An ‘erudite, original and surprisingly moving’ history of the evolution of England’s best-loved singing style (Boyd Tonkin)

The sound of the choir of King’s College, Cambridge - its voices perfectly blended, its emotions restrained, its impact sublime - has become famous all over the world, and for many, the distillation of a particular kind of Englishness, a tradition stretching back to the Middle Ages. This is especially so at Christmas time, with the broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. How did this small band of men and boys in a famous fenland town in England come to sing in the extraordinary way they did? Investigating the timbres of voices, the enunciation of words, the use of vibrato, I Saw Eternity the Other Night provides an original answer to this question and illuminates the ways in which the singing of all human beings, in whatever style, reflects in profound and subtle ways their preoccupations and attitudes to life.