Note: This survey of favourite CDs of Anglican liturgical music is reprinted from the newsletter of the Edmonton Branch of the Prayer Book Society of Canada.

Favourable comments on last year's article on Christmas music—often appended with requests for more articles on music—have been offered from several sources. So here you have it, a view from the pew on some of the really good Anglican liturgical music available to us today. These are recordings that impressed me enough in my work at Edmonton's The Gramophone that I have added them to my own family music library. It is, obviously, an arbitrary selection.

Right at the top of my list has to be a wonderful collection of four-part Anglican chant psalm settings, Psalms for the Soul, a real bargain from Naxos at about $10. Most of these are very traditional ones that anyone who grew up with the Prayer Book will recognize (or think they recognize). A few are distinctly modern including the opening number, a setting by John Sanders of "The Reproaches for Good Friday". "Modern" is often, to my musical taste, a pejorative term but this ten minute piece is quite delicious, with dissonant harmonies all of a sudden coming into focus with a short bit of four-part Anglican chant, then dissolving again into minor dissonance (fear not: it's very Anglican, all in good taste). Some of the settings are not found in The Canadian Psalter (Anglican Chant) but I would expect that all will sound familiar. This is an all Canadian production by the excellent Choir of St. John's, Elora, Ontario.

Also from Naxos we have a very recent (2005) offering, John Stainer's oratorio, The Crucifixion, a fine recording with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge conducted by Timothy Brown. This is a wonderful work, very much in the tradition of the Bach oratorios but absolutely Anglican and within the capabilities of many parish choirs. Oratorios would not necessarily fall into the category of liturgical music but an interesting feature of this one is that includes five hymns written for it. All of these are in Common Praise 1937; four are set to the original texts by the oratorio's librettist, Rev. J.W. Sparrow Simpson—No. 136, 137, 363, and 571—while the fifth, No. 588, "In the Cross of Christ I glory", uses a text by Sir John Bowring. By coincidence, I had a personal introduction to The Crucifixion when our choir director decided to do the Anthem "God so loved the world" as a communion hymn at Easter this year. As it turned out, with all the other demands of Passiontide and Easter we were about one practice short of being able to do it justice and had to put it off until next year, to the great disappointment of all. The notes to the CD imply that Stainer intended the work to be within the reach of parish choirs and hopefully such a fine, and affordable, recording will inspire more to include it in their Passiontide programing.

Hyperion is a wonderfully eclectic independent English record label. They have produced many "complete" series such as the songs of Franz Schubert (37 CDs) or all of Franz Liszt's piano music (57 volumes with a total of almost 80 CDs). Of more direct interest to us is "The Complete Sacred Music" of Henry Purcell (11 CDs) and, very prominent in a large discography from St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, Psalms from St. Paul's, all 150 Psalms on 12 CDs. Hyperion is a very high quality label and are priced at about $26, well worth the money. A new Hyperion series that I have been collecting with great pleasure is The English Hymn. The Choir of Wells Cathedral do the honours here. Like several such choirs today they include girls but without losing that distinctive sound of the all male English cathedral choir. Volume 1 was Christ Triumphant: Great Hymn-tunes of the 20th Century, followed by Jerusalem the Golden: Great hymn-tunes of the 19th Century. Their latest—Volume 5, Lead kindly Light: Hymns of faith and assurance—fulfills any expectations you might have from the title. Among the pleasant surprises it springs on us is "Breath on me breath of God" sung to the tune Carlisle rather than Trentham as is normally used in Canadian hymnals. The notes inform us that this is the commonly used tune in England which is an opportune chance to mention the informative album notes for this series, a Hyperion hallmark. Another joy of this latest volume is "Tell out, my soul" a paraphrase of the Magnificat that is barely 30 years old but sounds quintessentially and timelessly Anglican. It is a wonderful hymn that I had become very familiar with from repeated hearings of this CD and was able to romp through it without batting any eye when our parish priest asked our choir to do it as the recessional hymn a few weeks ago. It is No. 362 in Common Praise (1998). Hyperion CDs retail at about $26 and worth every penny.

The Nimbus label from England has a wonderful bargain 8CD box selling at about $50, English Choral Music 1514-1682. Christ Church Cathedral Choir Oxford under Stephen Darlington give us a great collection of liturgical music of the Church in England at the time of the Reformation: John Taverner, John Shepherd, William Byrd, and Thomas Weelkes. Nimbus was in financial troubles and largely unavailable but recently have undergone a resurrection. If this box set is not in stock ask your record dealer to order it for you.

Canadian composer Healey Willan is represented with two very good recordings on Virgin Classics. I particularly like one entitled Tenebrae Responsaries, which has a very neo-renaissance sound to it and is one of my favourite CDs for bedtime reading. The honours here are done by The Choirs of the Church of St. Mary Magdelene, Toronto, Willan's own parish.

John Rutter is a well known English composer and choir director. His own label, Collegium Records, has issued two CDs of hymns "standards" with Rutter's own arrangements. Sing, ye Heavens: Hymns for all time was issued in 2000, and hot off the press is the latest, Be Thou My Vision. I cannot vouch for the new one personally except that when a customer buys one and then calls back and asks us to reserve five I am sure that we have a very good item. Rutter and his choir, The Cambridge Singers, rarely disappoint.

Baritone Bryn Terfel with two Welsh male choirs and the The Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera have a wonderful CD, We'll Keep a Welcome (Deustsch Grammophon $22). In addition to Welsh secular favourites there are some wonderful hymn renditions (Cwm Rhondda, Ar hyd y nos, and Hyfrodol) that remind us what a rich contribution the Welsh have made to English hymnody. Most pieces are sung in Welsh and English.

By way of conclusion, a CD that creates a flurry of new sales every time CBC plays it: Sing Lustily & With good Courage: Gallery hymns of the 18th and early 19th centuries by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band (Saydisc $26). The excellent notes—and the music itself—tell us how the Wesleyan church dragged Anglicans and non-conformists out of the era of metrical psalms into the modern tradition of hymnody. The renditions are spirited—never a dull moment!

The above recommendations are by no means exclusive: there is for example a whole treasure-trove on the Priory label from England featuring a wide range of Anglican choirs. They have series dedicated to the Psalms of David, the Complete New English Hymnal and a very wide range of organ music.

Finally, a postscript to note what seemingly is not available, recordings of complete services of Morning or Evening Prayers done not with the elaborate settings common to a cathedral but the simpler settings using the traditional Anglican chant we grew up with in our local parishes. Now I must mention that you may run across a great bargain CD (about $8, even more affordable than Naxos prices), Evensong and Vespers at King's, on a label called Columns. If you do see it buy it without hesitation but I am afraid that it is definitely the cathedral approach, not, as you might hope, a Merbecke/Anglican chant local parish Evensong. And that returns us to the first item mentioned above, Psalms for the Soul, whose enduring appeal is that it is predominantly just that, a rich selection of well sung classical Anglican chant which at its best, to my ear at least, is always close to its roots in Sarum/Gregorian chant.

As a chorister and music lover I find that hymns are a great source of spiritual inspiration. For me, preparing to sing in the choir and going over the words carefully is a way of deepening my faith. So perhaps a modest disbursement of your wordly wealth may bring a healthy return in spiritual enrichment.