As Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has written a new carol for Her Majesty the Queen each Christmas since his appointment to the role in 2004. A Winter Lamb, a setting of George Mackay Brown's poem Kings and Shepherds, was written for Christmas 2012 and is the ninth in his series of Royal Carols. A Winter Lamb was first performed in St. James's Palace by the choir of the Chapel Royal.