Unlike other Cambridge collegiate choirs, which are on vacation in mid-December, King’s College Choir does sing at Christmas, and many carols have been composed for its renowned Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols held each Christmas Eve. All bells in paradise was written for the 2012 Festival, at the invitation of Stephen Cleobury, Director of Music at King’s. For this, the third carol I have written for them, I turned to a carol text more or less contemporary with King’s Chapel itself, All bells in paradise I heard them ring—this provided the first line of what was otherwise my own new text.

from notes by John Rutter © 2015