On two occasions Robert Delcamp has expressed admiration for the sacred choral music of Dan Locklair (born 1949), Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music Emeritus at Wake Forest University. Both times (l/A 2017 and MIL 2025) my colleague noted that Locklair’s music has proved engaging enough to attract top quality English choirs to head for the recording studio. That trend continues here with a sampling of the composer’s secular fare brought to us by Britain’s Phoenix Choir, a group of 26 Durham University alumni who have been performing together since 2021.

Most of these offerings are linked together in groups, like Sing to the World, a set of 5 songs sung a cappella with texts by Whitman, Longfellow, Phyllis Wheatley, Henry Van Dyke, and the Spanish Poet, Tomas Inarte. The choir responds nicely to the bold, confident harmonies of ‘That Music Always Round Me’, the breezy flair of ‘My Lord What a Mornin’, and the humor of ‘The Musical Ass’, a salute to a donkey that becomes a flute player by accident.

In The Lilacs Bloomed, Locklair adds a piano to set the first 3 stanzas of Walt Whitman’s poem mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln. Grief and despair accompany sadness as we are left to wonder whether the small miracle of flowers blooming in the doorway to the American soul will be enough fo inspire a less coarse, less hateful, less violent union. (Pretty to think so.)

The third set, Changing Perceptions and Epitaph follows a philosophical route through texts pondering matters of life and death. There are affecting things here, especially ‘Grief Poem’, the one unaccompanied song of the set. Though the songs are “secular”, in short, they bring wisdom and eloquence to the spiritual realm. The choir is excellent, accompanied by uncommonly good piano playing. Excellent sound and a full set of notes and texts round out a handsome offering.

Our Editor couldn’t resist adding how much he likes the two Robert Frost settings here.