The Choir Of Gonville And Caius College - In Praise Of St Columba

CD

(September 2014)

15 Tracks: Os mutorum, lux cecorum * Loquebar de testimoniis tuis * River Erne Horn Duet * Adiutor laborantium * Sanctorum piissime Columba * Lauda anima mea Dominum * Noli Pater * Carne solutus pater Columba * Amen dico vobis * Liberasti nos Domine * Cantemus in omni die * Altus prosator * Volens Ihesus linire * Laudate Dominum (Psalm 150) * The Desperate Battle of the Birds.

This innovative album performed by the choir is based on Celtic manuscripts of 10th–14th centuries from Scotland and Switzerland.

Includes 7th-century hymns from Iona, 10th-century chants from Celtic foundations in Switzerland, and 14th-century Columban antiphons from the Inchcolm libellus.

The performance styles were developed in an exciting extended collaboration with scholar and piper Barnaby Brown along with Geoffrey Webber and his powerful choir.

The Choir Of Gonville And Caius College, Cambridge is one of Britain's leading collegiate choirs. The College was founded in 1348 but the musical tradition stems from the late nineteenth century when the well-known composer of church music Charles Wood became Organist. The choir in Wood's day contained boy trebles; it is now a mixed undergraduate ensemble and is directed by Geoffrey Webber.

Caius Choir travels extensively abroad and performs at a range of venues including major concert halls, universities, churches and cathedrals.

The Choir have often specialised in the rediscovery of forgotten choral repertories, including previously unpublished music from within the English choral tradition and beyond, and their five recordings on Delphian reflect this.

Sleeve notes include notes on the music, texts and translations, and biographies.

"Who can say whether these interpretations of chants and hymns from the early Celtic church are authentic, but they have been done with intelligence, musicality and enthusiasm. Columba is best known today for helping spread Christianity from Ireland to Scotland, and for founding a monastery at Iona. The music here, associated with this early Irish saint but drawn variously from the seventh, 10th and 14th centuries, has been prepared by Barnaby Brown in collaboration with Geoffrey Webber and his formidable choir. They give a bracing vigour and unusual freedom to this ancient music. Detailed programme notes provide an essential guide, and are worth reading as you listen." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer.

"What all this adds up to is a "new" choral repertoire – a sound world liberated from the drab modern conception of plainsong." Andrew Clark, The Financial Times.