Sleeve Notes & Track List

TRACK LIST

Latin Chant
[1] Adoremus (Laudate Dominum);
[2] Adoro te (Aquinas)
[3] Ave Verum (6th mode)
[4] Ecce panis Angelorum
[5] Homo quidem
[6] O quam suavis
[7] O sacrum convivium
[8] O salutaris hostia
[9] Pange lingua - including Tantum Ergo (3rd tone)
[10] Sacris solemnis (4th mode)
[11] Tantum ergo (3rd tone)
[12] Tantum ergo (3rd mode)
[13] Tantum ergo (Mozarbo)
[14] Ubi caritas
[15] Verbum supernum

On 7th October 2004 Pope John Paul II declared the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist as a time dedicated to "celebrating, worshipping and contemplating" the Blessed Sacrament. The Pope identified the need to "cultivate a lively awareness of Christ's real presence, both in the celebration of Mass and in the worship of the Eucharist outside Mass." In particular, he also requested that: "During this year Eucharistic adoration outside Mass should become a particular commitment for individual parish and religious communities." He went on to say: "Let us take the time to kneel before Jesus present in the Eucharist, in order to make reparation by our faith and love for the acts of carelessness and neglect, and even the insults which our Saviour must endure in many parts of the world. Let us deepen through adoration our personal and communal contemplation, drawing upon aids to prayer inspired by the word of God and the experience of so many mystics, old and new."

One of the greatest aids to prayer is music - St. Augustine famously stated that "He who sings, prays twice". As part of its ongoing mission to help improve the state of Catholic music generally, The Music Makers is delighted to offer this compact disc both as something of beauty to listen to; but also as a useful teaching aid for those wishing to perform these chants and hymns and by so doing encourage Eucharistic adoration as requested by His Holiness.

The CD contains a number traditional Latin chants and Eucharistic hymns in both Latin and English, which here are sung unaccompanied (a cappella) in order to make a more intimate sound and to let the listener hear the harmonies more clearly. Copies of the Latin chants in modern notation are available from The Music Makers (Resource Catalogue R021) and the hymns included on the CD are taken from The Catholic Hymn Book, produced under the auspices of the London Oratory, edited by Patrick Russill and published by Gracewing.

We express our gratitude to Stephen Moseling of St. Paul's Bookshop, London for giving us the idea of producing this CD.

Hymns
[16] Alleluia, sing to Jesus
[17] And now O father
[18] Deck thyself with gladness
[19] Draw nigh and take the body of our Lord
[20] Godhead here in hiding
[21] O bread of heaven
[22] O Salutaris Hostia
[23] O saving Victim
[24] O thou who at thy eucharist
[25] Soul of my saviour
[26] Sweet sacrament divine
[27] Tantum Ergo
[28] Therefore we, before him bending

OTHER NOTES

Schola Cantamus was founded in 1992 by Jeremy de Satgé as an occasional professional choir to sing at weddings, funerals and other church services as well as concerts.

Copyright The Music Makers, January 2005
Recorded in London, November/December 2004 by Schola Cantamus
Singers: Madeleine Holmes, Lindsay Richardson, Julian Smith & Jeremy de Satgé
Directed and produced by Jeremy de Satgé
Recorded and mixed by Colour Blind
Cover image of monstrance courtesy of St. George's Cathedral, Southwark
'Year of the Eucharist' logo courtesy of the Catholic Truth Society