‘From the Celestial Hills’ is a most attractive and wide-ranging selection of choral music which does indeed illustrate ‘the rich and vibrant choral music of Scotland’ both a cappella and with organ accompaniment. For most of our readers this CD will be an eye-opener. 

The 17 tracks (each with a different composer or arranger) are not arranged as an historical sequence or in any other conventional way – but constitute a succession of contrasts and delightful surprises as we move (for example) from one of the Peace Motets of Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) to ‘Ex te lux oritur, O dulcis Scotia’, the anonymous wedding hymn of Margaret of Scotland in 1281 to Eric of Norway, arranged most imaginatively by organist Kevin Bowyer and director Katy Lavinia Cooper. Another interesting juxtaposition takes us from Katy Lavinia Cooper’s ‘Like a lost God (with words by Rosie Miles – the solos by Sophie Boyd and Eve Harling) to ‘The Sang of the Thrie Childrein’ by John Angus (fl. 1543–95), a setting of verses from the Benedicite (‘an unexpectedly upbeat example of music of the Scottish Reformation’ indeed).

The majority of tracks are by composers active in the 20th and 21st centuries, the best known of whom is James MacMillan. His ‘For a Thousand Years’ (on Psalm 90: 4), which I had not previously heard, is a four-minute setting, with much musical and verbal repetition, and interesting juxtapositions of dissonances and consonances. The youngest composer is Kenneth Tay (b. 1992), one of the basses on this recording: his ‘Ave Regina Caelorum’ is an attractive a cappella piece, composed in 2021.

Other pieces from earlier times include ‘Lord, in Thy Wrath’ (based on Psalm 6) by John Holden (1729–72) and the pentatonic triple-metre hymn tune ‘Abbeville’. This is intriguing, as the composer Elisha James King (1821–44) was an American, and the words are by Benjamin Beddome (1717–95), a Particular Baptist minister from the Cotswolds. The music did not originate in Scotland, but is part of the current Scottish choral landscape, an example of the shapenote tradition (as found notably in The Sacred Harp). Verses 2 and 4 have been skilfully and arranged in appropriate style by Wilson Marion Cooper (1850–1916) and Katy Lavinia Cooper.

The Programme Note has nothing to say about this piece, for example; so, although it is an excellent outline of the scope of the project, it would have been more useful if it had been more extensive. Texts are not provided, which is disappointing, for in music other than the most simple and syllabic it is often hard to catch the words, however good the choir’s diction. 

The University of Glasgow Chapel Choir is to be commended on their sensitivity to the various styles represented. The whole project is strongly recommended, especially to those numerous English church musicians whose experience in church is still largely anglocentric.