Today's piece in our series on the people who make Christmas in the country sees Kate Green meet Tim Parsons at Wells Cathedral.
It’s a first Christmas at Wells Cathedral, Somerset, for Tim Parsons, who started there on September 1 as director of music and organist. ‘It’s going to be amazing, really special,’ he enthuses. ‘The cathedral is a magical building at any time, but I can only imagine what it’s going to be like with all the decorations and candlelight. I’m hugely excited. One of the privileges of my job is actually to be working at Christmas — it’s a joy to be doing something useful on this day.’
Mr Parsons, once a chorister at Guildford in Surrey and an organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge, was at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Suffolk, previously. ‘I was very happy there, but then Wells came up — it’s a great privilege to be here.’
Wells Cathedral School, founded in 909 (motto: ‘Be what you are’), has long been renowned for its music and the cathedral choir was one of the first to feature girl choristers (currently 19, with 14 boys) — it’s their 30th anniversary this year. As in all cathedrals, the Christmas schedule is full-on for choristers: three candlelight services (December 19, 20 and 21), two Nine Lessons and Carols concerts (December 23 and 24), Midnight Mass and Christmas morning, after which they can go home for lunch (there is no Evensong that day). During the run-up, the daily Evensong rhythm is halted for Christmas preparations.
Mr Parsons will choose a mix of modern and traditional settings for the service, including the annually commissioned carol, this time composed by the bass Piers Connor Kennedy, a former Wells choral scholar. Britten’s Ceremony of Carols is a speciality, performed every year for the Wells Cathedral Chorister Trust, which provides bursaries for talented children, and of which The Duchess of Edinburgh is patron.
‘The thing I love about the Christmas repertoire is the mix of modern and ancient — amazing medieval texts, full of character — and then recent compositions, those of Eric Whitacre, John Tavener and Morten Lauridsen,’ says Mr Parsons. ‘A favourite hymn carol of mine is Silent Night, for its simple melody, lovely harmonies and the story of how it came about two centuries ago — the words written by a young priest after walking through a snowy village in the Austrian Alps. Magical.’
Christmas treat ‘Mulled wine or a whisky mac in front of the fire with my family.’www.wellscathedral.org.uk
This piece is extracted from an article in Country Life’s 2024 Christmas double issue — see what else is inside and order a copy here
