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Track(s) taken from CDP12103

For the beauty of the earth – Lucerna Laudoniae

First line:
For the beauty of the earth
composer
NEH 285ii
author of text

Wells Cathedral Choir, Malcolm Archer (conductor), Rupert Gough (organ)
Recording details: June 2002
Wells Cathedral, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: September 2002
Total duration: 2 minutes 57 seconds
 

Reviews

‘The voices are magnificent; likewise the organ. The whole record is a delight’ (Gramophone)

‘There is nothing in this collection that is not worth hearing and much to treasure’ (Cross Rhythms)
The story goes that this hymn was inspired by the view from a hill-top near the author’s native city of Bath. It became a hymn of thanksgiving for all God’s blessings, in the natural world and in human relationships, but moving on to his gifts in the Church. As here, those verses are usually curtailed to bring the hymn back to its first themes. It is good to be able to sing of such things, though one must be sensitive that not everyone’s experience of family life is a happy one.

The tune expresses this quiet joy. It was written by David Evans, a widely influential Welsh musician, and given the Latin name that means ‘Lantern of the Lothians’, probably referring to the remains of a monastery at Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, destroyed in 1355, or to the fifteenth-century church on the same site.

from notes by Alan Luff © 2002

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