Oscar and multi award-winning composer Rachel Portman has composed a new carol, commissioned by King’s College, Cambridge. The Darkling Thrush will be premiered on Christmas Eve as part of the world-famous A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast live worldwide on BBC Radio and MPR.
For millions listening to the radio around the world, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, live from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, marks the beginning of Christmas. The service is based around nine Bible readings which tell the story of the loving purposes of God. They are interspersed with carols old and new, sung by the world-famous Chapel choir, who also lead the congregation in traditional Christmas hymns. The annual service was introduced in 1918 to bring a more imaginative approach to worship. It was first broadcast in 1928 and is now broadcast to millions of people. A new work has been commissioned for the service every year since 1983.
More than four decades on from that first commission, Chester Music composer Rachel Portman has composed The Darkling Thrush, a setting of the poem by Thomas Hardy which was written around 1900.
“I chose Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush to set as a carol because it’s about faith in renewal”, says Rachel Portman. “It was first suggested to me by my daughter who’d studied Hardy’s poems. I needed to find a text to sit within the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s and initially I was unsure it would be appropriate, however when the same poem was suggested by Laura Davies from the English Faculty at King’s, I looked again and discovered much in the words to set. I was particularly drawn to its deep rural setting, beginning as it does in the cold winter landscape, and the uplifting song of the little bird that bursts out upon the stillness bringing hope.
"The thrush’s song in the poem is given to a solo chorister, and the choir responds in growing warmth and melody. The poignancy of a frail thrush’s song as the bringer of hope into the world is, I feel, a good message for our time.”
Daniel Hyde, Director of Music at King's, says: “I am delighted that Rachel has written a carol for us this year. Thomas Hardy’s text sets a beautiful scene, and I hope this will conjure up a wonderful atmosphere in the Chapel on Christmas Eve.”
The Broadcast
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24th December 2025, 15:00 GMT (10:00 EST or 07:00 PST) Live on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service & Minnesota Public Radio
A service of carols, hymns and readings, live from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge
Daniel Hyde, Director of Music
Harrison Cole, Assisting Organist
The Revd Dr Stephen Cherry, Dean
The Revd Dr Jonathan Kimber, Chaplain
Katharine Longworth, Producer
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on 24 December at 3pm GMT (10:00 EST or 07:00 PST). The service is also re-broadcast at 1pm on Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and at various times on the BBC World Service.
In the United States the service is distributed by American Public Media and is broadcast by over 400 radio stations, including Minnesota Public Radio and WQXR in New York.
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is distinct from Carols from King's, which is a carol service pre-recorded for BBC television, also broadcast on Christmas Eve.
The Music
Sheet music for The Darkling Thrush will be available for purchase and download following the premiere via wisemusicclassical.com
The Darkling Thrush
by Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
For press enquiries please contact
Kate Johnson, Promotion & Communications Director, Wise Music Group (London)
kate.johnson@wisemusic.com | +44 (0)7920 197354
