The Darkling Trush

Oscar award winning composer Rachel Portman has written a new carol The Darkling Thrush, commissioned for the King’s College A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The service took place on Christmas Eve 2025 at the Chapel of King’s College and was broadcast worldwide. The Darkling Thrush is a setting of the poem by Thomas Hardy, written around 1900. Portman, who was the first female composer to win an Academy Award for her original score for Emma, has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre. Some of her other works include scores for The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, and an opera based on Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince for Houston Grand Opera. Portman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours. Talking about the commission, Portman said: ‘I chose Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush to set as a carol because it’s about faith in renewal... I was particularly drawn to its deep rural setting, beginning as it does in the cold winter landscape, and the uplifting song of the little bird that bursts out upon the stillness bringing hope. The thrush’s song in the poem is given to a solo chorister, and the choir responds in growing warmth and melody. The poignancy of a frail thrush’s song as the bringer of hope into the world is, I feel, a good message for our time.’ The annual service A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and distributed by American Public Media across 400 radio stations on Christmas Eve 2025 at 3pm GMT.