The carol service brings the whole school community together and is a unique moment in our musical year. Mr Dyer has overseen 24 Services of Readings and Carols during his time as Director of Music at Sevenoaks:
The traditional English Carol Service is the ‘Christmas Special’ of Evensong. Rather like that distinctly English service, it is part concert, part religious service. Frequently observed without a sermon, the listener is required to put together the message, which is delivered part through bible readings and part through musical reflections on these readings.
Obviously, Christmas music is not exclusive to England or even Europe, and this is reflected in my choice of music, which includes music by German, Spanish and Dutch composers as well as English. Some composers are well known (Mendelssohn), some are not especially well known (Warlock and Buxtehude) and some very much conform to the Music department’s current aim to programme good music by under-represented composers (Messaus and Guerrero, although this latter Renaissance composer is being increasingly performed).
There are two baroque carols from different ends of the 17th century which are afforded the string accompaniments that would have featured back in the day and, seeing as we have a string quartet available, I have made use of this in the Mendelssohn carol as well.
Each year, I take great pleasure in curating the music for Christmas and it is one of the things I will miss most about moving on from my current post.
Christopher Dyer
This year’s service took place at St Mary’s, Kippington. Thank you to our organists, Noah, Orphée, Cookie and Emily; our soloists Camilla, Seth, Dennis and Mr Hollingbury; string players Eve, Hugh, Jane and Lia; conductors Mr Dyer, Ms Day and Miss Eccleshall; our readers who represented the whole school community; and to the Revd Anne Bourne and all at St Mary’s.
