Like so many ancient English customs, the singing style of the choir of King's College, Cambridge is of Victorian origin. Before then, most of the singers had possessed only the most rudimentary musical knowledge, and the singing had been rough and harsh. By the 1930s all the men were choral scholars, and the choir, directed by a fellow of the College, was distinguished by its sweetness and brightness. It quickly became famous through broadcasts and especially with the Christmas Eve transmission of the Ceremony of Nine Lessons and Carols, whose 100th anniversary falls this year. But it was with the LP record in the 1950s and 60s, when the choir was directed by David Willcocks, that the singing style became fixed in public consciousness as the quintessence of English cathedral music.

Singing styles of whatever kind intimately reflect the societies and communities that nurture them. When middle-class English men and boys learned to sing at King's their music-making demonstrated fastidious control and restraint and an absence of vibrato and of strong dynamic contrasts. Why did they sing like that? How had this style evolved? Why did it draw in and move so profoundly many men and women of different faiths and of none all round the world? This book provides original answers to these questions.