Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD302 – Music for the Eucharist

The celebration of the Holy Communion (or Eucharist) is central to the worship of the Christian Church, instituted by Jesus himself at the Last Supper. At Exeter Cathedral an early morning celebration takes place every day of the year, with a more elaborate sung service on Sundays and major Saints’ Days. The musical repertoire for these services is broad and varied, drawing on many European schools of composition from plainsong to the present day. This disc features two settings of the ‘Ordinary’ of the Mass by contemporary English composers.

HAVPCD299 – Jesus Divine Music for Christmas

Jesus Divine encompasses the wealth of sacred Christmas music from plainsong to Lutheran chorale; from a cappella motets by Howells and Poulenc to the arrangements of traditional carols by Stephen King and Roderick Elms; from the chorale preludes of Buxtehude and Bach to Garth Edmundson’s impressive Toccata-Prelude. We have included music in contrasting styles and featuring the organ both as a solo instrument and also in combination with flute, brass, and more contemporary instruments, in order to present a broad selection of sacred Christmas music.

HAVPCD297 – Evensong for St Swithun’s Day

Swithun?s recognition as a saint dates from well before the period of official, papal canonizations. His body was elevated on 15 July 971. The event was later recorded by Wulfstan the Cantor, a Winchester monk who as a boy had been present at Swithun?s elevation: he recalled how he and his fellow novices had been terrified by a violent storm. (Such storms were a commonplace in the medieval biographies of saints.) This was the event which gave rise to the legend that if it rains on St Swithun?s day it will rain for forty days thereafter.