Rehearsal plan
Please click here for Simon's rehearsal schedule for the Autumn term. Note that this schedule is not updated during the term, so keep an eye on the rehearsal diary for any changes.Rehearsal aids - Christmas 2025
For our Christmas concerts, John Fletcher Music is a good option, as it covers most of the pieces. The table below indicates whether they are free or require a paid premium licence (which costs about £1 per month). See below the table for some more info.If you prefer, YouTube also has videos of each part, for most of the pieces. Where there are many such videos I've chosen one but feel free to search for others! Cyberbass does not cover these works.
Christmas pieces
The pieces are in Christmas Cracker concert order. Rowcroft carols are shown in bold with an asterisk (see emails for the order of service.)NB: if short on practice time, concentrate on the 3 main 'choir only' carols (Balulalow, In dulci jubilo, Tomorrow shall...), and then on Adam lay ybounden. The audience carols can be sung in unison if needed.
| Piece | Who | Page | John Fletcher | YouTube parts | YouTube Performance | Notes |
| Once in Royal David's City * (O'Donnell) |
Audience + Choir | 165 | PREMIUM All singers omit v3. Sops ignore this descant (for correct descant see performance), |
Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (normal harmony only) |
Once in Royal David's City - with the correct descant at 4:01 | Omit v3 in the Noel book. |
| Adam lay ybounden (Ord) | Choir Only | 2 | PREMIUM | Soprano Alto Tenor Bass |
Adam lay ybounden | Same as Carols for Choirs |
| See amid the winter’s snow (arr. Lloyd) | Audience + Choir | 180 | PREMIUM - but see notes |
Not available | See amid the winter's snow - but see notes | All sing the tune for all verses (i.e. all unison, no harmonies.) |
|
In dulci jubilo * |
Choir Only |
56 | FREE | Soprano Alto Tenor Bass |
In dulci jubilo | |
| While shepherds watched their flocks by night (arr. McWilliam) | Audience + Choir | 263 | PREMIUM (but ignore last verse harmony - see notes) |
Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (Ignore last verse harmony - see notes) |
While shepherds washed (Ignore last verse harmony - see notes) |
Sing verse 6 the same as verses 1-5 |
| Bethlehem Down (Warlock) | Semi-chorus Only | 12 | FREE | All 4 parts | Bethlehem Down | |
| It came upon the midnight clear (arr. Sullivan, descant Hill) | Audience + Choir | 66 | PREMIUM Ignore descant. |
Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (harmony section only) |
It came upon a midnight clear Ignore descant |
v5 all sing in unison (no descant). Other verses sing harmony if you know it. |
| Tomorrow shall be my dancing day * (Gardner) |
Choir Only |
224 | PREMIUM | All 4 parts | Tomorrow shall be | |
|
God rest you merry, gentlemen * |
Audience + Choir | 43 | N/A - see notes | N/A - see notes | God rest you merry starting from correct descant at 2:28 (ignore earlier harmony verses) | Sing the tune in unison, except Sops sing descant in last verse. See YouTube performance for descant. |
| Ding dong merrily on high (Wood) | Audience + Choir | 25 | FREE | All 4 parts | Ding dong merrily | Same as Carols for Choirs. Now will be with audience. |
| Hark! the herald angels sing * (Hill) |
Audience + Choir | 46 | PREMIUM Sops please ignore the different descant |
All 4 parts (harmony section only) |
Hark the herald - with the correct descant at 1:52 | Same as Carols for Choirs except for descant. Listen to YouTube performance for the right descant. |
| Balulalow * (Coleridge) |
Choir Only | Sheet | Not available but here are some simple practice lines instead, let me (Matt) know of any mistakes! Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (Note: no need to login, just play or download.) |
Balulalow Also on Spotify: Balulalow |
bar 18: "bow" rhymes with "wow". The YouTube performance differs in bars 19-20. We will sing them as per score. | |
| O come, all ye faithful * (Hill) |
Audience + Choir | 118 & 122 (not verse 7) | PREMIUM Sops please ignore the different descant |
All 4 parts (harmony section only) |
O Come all ye faithful - with the correct descant at 2:18 | Listen to YouTube performance for the right descant. For Buckfast omit v4 in the Noel book (Cracker TBC). Always omit v7. |
More about rehearsal aids
A number of websites provide rehearsal aids to help you practise your part. You can bookmark / favourite / download them to avoid having to come back here each time.
John Fletcher Music
For copyright works on John Fletcher Music you will need a premium plan (£4.40 for 4 months or £12.70 for a year; pretty good value for over 12,000 works!). Others can be accessed via the free starter plan. Note that, you still need to sign up even if only accessing the free ones.
To play the files, first click on one of the links above, and login if necessary. (Or you can search for a piece / composer in the search box.)
Some files (including all those marked PREMIUM in the table above) use John Fletcher's new player, which is simple to use - just select your part and press play (you can also download the file, via the 3 vertical dots next to your part).
YouTube
Many of the more popular works have rehearsal aids (and performances) on YouTube. In the Youtube search box, enter the following search terms, and choose a video that you like:
name of the piece + composer/arranger + your part name (e.g. alto)Note that from the ⚙ (Settings) menu you can adjust the playback speed to a preset or custom value, to play your line more slowly.
Spotify
If you already subscribe to Spotify, it is a good place to find performances (and occasionally parts too.) If you don't subscribe, it's not really worth doing so just for rehearsal aids, as the subscription cost is high and ever-increasing. There are other similar services like Amazon Music too.
Cyberbass
The Christmas pieces are not on Cyberbass, which generally only covers large works that are out of copyright.
