Lux Stellarum (Light of the Stars) is a short Requiem for choir and organ, with the traditional Roman Catholic text interspersed with biblical passages and some poetry, all featuring stars, the cosmos or heaven. There are no ‘fillers’, and so the CD lasts just 29 minutes.

With its unique text it is clearly intended as a concert piece. There are some lovely textures in the Introit, which begins with ethereal upper voices divisi and unaccompanied, joined in due course by men singing with warm tone and the organ, whose role throughout is more than merely accompanimental. The movement ends with the music subsiding into prayerful Gregorian chant, which inevitably brings to mind Duruflé (with extras).

The third movement, Stars”, is an effective setting, unaccompanied and largely homophonic, of a reflective poem by Marjorie Pickthall.

Diction is mostly crystal-clear, though a few final consonants go astray, notably in the opening of the Sanctus, which in many ways is the most exciting movement with its majestic opening and dramatic writing. The Agnus Dei, too, has some thrilling choral textures and here, as in the previous movement, some quotations from the psalms (in Coverdale’s translation) are included.

The final In Paradisum starts with an unaccompanied setting of John Donne’s prayer, Bring us, O Lord”, before full organ breaks in with major and minor chords superimposed on each other, eventually settling on a conclusive D flat major.

Both composition and performance are impressive, the former revealing a distinctive voice, and the latter confident throughout.