Pull up a pew for online carol service

The stalls in New College’s 13th-Century Chapel, with their famous misericords, can seat only around 250 people – if everyone agrees to breathe in. Unsurprisingly, then, the choir’s Christmas Carol Service on the last Sunday of term (December 4, 2011) was an all-seater. But since then, many hundreds more people have listened to the service thanks to the choir’s decision to record and upload selected services on their website.

‘We began webcasting in October 2010 for a number of reasons,’ said Edward Higginbottom, director of the New College Chapel Choir and the Choral Professor in the Music Faculty. ‘It allows us to share worldwide what happens on a daily basis in Chapel; to chronicle the choir’s quotidian work; to contribute to carbon savings by allowing visitors to ‘attend’ one of our services at home; and to give us as a group of musicians a regular ‘control’ of our work. Those who can’t get out for one reason or another are also very much in our minds.’

The feedback has been enthusiastic and the website has a regular stream of traffic, allowing the choir to reach out beyond its usual audience to listeners worldwide. New College is not the first choir to put such a scheme in place and, in Professor Higginbottom’s opinion, they will not be the last. He said: ‘I’m sure other choirs will adopt webcasting in the future. St John’s Cambridge already does and Merton has occasional webcasts from their chapel. Webcasting services is a great way of opening up an experience that we can easily take for granted here in Oxford.’

The Christmas Carol Service can be heard here – and wearing your Sunday best while listening to it is optional.