The Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford are a mixed voluntary choir. They sing when the Cathedral Choir, men and boys, is not available, for example out of term time. They have a flourishing career of their own, and they had the splendid idea of commissioning contemporary composers to write new works for them. Their main need was for anthems to sing at Evensong. They ran a competition to find suitable works. The results appear here, together with other suitable recent music. They are all in a very accessible idiom.

The title of the disc is that of the main work, by Graystone Ives. This was one of the commissions, for some reason not mentioned as such in the booklet. It is a low mass setting, that is, one which omits the Credo. Furthermore, the Gloria comes not after the Kyrie, its traditional place, but at the end, where Cranmer put by it his communion rite in the Book of Common Prayer. The mass is not sung straight through, but is interspersed with other pieces. Ives is a well established choral composer and conductor. The four-part mass flows well, with a strong influence of plainchant. It is rhythmically vital, and I fancy I hear a distant echo of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.

We begin with David Bednall’s setting of a hymn by George Bell. Bell had been a scholar at Christ Church and later became bishop of Chichester. He was a great patron of the arts. He did not, as the booklet says, become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was certainly a strong candidate for the position, but his appointment was blocked by Churchill, then Prime Minister, because of Bell’s condemnation of the area bombing of German cities. Bednall’s setting, with an elaborate organ part, is very varied – more an anthem than a hymn.

The New Year Carol by Ben Rowarth combines a passage from Hans Andersen’s story The Little Match Girl with an anonymous carol. This is a gentle and haunting setting.

Rise Heart by Bertie Baigent combines George Herbert’s poem Easter Day with the second responsory, in Latin, for Matins for Easter Monday. I have to say that I found this the least satisfactory of the pieces here, since it seemed too episodic and not integrated.

There follows Lauda Sion, an organ solo taken from An Aquinian Sequence, by Anthony Gray. A sequence was a composition with both words and music which followed the Alleluia between the epistle and the gospel in the mass. Gray’s version draws from the plainchant used for the texts by Thomas Aquinas, written for the feast of Corpus Christi. This is a flamboyant and joyful work.

The God Who Sees Me by Sarah Rimkus combines several Old Testament texts to focus on the figure of Hagar. She bore a child, Ishmael, to Abraham at the suggestion of his wife but was cast out by her into the desert. She is rescued by God and says ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’. This is a highly atmospheric and moving work.

The Book of Common Prayer offers alternatives to the canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, sung at Evensong, in the form of psalms 98 and 67. These alternatives are rarely taken but James Potter, who was Director of the Cathedral Singers for eight years, has provided settings which use the technique of alternatim, plainsong lines alternating with polyphonic settings which draw on the plainsong. (This technique is probably most familiar from the celebrated version of Allegri’s Miserere.) Although I would deprecate replacing the usual canticles, these settings are of great beauty and would make excellent anthems.

The Regina Coeli is one of the four anthems of the Virgin Mary, traditionally sung at the end of Compline, the late evening service. This also draws on the plainchant but builds to a big climax before subsiding.

Finally, the Toccata by Cheryl Frances-Hoad is a virtuoso organ voluntary to end the recital.

The performances are confident and secure. The excellent recording was made not at the cathedral but at Keble College Chapel, with a kinder acoustic. The booklet contains all the texts but nothing about the composers. Nevertheless, this is a most worthwhile enterprise. It is good to know that the fine English traditional of choral music for church continues.