Wednesday, December 26, 2007

King's College Choir - Once In Royal David's City

A bit late for Christmas, but I only chanced upon this today. You don't have to be religious to appreciate the beauty of this tune or the choir that sings it.

But why miss an opportunity to diss our ABC yet again? Why it has made the decision not to show the service of Nine Lessons and carols on Christmas Eve any more I don't know, though I suspect that small-minded parochial nationalism is behind this.

Now all we get is a similar kind of thing from an Australian cathedral. The simple fact is that the choir of King's is head and shoulders above the quality of any local one. And this service is a long standing international Christmas tradition.

I'm all for the ABC supporting local choirs and giving people an opportunity to hear them sing, but why play around with this?

And do we really need to see the Anglican archbishop of Melbourne pretending to be an Orthodox hierarch, giving the blessing at the end with the tip of his fourth finger touching that of his thumb? I think not.




And while I'm at it - The Seven Joys of Mary:



Finally, one of my favourites, the old Basque carol The Angel Gabriel:

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