King's College evensong: a guide to choral evensong in Cambridge

King's College evensong: what to expect

King's College evensong is the most famous free choral service in the world, and it is open to anyone who turns up in time. The Choir of King's College sings choral evensong in the chapel on most days of the university term; the college describes its pattern as typically six days a week, with King's Voices, its mixed-voice choir, singing on Mondays. Visitor guides commonly give the weekday start as 5.30pm, with an earlier afternoon service on Sundays, but times move for special occasions, so the service calendar on the King's website is the one to trust on the day, and the college's page on attending chapel services sets out the arrangements.

A service lasts up to an hour. It begins with the choir processing in, and most of what follows is sung: the responses, a psalm, two canticles (the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis), and an anthem. There are two short readings and some prayers. Nobody is asked to sing, although the congregation joins in the hymns at weekend services. Entry costs nothing. The college states plainly that its services are free and open to visitors and members alike; it is the daytime tour of the chapel that needs a ticket.

Queueing and getting in

On a quiet weekday in term, arriving twenty minutes or so before the service is often enough. On Saturdays, Sundays, in the run-up to Christmas and whenever a well-known piece is on the music list, the queue starts much earlier, and the college's own visitor guidance has described queues forming up to an hour beforehand at the main entrance on King's Parade. The gate opens shortly before the service, the queue moves into the college, and people are then admitted to the chapel itself. Once the service starts, the doors close: King's does not admit latecomers.

A few house rules apply. Bags larger than airline hand luggage are not allowed in. Photography and recording of any kind are forbidden during services, and phones should be switched off. There are no public toilets in the college. If you might need to leave early, ask the staff to seat you in the ante-chapel, west of the organ screen, so you can slip out without crossing the choir.

Evensong in Cambridge beyond King's

For many regular listeners, evensong in Cambridge means somewhere other than King's, and choral evensong in Cambridge is sung in more than a dozen college chapels. St John's College, across Trinity Street, has a choir of equal standing. According to the college, choral evensong is sung at 6.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday during Full Term, lasting about forty minutes, and visitors are welcome without tickets; on Sundays the pattern changes around the morning Eucharist. Visitors enter through the Great Gate or the Forecourt Gate, and during term access to the college is limited to the chapel for services.

Trinity College Choir, a mixed choir of students, sings three services a week in its chapel in term, and those services are also webcast. Clare College Chapel Choir usually sings evensong on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, again with the public welcome. Gonville and Caius, Jesus, Selwyn, Queens', Pembroke and others keep their own choral services, each with a slightly different weekly rhythm. The table gives the usual pattern for four of the best-known choirs.

Patterns shift from term to term and services are added or cancelled for feast days, tours and special events, so the term card on each college's website is the reference. St John's publishes its services on the chapel and choir pages.

What choral evensong is

Choral evensong is the evening service of the Church of England, set largely to music, and King's College evensong follows the same order as any parish or cathedral service. Hearing choral evensong in Cambridge is mostly a matter of knowing the term dates. Its words come from the Book of Common Prayer, and its shape has hardly changed in centuries, which is why a visitor can follow it with the printed order of service even without knowing the Anglican liturgy. The music changes daily. A choir might sing Tudor polyphony by Byrd or Tallis on one day, a Victorian setting by Stanford the next and a newly commissioned anthem after that. That rotation is part of the appeal for regular listeners, who check the music lists in advance the way others check concert programmes.

The style of the sound belongs to the place. The long, high spaces of the college chapels give the voices a reverberation that recordings struggle to capture, and the antiphonal layout of the stalls, with the choir split into two sides facing each other, lets the music pass back and forth across the aisle.

A short etiquette guide for first-time visitors

There is no dress code, and nobody expects visitors to know when to stand or sit: watch the people in front, or follow the printed order of service, which usually tells you. Sit where the stewards direct you. Applause is not part of a service, even after a spectacular anthem, and the end comes when the choir and clergy process out, often during an organ voluntary that is worth staying for. Children are welcome, but a full hour of stillness is a lot to ask of a small child, so the ante-chapel is the place for families who might need to leave.

Term, vacation and special services

Out of term the picture changes for King's College evensong and for evensong in Cambridge generally. College choirs are often on tour or on holiday, and services may be said rather than sung, or sung by visiting choirs from schools and parishes. King's publishes separate service lists for the vacations. The best-known service of the year, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve, is a special case: there is no longer a public queue for it, and tickets are allocated in advance through an annual online ballot. For everyone who misses out, it goes out live on the radio.