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
16 more hymns from Cantus Choro, sung in the grand acoustic of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. The hymns start with Advent and trace the great events of the Christian year. With Norman Kaye and the Melbourne Brass Ensemble.
Sing Out With Joy
The Cantus Choro directed by Peter Chapman. Imaginative organ accompaniments by Norman Kaye give these 17 well-known hymns a new dramatic impact.