Voices of tradition

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 12th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a very traditional Christmas celebration.

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols started in England more than a century ago. It’s made up of nine Bible readings: it begins with the fall of mankind in Genesis to the promise of the Savior, and then to Christ's birth. In between the readings, Christmas carols.

REICHARD: The Maryland State Boychoir presents the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols annually. And that’s not the only way this choir keeps ancient musical traditions alive.

WORLD senior writer Emma Freire attended a rehearsal to find out more.

CHOIR SINGING: The first Noel the angel did say…

EMMA FREIRE: The Maryland State Boychoir is getting ready for Christmas. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is one of their most popular events of the year.

Stephen Holmes is the choir’s artistic director.

HOLMES: Many people say this is what makes their Christmas, ushers them into the Christmas season.

He says they offer three performances each year and they all pretty much sell out each time.

HOLMES: The building is decorated beautifully for Christmas, with lights and wreaths and poinsettias. And really, it's pretty beautiful in sight and sound. It is a feast for the eyes and the ears.

Lucas Arzayus joined the choir when he was 11. He is now 22 and works there as a choral scholar while also studying music in college. He and the other members of the choir are looking forward to Lessons and Carols.

ARZAYUS: It is 100% viewed as a spectacular event, and it is one that is always greeted with much enthusiasm, with much joy, and with much reverence, because we know that this is probably the most significant performance that we have, because it is a purely boy choir tradition—one that started back in 1918 with the choir of Kings College Cambridge, and one that continues now.

Arzayus’ favorite carol is Once in Royal David’s City, which is traditionally sung at the opening.

CHOIR SINGING: He came down to earth from heaven…

ARZAYUS: That is the true feeling of a boy choir service, when you hear the boy soprano singing the first verse and then you see the procession and it's capped off by by just a glorious descant.

CHOIR SINGING: And his shelter was a stable…

The boys wear traditional choir robes for the performance. But at this evening’s rehearsal, most of them are in hoodies and sneakers.

AUDIO: [Choir talking]

They goof around as they arrive, but as soon as rehearsal starts, everyone is focused on the music.

AUDIO: [Choir warming up]

A choir that’s only for boys and young men is unusual in America today.

HOLMES: We've provided so many spaces where boys can do physical activities, and that's a really wonderful thing, but we haven't provided so many spaces for a safe, welcoming place for boys to have artistic endeavors, whether theater or dance or music.

Holmes thinks a boychoir can contribute something unique to a boys’ development.

HOLMES: For boys to sing with other young men that are passionate about it. There's an attention to detail, there's a discipline, there's a personal responsibility, there is a requirement of excellence. And I don't say that with any pretense or arrogance, but just an idea that the music that we sing is not what people would expect 14-year-old boys to be doing or 8-year-old boys to be doing. It's collegiate and adult, professional type level singing.

He also believes this is an important musical tradition to keep alive.

HOLMES: We of course, trace back the heritage of boys singing to the Old Testament. The boys, as a coming of age rite of passage, would learn the Psalms of Ascent as they were processing to Jerusalem. And so then that carried on into the Christian tradition, of course, in cathedrals and churches and chapels. So much of the great music of centuries was written with boys’ voices in mind.

The Maryland State Boychoir was founded in the late 80s and is based in Baltimore. Today it has around 125 members and they perform roughly 100 concerts a year.

Holmes’ entire life has been intertwined with the choir. He first joined when he was 9 years old and, even at that young age, it struck a chord.

HOLMES: For me, it was the beauty of the music, the beauty of the words, and a certain aesthetic that was just different than your everyday nine or 10 year old boys experience. It wasn't that I didn't like baseball or soccer or playing in the backyard, but there was something that was set apart when you were singing, making music at a high level and also with other boys.

CHOIR SINGING: Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary bore Jesus…

For Holmes, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a beautiful way to keep the tradition of a boychoir going.

CHOIR SINGING: And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire in Baltimore, Maryland.

CHOIR SINGING: And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly.
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly!

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