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Music That Stays: discovering local carol traditions
Opera, Class, and Who Gets to Belong
Music That Stays: discovering local carol traditions
As we hurtle towards the new year, I find myself mid-move to a part of the UK I know very little about.
This is not a move to a dream home or long-imagined destination, but a temporary relocation to manage relationships and life responsibilities. Being able to work largely remotely made the move possible, even if the logistics have been far from simple; emotionally, it has opened up something more unexpected. I have always enjoyed new beginnings. Starting again often feels quietly exciting and, perhaps surprisingly, relatively free of expectation.
Arriving somewhere new
My new base is Belper, Derbyshire. I have no real sense yet of what this area holds for me musically. On paper, there is plenty nearby: Buxton Opera House, home to both the Buxton International Festival and the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, and Sheffield, where English Touring Opera is in the process of relocating its base. But proximity to activity is not the same as knowing a place — wherever in the world you happen to be based. If you are in these parts, do drop me an email at [email protected]. It is always a pleasure to meet new people and begin to understand a local scene from the inside.
Stumbling into song
To escape the relentlessness of juggling personal life, AO, and making the house habitable, we came away for a few days to Shropshire over Twixmas to walk, see ancient trees, and rest — including a short detour to the Candelabra Oak in neighbouring Herefordshire. In the way these things often happen, I stumbled into something musical entirely by accident.
Stepping into a local pub, hearty carols poured from a packed-out side room and greeted us in the hallway. My eyes lit up.
Any singer reading this will know December’s particular madness well: oratorio, concert and service after service, right through to Christmas morning. Gone are the days when my own final run-up to Christmas included multiple Carols by Candlelight performances at the Royal Albert Hall. The highlight of that punishing schedule was always the moment when Steven Devine would silence the choir and we would sit, listening to a packed-out hall sing Away in a Manger. Magical. Then I would leg it to midnight mass before crawling back into central London for the morning service. No doubt many of you are still recovering from similarly relentless schedules.
Stepping into a local pub, hearty carols poured from a packed-out side room and greeted us in the hallway. My eyes lit up.
Any singer reading this will know December’s particular madness well: oratorio, concert and service after service, right through to Christmas morning. Gone are the days when my own final run-up to Christmas included multiple Carols by Candlelight performances at the Royal Albert Hall. The highlight of that punishing schedule was always the moment when Steven Devine would silence the choir and we would sit, listening to a packed-out hall sing Away in a Manger. Magical. Then I would leg it to midnight mass before crawling back into central London for the morning service. No doubt many of you are still recovering from similarly relentless schedules.
Strangely familiar?
As I settled in and attempted to join O Come, O Come Emmanuel and While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night, something felt off. Familiar fragments of melody and lyric surfaced, but they did not quite align with what my musical memory anticipated. For a brief moment, I questioned my own memory, as this way of singing was clearly second nature to everyone else. I had not forgotten the carols; I had stepped into a different local tradition — something the regulars around me were only too happy to explain.
Back at our accommodation, with curiosity piqued, I went looking for what I had just experienced and found the Castle Carols project in Bishop’s Castle:
https://castlecarols.com/castle-carols-2/
That page, in turn, alerted me to something closer to my new home: a long-running carol-singing tradition associated with Sheffield and North Derbyshire:
https://castlecarols.com/the-sheffield-carols/
Where these songs went
Local carol traditions are sustained through communal memory and participation—often learned by ear and carried forward across generations. As church music and liturgy became increasingly standardised in the nineteenth century, many local variants fell out of regular church use. Rather than disappearing, some communities carried them into secular and community spaces, where they continued to be sung, remembered, and passed on.
What I love most is the reminder that tradition is rarely one neat, fixed thing. It is messy and local and lived. It evolves. It travels. It splits into versions. It survives because people decide it matters.
Closer to home
So here we are, with the new year not yet rung in, and a new home base already beginning to shape how I listen. I still love the carols and settings I grew up with, but this experience has deepened my interest in the local paths music takes — how it emerges, shifts, and settles in different places.
I would love to hear about yours.
Are there musical traditions where you live that outsiders rarely encounter? Songs, carols, choirs, gatherings, rituals, or ways of making music that are rooted in place? If so, do tell us. Reply to this email and share a tradition local to you (and where it is kept alive). I would love to learn what exists beyond my own musical map.
And yes, I will admit to a small note of disappointment that I did not get to sing the descant to O Come, All Ye Faithful even once this Christmas. There is always next year.
Wishing you all a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a very happy New Year, wherever you are in the world.
Melanie
Founder, Audition Oracle
PS If you know of local musical gatherings, traditions or seasonal rituals, whether close to home or further afield, I am all ears.