The original statutes specified that the choir should consist of ten chaplains, six clerks (lay singers) and 16 choristers who were to be "poor and needy boys, of sound condition and honest conversation ... knowing competently how to read and sing".

Perhaps recognising the workload placed upon the choristers who were to sing Matins, Mass and Vespers daily, the statutes also stated that "they should be doubly occupied with their prescribed duties and with their education".

In addition the boys alone sang daily "in the finest manner they know" the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and also the evening votive antiphon.

[3] When Henry VI was deposed during the Wars of the Roses in 1461, a period of brief instability resulted in reduced numbers for a while due to lack of funds.

Field oversaw the acquisition of innovative polyphonic music in the Eton Choirbook style, and appointed a new precentor with expertise in the complicated Salisbury Liturgy.

[3] This was maintained until the succession of Protestant Edward VI in 1547, when a deterioration in choral music at King's began which lasted until the late Victorian period.

[3] Elizabeth I visited the chapel in 1564, and attended evensong on 5 August and again the following night, although she turned up late, causing the service to be restarted.

It is recorded that pricksong was sung (an early form of polyphony with a melody performed as a counterpoint to a plainsong) as it likely had been since the foundation of the college.

John Jebb's 1843 enquiry into Anglican choirs found that in Cambridge, the Choral Service has suffered mutilation in every place where it is retained.

The Choir indeed attends twice daily; but the prayers are not chanted (a very modern innovation), and at the Sunday morning service the Nicene Creed is not sung.

The same year a new Master over the Choristers was appointed, who was tasked with being "watchful of their moral conduct" and "maintaining discipline without undue severity at all times".

[2] To further widen the field for selection it was decided to open a boarding school instead of paying for choristers to be lodged with local families.

These students must gain an academic place at Cambridge University as well as successfully obtaining a choral award at King's College through an audition process.

The choral scholars form collectively, in their spare time, a separate group, The King's Men, singing a wide range of music written for men's voices, from early music through to barbershop arrangements (many of the latter having been written exclusively for the group by present/former Choral Scholars).

An organ Scholarship is awarded as necessary to ensure that there are always two undergraduate organists in the college - a new scholar is appointed to arrive when the previous one graduates.

The choir maintains a strong recording and touring schedule, in addition to its duties at King's College Chapel, in Cambridge.