Search - Thomas Attwood, William Crotch, Edgar Day :: Psalms from St. Paul's, Vol. 8

Songs to Our Lord: Psalms from St. Paul's, Vol.8

frblake | Wilton, CT USA | 04/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As an Episcopal Priest, I was more than interested when I heard that this set of the Psalms on CDs was available. I ordered, and, when the CD arrived, put Volume 8 on my CD player shortly before dinner. I was not prepared for what followed.A few minutes later, when walking through our kitchen, my wife asked my why I was crying. Her words brought me to the present.Psalms 95 and 100, sung to the same chants as recorded here, were those that I was taught to sing over fifty-six years ago when I was in sixth grade. A newcomer to the Episcopal Church, I went to choir practice for several weeks. Then came the Sunday when I was asked to sing with the choir. Those were the days when the 1928 Prayer Book was used. That and the present Prayer Book prescribe either of those Psalms as the Invititory Psalm to be sung at the start of the Morning Prayer service. For three weeks each month, we sang either Psalm 95 or Psalm 100 -- to the settings recorded here. While neither I or the church choir of which I was a part ever came close to the quality of St. Paul's, it is these Psalms that began the Sunday worship for most Episcopalians -- indeed, most Anglicans, worldwide at that time.The settings for the psalms are of the best of those composed in "Anglican Chant". St. Paul's acoustics and choir are just not to be matched. To listen to this or any of the albums in this series is to be transported, as I was.In this CD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of the Jewish people; and the God of the eastern and western branches of Christianity is worshipped and praised. These recordings speak to our souls."