Should Christmas carols be dressed up in grand, festive arrangements? Or are they best simple and unadorned? For the latter approach, listen to our Album of the Week, a collection of English carols and early American songs sung by Anonymous 4.

New York is home to many wonderful amateur and semi-professional choral groups whose enthusiasm and accomplishment are part of the city’s lifeblood yet whose work goes largely unheralded. Here are a few of the best.

Jeff Spurgeon writes: "I’ve sung in good choirs and not-as-good choirs, in ensembles large and small, singing early music and brand-new music. I’ve been a useful chorister, and, at least one time, a completely useless one."