Charles Wood (1886-1926) was Irish by birth. After studying at the Royal College of Music, Wood took up residence, like Naylor, at one of Cambridge's colleges <— Selwyn — before being elected to a fellowship. Upon Stanford's death in 1924, Wood proceeded to a professorship. Most of Wood's church music was written with the professional Cambridge college choirs in mind; thus, as Kenneth Long has pointed out, works for double choir abound in his choral output.
Hail, gladdening Lightis one such work, relying upon the interplay of the two choirs for its effect. Being inclined to high churchmanship, Wood regularly turned to translations of older texts: in this case the text is a translation by John Keble from the Greek.
from notes by William McVicker © 1990
CDA66374
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