Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD193 – Evensong For St Etheldreda Music by Basil Harwood, Arthur Wills, Sebastian Forbes

Etheldreda, a Saxon princess, was born c.630 at Exning near Newmarket. She was married twice: in 652 to Tonbert, a local prince, who gave her the Isle of Ely as a dowry, and in 665 to Egfrid, Prince (and later King) of Northumbria; despite these marriages Etheldreda retained her virginity. In 672 she left her husband to become a nun in the Monastery at Coldingham, near Berwick. On hearing that Egfrid was coming to take her back, Etheldreda fled to the Isle of Ely, where she took refuge. In 673 she founded there a double monastery (for both men and women) and was installed as first Abbess by Wilfrid, Archbishop of York.

HAVPCD192 – The martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket The Unfinished Vespers: 29 December 1170

The story of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket has been told many times. There are contemporary eye-witness accounts of how the four knights rushed in and slew the Archbishop in his own cathedral of Canterbury; there are scholarly modern historical studies; the story is told in the stained-glass windows of the cathedral itself; and of course there are Chaucer’s entertaining Canterbury Tales… This recording approaches the story from another angle: it is an attempt to capture through music each major act of the grim drama as it unfolds.