David Evans
David Evans wrote and harmonised hymn tunes that still shape congregational singing, among them the familiar setting of Be Thou My Vision and Lucerna Laudoniae for For the Beauty of the Earth.
A Welsh church musician and academic, Evans worked mainly in sacred forms: hymns, anthems and service music, with larger choral and orchestral scores alongside. His harmony of the traditional Irish melody for Be Thou My Vision entered wide use through the Church Hymnary he edited, and his own tune Lucerna Laudoniae, first issued under a pseudonym, carries the words of For the Beauty of the Earth. On these recordings those settings sit among well-known hymns, heard in clean choral texture with organ that supports rather than overwhelms the line.
Compositions by David Evans appear on
Hymns For All Seasons
Sixteen further hymns from Cantus Choro, recorded in the grand acoustic of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. The programme opens with Advent and follows the great events of the Christian year, with Norman Kaye at the organ and the Melbourne Brass Ensemble.
Sing Out With Joy
Cantus Choro, directed by Peter Chapman, sings seventeen favourite hymns from the Australian Hymn Book. Norman Kaye’s imaginative organ accompaniments give the well-known settings fresh dramatic shape and room for the choir to breathe.
Other credits
When David heard that Absalom was slain
The Choir of Ormond College specialised in liturgical music of the 16th and 20th centuries. This recording also includes psalm settings, among them Allegri’s Miserere, a setting of the penitential Psalm 51 once reserved for the Sistine Chapel in Holy Week.