Harris’s life was filled with royal connections, as organist at the chapel of St George’s Windsor from 1933 to 1961 and as piano teacher to the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Holy is the true light was composed around 1947 in memory of Evelyn Ley, the wife of his friend and colleague Henry Ley, Precentor of Eton College. The text was very possibly drawn to his attention by Herbert Howells, who had recently set it in the final movement of his Hymnus Paradisi. Harris’s setting is far simpler, though it shares a similar sense of rapt mysticism and has an atmospheric beauty which made it an apt choice for inclusion in the Queen Mother’s funeral service (which she herself had planned in meticulous detail).

from notes by Collegium Records © 2012