The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols performance by the Greenbrier Valley Chorale on Sunday, Dec. 14, is patterned after the famous Christmas Eve service that has been held annually at Kings College Chapel in England since 1918. The service, which was first broadcast in 1928, is now heard annually by millions of people around the world. However, the only way to hear the Greenbrier Valley Chorale’s version is to attend the performance at 3 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, 105 Church Street in Lewisburg.
The program will include songs and carols, some ancient and some contemporary, combined with Bible readings by community members. As is traditional in the King’s College service, it will begin with the singing of Once in Royal David’s City by the choir and audience.
The Chorale will open with the 15th Century carol, Adam Lay Ybounden. The next selection is Stanford Scriven’s setting of Christ the Appletree, in which Christ is depicted as the unwavering apple tree, a symbol of strength and abundant life. The piece utilizes musical elements commonly found in the Early American folk canon.
The Chorale travels to Spain for the next work, Ríu, Ríu Chíu, a lively Sixteenth Century carol that has been performed by groups ranging from the King’s Singers to the Monkees.
The next selection is David Willcocks’ arrangement of Gabriel’s Message, a Basque Christmas folk carol about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ.
Morten Lauridsen’s hauntingly beautiful setting of O Magnum Mysterium follows. The text depicts the birth of the newborn King among the lowly animals. The women of the Chorale will perform John Rutter’s lilting arrangement of the traditional English carol Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, in which Jesus’ life is characterized as a dance.
The full choir will then perform Gloria and Et in Terra Pax from Vivaldi’s magnificent Gloria, followed by George Hernandez’s intricate setting of the Sixteenth Century French carol, Ding, Dong! Merrily on High.
The program will conclude with Frank Kuykendall’s majestic arrangement of Joy to the Word and to contemporary works that have become audience favorites at the Chorale’s annual Christmas concerts: This Christmastide by Donald Fraser and Sing We Noel by Noȅl Goemanne.
The audience will join in to sing some familiar carols. The program will be a moving celebration of the true meaning of Christmas.
Tickets are available online at www.greenbriervalleychorale.org, and they will be sold at the door on the day of the concert (not downstairs at the Carnegie Hall box office). Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students K-12.
The Greenbrier Valley Chorale supports a policy of accessibility, and Carnegie Hall is ADA compliant. The Chorale receives support from the Greenbrier County Arts and Recreation Fund and generous private donors.
