it to be sung in parts for the full effect (more likely something done by a choir than a congregation). I don't really have any data on churches who have sung this congregationally. I'd be interested to hear from those who have, and where in the liturgy it falls.

Labels: Christmas, Hymnal 1982, hymns, less familiar hymns

It's Christmas time. And what better time to take a look at the Christmas hymns in The Hymnal 1982? In particular, we will be looking at the less commonly sung hymns in the Christmas section. You may wish to begin with part 1 of this series, or refresh your memory on part 2

We're using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. (On this scale, we cranked it up to 11 for hymns which are unbelievably popular.) Here we look at hymns that still score fairly highly, starting with 7's and then 6's.

Tier 7: Deeper cuts

We now arrive at an area where some personal preference plays a larger role. No Christmas service would be considered "incomplete" without these hymns, but it's also fairly common to have one or more included.

• Hymn 82: "Of the Father's love begotten". The flavor of this hymn lends it much more readily to a service on Christmas Day, one of the Sundays after Christmas, or even an Epiphany service than Christmas Eve, but it is certainly right at home at the big show. I might be ranking this too highly, but if my observations are correct it has been gaining popularity in the last couple decades.

  Tangent: It is now my duty to send you to this very naughty reharm of the final stanza by David Briggs.

• Hymn 98: "Unto us a boy is born". This simple tune is almost more frequently sung by choirs, but it works marvelously as a hymn. The choral treatment puts it "in the air", so I think congregations recognize it when it comes up. (This is equivalent to the familiarity congregations have with the Goss "See amid the winter's snow", which is not under discussion here.)
• Hymn 99: "Go tell it on the mountain". This is a tricky one. It's popularity could be higher, or lower depending on your particular congregation. Here's the rub, captured in a tweet from last Sunday:

  My church singing "Go Tell It On the Mountain" this morning: pic.twitter.com/oI2AMMbHN4

  — Matthew Corbett (@MatthewjCorbett) December 29, 2013

• Hymn 101: "Away in a manger". The popularity of this particular hymn would undoubtedly be higher if not for an interesting tune bifurcation. The Hymnal 1982 Companion dryly notes that CRADLE SONG is found most frequently in hymnals, but my experience is that young people give me a slightly puzzled look whenever I play it for them. By and large, they know and love the tune MUELLER, which is not included in The Hymnal 1982.

Tier 6: A certain earthiness

This next batch of hymns all happen to mention the words "earth" or "snow" which, incidentally, is something that periodically falls to earth in the Northern Hemisphere this time of year.

• Hymn 86: "O savior of our fallen race". The ranking of this hymn as a 6 on our scale is largely a theoretical placement given the fact that this tune at least appears elsewhere in the book. In actual fact, I do not know how often congregations embrace the historic Christmas office hymn to this tune. However, I think it must be more often then they embrace Hymn 85, the same words to the original plainchant melody.
• Hymn 92: "On this day earth shall ring". A very established old carol, made rather accessible in a forthright treatment by Gustav Holst. Again, the congregation is asked to sing Latin, but it is translated for them right there at the bottom of the page.
• Hymn 110: "The snow lay on the ground". The popularity of this hymn was a surprise to me, and I may have ranked it too low. I had never sung it before I was repeatedly asked for it at Christmas liturgies.

  The Hymnal 1982 Companion declares: "this carol gained almost immediate favor with congregaetions soon after its first appearance in an Episcopal hymnal in [The Hymnal 1940]. It's popularity continues to this day." Please note I am not a cradle Episcopalian, so I just missed out on this.

  Please also note that it contains a delightful reference to "holy Anne".

• Hymn 112: "In the bleak midwinter". People love this Gustav Holst setting of these words. It does present some challenges to congregational singing, however.

  Congregational "In the Bleak". But only his mother, In her maiden bliss-s-s-s-s-s-s Wor-Wor-Worshipped the... http://t.co/eOxghFgFRV

  — Jonathan Hope (@jonathanhope1) December 29, 2013

  The end of that reads:
  "Almigh-t-t-ty
  With a kisssssssssssss. s. s."

  It's funny because it's true.

• Hymn 114: "'Twas in the moon of wintertime". This hymn was deliberately sought out and included by the hymnal committee to "reflect the cultural diversity of Episcopalians in the later twentieth century". It has "strong ties to the culture of Native Americans". It is new on the scene, included for the first time in this hymnal, but it has become rather popular in just a few decades.

  Indeed, other denominational hymnals have been quick to embrace the hymn. The version of this hymn in the Presbyterian Hymnal (1990) should be mentioned here for it's substitution of the words "mighty Gitchi Manitou" for the Episcopal book's "God the Lord of all the earth".

Labels: Christmas, Hymnal 1982, hymns

It's Christmas time. And what better time to take a look at the Christmas hymns in The Hymnal 1982? In particular, we will be looking at the less commonly sung hymns in the Christmas section. You may wish to begin with part 1 of this series.

We're using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. (On this scale, we cranked it up to 11 for hymns which are unbelievably popular.) Here we look at hymns that score highly, starting with 10's, then 9's, then 8's.

It may seem a little counterintuitive to continue with more of the most popular Christmas hymns in the Hymnal in a study of the most uncommon Christmas hymns, but I think this will help weed out all the ones we know, and maybe we'll even learn a thing or two along the way.

Level 10: The well-designed super-classics

It may seem strange to talk about something as folksy as a Christmas hymn as being "designed" but these next four hymns all score a 10 in large part because of the symmetry of their respective tunes.

• Hymn 96: "Angels we have heard on high" - A very familiar hymn that is marked by a clear AABB' tune structure. To make matters even easier, BB' is a refrain. Note that in the repeat of A the Hymnal uses a different harmony, but the melody itself remains the same. I think we can safely assume that most Christmas congregations are largely singing the melodies of these hymns.

  This hymn does require the congregation to sing in Latin, but they seem more than happy to oblige.

• Hymn 100: "Joy to the world! the Lord is come" - You can't get any more clear than a descending major scale in this tune: ANTIOCH. People go bananas for this one. What's funny is the apocryphal fermata that congregations attempt once the scale has been climbed again ("let earth receive her KIIIIIIIIING!").

  I call this "diva syndrome": holding the high notes for longer than authorized. The congregation usually shows symptoms in spades here. But note that the Hymnal makes no provision for this, and I think it is contrary to the nimble spirit of the tune. (The excellent and elegant treatment of the tune by the editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols stands as a counter example to this.)

  Another point must be made about this "Christmas" hymn. In the Hymnal 1940 it was not included in the Christmas section, but numbered among the General Hymns. Furthermore, it was not sung to the familiar tune ANTIOCH but to RICHMOND (think the Advent Hymn 72: "Hark the glad sound! the Savior comes" or the Easter Hymn 212 "Awake, arise, lift up your voice").

  How remarkable then that this hymn enjoys such popularity at present. This hymnal is only the first to include the popular tune and text pairing. It achieved wide popularity in other denominations and in the secular Christmas milieu in the middle of the last century when other denominational hymnals paired it with ANTIOCH.

• Hymn 109: "The first Nowell" - AA'B might be one way to label the form of this folk tune, where B actually begins just like another A. It's motivically very coherent. It's also long. This is a wordy, wordy hymn, but people love it.
• Hymn 115: "What child is this" - This is a wildly popular old English folk melody GREENSLEEVES. Its longevity is part and parcel with its familiarity. And it's structure has streamlined its reception down through the centuries: AA'BB'. Paired with this text, it is part of the expected Christmas experience.

Level 9: The sugary classics

The next grouping of hymns all have a certain sweetness about them, some cloyingly so.

• Hymn 79: "O little town of Bethlehem" (ST. LOUIS). You need only know a little bit about the composition of this hymn at Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia to be somewhat captivated by its magic.

  The Hymnal 1982 Companion goes so far as to say: "In the experience for many Americans this hymn has acquired such an affectionate association with Christmas that its repeated performance is an essential part of the celebration of the season." In their eyes, we may have ranked it too low. The tune simply oozes mid nineteenth century sappiness.

  The setting of this hymn to the alternative tune, FOREST GREEN, is only slightly less popular in America, we'll wager (see below).

• Hymn 89: "It came upon the midnight clear". This music is so sappy that a beginning church musician would be forgiven for confusing it with the music above. The hymn doesn't mention the birth of Christ, just lots of business about angels. So apparently angels sound like mid-nineteenth-century crooners.
• Hymn 102: "Once in royal David's city". The wide popularity this hymn enjoys is without question a result of its being broadcast the world over on recordings of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge. It is a sweet hymn written for children, proving that we're all just children when it comes to Christmastide.
• Hymn 105: "God rest ye merry, gentlemen". This hymn first appeared in the Hymnal 1940 and has gained acceptance in other denominational hymnals much more recently. At the present time, it is safe to say that this is part of the shopping mall Christmas soundtrack.
• Hymn 107: "Good Christian friends, rejoice" occupies this place due to its sheer longevity. These words have been linked to this tune since at least the sixteenth century. It's a long-standing part of Christmas hymnody.

Level 8: Other classics, but with tune issues

• Hymn 78: "O little town of Bethlehem" (FOREST GREEN). This is the stiff-upper-lip version of the hymn of the same name above. I'm probably being too kind when I score it an 8 and say it's only a shade less popular than it's American counterpart. It is certainly more noble.

  But it should also be noted that FOREST GREEN is not exclusively a Christmas tune. It appears twice more in the '82 Hymnal with more general texts.

• Hymn 81: "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming". My sense is that congregations like this little tune, but that choirs like it more. There is a real satisfaction to singing the Praetorius harmonization here. Add a few quarter rests, some repeated syncopations, and I wonder if the slight complexity to this graceful tune doesn't hamper its popularity a little.
• Hymn 93: "Angels from the realms of glory". It is surprising to me that so many identify this so readily as a Christmas hymn, when the tune is a rather general one which has been used to sing any number of hymns. In the '82 book it also sets "Holy Father, great Creator"; in the '40, "Christ is made the sure foundation", and "Light's abode, celestial Salem". If it were a "real" hymn, surely it would have garnered it's own distinct tune?
• Hymn 94: "While shepherds washed watched their socks flocks by night". This is one of the oldest hymns on American shores, being one of the hymns bound together with the 1786 Prayer Book. Is it just me, or is this tune a little too staid to be really Christmassy?

  The New Oxford Book of Carols notes: "with lines of 8.6.8.6. syllables . . . by far the widest number of tunes could be drawn upon. Indeed, no other hymn has been sung to so many tunes and settings. ... It would be good if the near-hegemony now enjoyed by the excellent tune [WINCHESTER OLD] could give way to a little of the earlier diversity."

One final note: in The Hymnal 1940, which provides two tune choices under the same hymn number, the Second Tune given for this hymn is CAROL. This is a fascinating appearance of the tune which is now fully associated with "It came upon the midnight clear".

Labels: Christmas, Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, hymns

It's Christmas time. And what better time to take a look at the Christmas hymns in The Hymnal 1982? In particular, we will be looking at the less commonly sung hymns in the Christmas section.

Background

First, some context. The Hymnal 1982 is the official hymnal of the Episcopal Church and has been since, well, around 1982.

There are 39 hymns in the Christmas section. There are 12 days of Christmas. That's 3.25 hymns per day. Compare this with Advent, which has 24 hymns. This year, this only provided one hymn per day. Epiphany is even worse, depending on how you look at it. Again, there are 24 hymns, but the time after Epiphany is often much longer than Advent.

So, why so many Christmas hymns?

Well, people love Christmas. And people especially love singing "carols" at Christmas time. (I'm using the word hymns to refer to the pieces of music in this hymnal, but yes, surely many of these also count as carols). So perhaps the demand is greater, and it is prudent to include more.

But what has prompted this little study is that there are hymns in the Christmas section that I have never sung.

I am a professional church musician, and I have never sung these hymns. Not even on my own. I am not aware of others singing them either.

What gives?

This is a puzzle. Why aren't they sung? Are we missing something? Should we be singing them? Are others actually singing them, and we just don't know about it?

Methodology for ranking popularity

Let's attempt to rank these hymns according to their popularity. And I mean man-on-the-street/woman-in-the-pew popularity. Since I haven't surveyed anyone I'm just guessing here, and I'm surely way off in a few cases.

I'm guessing about how "well known" they are: how much they are in institutional memories, and to what extent there is an actual practice of these hymns being sung in Episcopal churches during Christmastide.

So we're not talking about congregational singability (a couple of these hymns are a little suspect), we're just talking about hymn and tune recognition. In some cases, the tune can boost the "popularity" of a hymn when it is familiar from another context.

I'm using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. On this scale, we can crank it up to 11 for hymns which are unbelievably popular.

Let's get started, shall we?

Turning it up to 11: incredibly popular Christmas hymns

• Hymn 83: "O come, all ye faithful" - Hugely popular. It often serves as the first hymn at "Midnight Mass" on Christmas Eve. It's also ensconced as the penultimate hymn at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge.
• Hymn 87: "Hark! the herald angels sing - Also very popular, but maybe moreso due to it's climactic appearance in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special than as the last hymn at the King's service.
• Hymn 111: "Silent night, holy night" - This hymn features prominently in the old joke, "Father, every time I come to church you sing the same two hymns." To which the priest replies, "oh, really? What are they?" And the parishioner says "Well, the first is 'Jesus Christ is risen today'". The priest then prompts, "and what's the second?". And the parishioner sings "Silent night, holy night". It's about as funny as most church jokes.

  But people really do come just to sing this hymn, surely. And lighting a candle has become part of the package.

Labels: Christmas, Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, hymns, less familiar hymns

It is time, as it so often is this time of year, to "prepare ourselves to hear again" the annual Preview of the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge.

This service is, surely, the most famous regular church service in the world. It is heard live on the radio by a global audience numbering some 30 million. And nowadays it's heard by even more people in the days afterward through streaming audio from the BBC.

Keep in mind that we also made some very vague predictions for this service. First, let's check in on how we did.

• The first carol will be "Once in Royal David's city" - It is!

  Points: +1

• Rutter's "What sweeter music" seems a bit overdue - It still is! It is not a part of this year's service. We thought it might be heard as the Invitatory Carol after the Bidding Prayer, but no dice. That honor goes to a Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003) arrangement of "Ding! dong! merrily on high". This is the first time it will be sung at the service.

  -1 Point. Score: 0

  This is not one that we are familiar with. A bit of digging shows that it's a little "notey", but not in an altogether unpleasant way. It's certainly more reserved than that blasted Wilberg thing, about which we have very mixed feelings.

• We haven't heard the Warlock "Adam lay" in a while - and we still haven't. It was last performed in 2006. We missed our guess on this too.

  -1 Point. Score: -1

  There is no "Adam lay" carol at this year's service; a version by Brown was sung last year. Instead we get that happy "apple" alternative by Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987), last sung in 2009, and the premiere of the Thea Musgrave (b. 1928) carol commissioned for this year's service. If we had read that text a little more closely we could have predicted this too. Bad form on our part.

  -1 Point. Score: -2

• The second carol after the Third Lesson will be "God rest ye merry, gentlemen" - Nope. It's "Unto us a Son is born". Phooey.

  -1 Point. Score: -3

• A work by John Tavener will be heard either after the fourth or fifth lessons. We believe it will be either "A Hymn to the Mother", last heard in 1997 or "The Lamb". Actually, it will probably be "The Lamb", which was commissioned for the service in 1982. In that case it would be after the Fourth Lesson. - And it is indeed "The Lamb" after the Fourth Lesson. Well done, us.

  +2 Points. Score: -1

  However, a slight correction: this carol was not commissioned for this service. We got that wrong.

  Tavener said:

  I wrote The Lamb in 1982 while being driven by my mother from South Devon to London. It came to me fully grown so to speak, so all I had to do was to write it down. It was inspired by Blake and by my three-year-old nephew, Simon.

  (source)

• Cleobury will put down his own "Joys Seven" after the Fifth Lesson - unless he surprises us with a new carol of his, that is. - Well, I think we have two surprises. Two new (to us, anyway) Cleobury carols.

  +2 Points. Score: 1

  The first is "Love came down at Christmas", a Cleobury setting of the Rosetti poem and existing tune by R. O. Morris. (First page of this carol [PDF]). This is in fact a new new carol, having been written for last year's "Carols from King's", a made-for-TV version of the Christmas Eve service with largely different music.

  The second Cleobury carol arrangement is "Angelus ad virginem", which is heard immediately after the Fifth Lesson. It occupies the same position in the service held in 2006 by the original medieval version of this carol. And, hey! It's after the Fifth Lesson, just like we predicted!

  +1 Point. Score: 2

• "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" will be the second carol sung after the Seventh Lesson. - Huzzah!

  +1 Point. Score: 3

• And might we hear some Britten? We haven't. And this certainly seems like a good year for it. - It is a very good year indeed.

  Look, there's a Britten carol after the "The Lamb". It's "Here we bring new water", a simple ditty from his collection Friday Afternoons for trebles alone.

  +1 Point. Score: 4

  Oh, wait, there's another one! After the very next Lesson we get his famous A Hymn to the Virgin. I wonder if they'll utilize a different space in the chapel for the second choir?

  +2 Points. Score: 6

  Holy cow! There's a third Britten carol! It's "A boy was born", the opening section of the larger a capella work A Boy was Born, one of the earliest pieces to really put Britten on the map.

  +3 Points. Score: 9, as in Nine Lessons and Carols.

  See? Who needs Nate Silver when you have our totally intuitive ability to predict this stuff and a completely unbiased and scientific scoring system? It was a little rough there for a while, but in the end we come up smelling like a rose. Smell a rose, indeed!

There are quite a few things our predictions didn't touch on.

There's the "Joy the the world" after the Second Lesson which the choir will sing straight out of The New Oxford Book of Carols.

The wonderful Judith Weir (b. 1954) carol Illuminare, Jerusalem which is a true favorite of ours. Commissioned for this service in 1985, it's a piece that uses the choir very well and exploits the effect of the organ in that acoustic in the most remarkable way.

The David Willcocks (b. 1919) arrangement of "Away in a manger" is a literal repeat from last year's service. Same carol in the same spot. While Willcocks is, we think, always represented by at least a descant, the choir do not always sing one of his carols. This year, however, will be the third consecutive year that the choir have sung a Willcocks carol arrangement.

The hauntingly beautiful Bob Chilcott (b. 1955) "The Shepherd's Carol" is becoming more regular at this service. It has been sung three times since it's composition. It was originally written for the "Carols from King's" broadcast in 2000. It was sung at this service the very next year, and again in 2011.

Richard Rodney Bennet's (1936-2012) Susani is sung after the Eighth Lesson. This is fitting honor for a composer who died on Christmas Eve last year.

Finally, the sails are raised for Simon Preston's (b. 1938) "I saw three ships" in the year of the composer's 75^th birthday.

Labels: Bennett, Britten, Christmas, Cleobury, King's College (Cambridge), liturgy, Musgrave, Poston, Tavener, Williamson

The service booklet [PDF] for the 2013 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, has now been posted to the college website.

We have taken the opportunity to update our famous spreadsheet with this year's carols.

Behold: King's College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (1997-2013) (link corrected, sorry!)

However you choose to peruse this information, please be sure to familiarize yourself with this year's selections.

Labels: Christmas, Cleobury, King's College (Cambridge), liturgy

The inclusion of a newly commissioned piece of music at the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge is a tradition that began with Stephen Cleobury's tenure in 1982. This, of course, prevents the service from ever being the same from year to year.

It also is very fittingly incarnational. A creative response to God's greatest act of creation that we recall at Christmas.

This year's commissioned carol at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has been composed by Thea Musgrave.

The text she has chosen is a poem from William Blake's Songs of Experience

Hear the voice of the Bard,
Who present, past, and future, sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walked among the ancient trees;

Calling the lapséd soul,
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might control
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen light renew!

‘O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass!
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumbrous mass.

‘Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.'

William Blake (1757–1827)

Labels: Blake, Christmas, Cleobury, King's College (Cambridge), Musgrave

There is surely no blog on the internet that geeks out as much about the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge as this one.

Last year, we even reported that the King's website's claim that the service booklet would be available in the beginning of December was a little bit hasty. It wasn't available until slightly later.

This year, King's only goes so far as to say that the service booklet will be available "in December".

Thankfully, this once again gives Sinden.org the opportunity to make semi-educated guesses about what long-time music director Stephen Cleobury has put down for this year's service.

Open Source Liturgy Information: By the way, you may view a spreadsheet of music at previous years' services that we at Sinden.org have maintained. And see below about how you can earn your VERY OWN HOMEMADE FRUITCAKE.

• The first carol will be "Once in Royal David's city" - this will not surprise anyone.
• Rutter's "What sweeter music" seems a bit overdue - We bet we'll hear it as the Invitatory Carol after the Bidding Prayer.
• We haven't heard the Warlock "Adam lay" in a while - but maybe that's just us.
• The second carol after the Third Lesson will be "God rest ye merry, gentlemen"
• A work by John Tavener will be heard either after the fourth or fifth lessons. We believe it will be either "A Hymn to the Mother", last heard in 1997 or "The Lamb". Actually, it will probably be "The Lamb", which was commissioned for the service in 1982. In that case it would be after the Fourth Lesson.
• Cleobury will put down his own "Joys Seven" after the Fifth Lesson - unless he surprises us with a new carol of his, that is.
• "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" will be the second carol sung after the Seventh Lesson.
• And might we hear some Britten? We haven't. And this certainly seems like a good year for it.

There's so much music to think about.

We haven't even mentioned the commissioned carol by Thea Musgrave. We're not sure where that will go. Probably later in the service.

In some ways the service is more unpredictable than it has been in years past. This is, in our judgement, a good thing.

Also, let it be stated that if you can email service information from earlier than 1997 we will gladly bake and send you a fruitcake ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

Labels: Britten, Christmas, Cleobury, John Rutter, King's College (Cambridge), Musgrave, Tavener, Warlock

It's that time of year again; the time when you can catch the webcast of the Advent Carol Service from St. John's, Cambridge, but only for a few more days.

You can also follow along in the service leaflet.

The service has certainly enjoyed its instruments lately, and this year is no exception, with harp and saxophone (not simultaneously).

Also notable is the number of commissioned works in this year's service.

• The Call - Roxanna Panufnik, commissioned in 2010
• Vox clara ecce intonat - Gabriel Jackson, commissioned for this year's services (2013)
• The Annunciation - Jonathan Harvey, commissioned in 2011