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Sicut cervus was the winner of the Millennium Composition Competition held by Buckfast Abbey in 2018 to celebrate 1000 years since its foundation. Setting the first two verses of Psalm 42(41), the piece focuses on the theme of yearning in the psalm, creating harmonic progressions resulting in dissonances that only partially resolve; even at the end, there is still a sense of the desire for closure and certainty. Sicut cervus also pays homage to the setting by Palestrina, with a polyphonic middle section to contrast with the homophonic texture of the rest of the work. The first verse of Psalm 42(41), ‘Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God’, is the motto of Buckfast Abbey, which is located at the centre of a picturesque valley on the edge of the River Dart in Devon, England.

João Lourenço Rebelo’s opulent setting of Panis angelicus is found in a small choir book of music for Holy Week copied in the late seventeenth century for the chapel of the Dukes of Braganza at Vila Viçosa, Portugal. It was intended as a communion motet at Mass on Holy Thursday. Rebelo sets the phrase “O res mirabilis!” three times, each marked by striking harmony to vividly illustrate the words “O wondrous thing!”. In the final statement, he further intensifies the effect through double suspensions and augmented harmonies, creating a passage that fuses late-Renaissance polyphony with the emerging Baroque expressivity characteristic of early seventeenth century Portuguese sacred music. Much of Rebelo’s music was lost in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, making surviving pieces such as Panis angelicus all the more treasured.

William Byrd’s Infelix ego is widely regarded as the pinnacle of his sacred music and one of the most powerful artistic achievements of the sixteenth century. The work sets a text by the Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, a meditation on Psalm 51 written while Savonarola awaited execution in Florence after leading a religious movement against the Medici family. The text expresses a tormented soul wrestling with guilt, fear, and despair, yet ultimately finding hope through Christ’s mercy. The piece mirrors Savonarola’s spiritual struggle through expressive melodic lines, shifting textures, and moments of tension and release. Byrd may also have felt a personal connection to Savonarola’s situation; as a Catholic composer living in Protestant England during a time of religious persecution, Byrd understood the experience of being isolated from one’s faith community. This shared sense of conflict and devotion seems to inform the music’s profound emotional intensity, culminating in a powerful conclusion that suggests the long-awaited acceptance of divine mercy.

Charles Maxtone-Smith plays Salve Regina by Olivier Latry, with Michael Latimer (baritone). Olivier Latry’s Salve Regina began life as an improvisation at the University of Kansas, USA, in 1999. The composer gave the première of the written version eight years later at Notre-Dame de Paris. It is a long paraphrase on the Marian antiphon Salve Regina in the solemn tone, which is sung at Buckfast Abbey by the Monastic Community at the end of Compline each Sunday from Trinity to Advent. The version used here from the Liber Usualis differs slightly. In the work’s seven movements the composer alternates between solo Gregorian chant and organ commentaries, which paraphrase the melody and respond to emotional aspects of the text, ranging from calm meditation to ecstatic joy. The organ and voice join for the final phrase, before the organ repeats the final phrase as a litany concluding with a meditative epilogue.

Charles Maxtone-Smith plays Magnificat primi toni (BuxWV 203) by Dieterich Buxtehude. This piece is unusual among Buxtehude’s organ works in that it is neither entirely free nor based on a chorale melody, but is built on a plainchant formula, namely the Magnificat solemn tone of Mode I, often known as the Dorian mode. The alternation of free sections (stylus phantasticus) and fugues (using the plainchant formula) allows the performer to explore a range of colour on the Ruffatti organ of Buckfast Abbey.

In Andrew Reid’s blistering Exodus Canticle the choral refrain becomes the accompaniment around which the organ directs proceedings. When eventually the choir assumes full melismatic prominence (at the words ‘reign for ever and ever’), the musical space is filled to completeness. To finish, the organ proffers a full stop comprising a paschal bonfire of prominent reeds. This canticle from the Book of Exodus, contains the first mention in the Bible of the act of singing. The Israelites rejoice because they have been freed from slavery, and they celebrate their deliverance by singing; on this night, the Church sings because Christ has passed over from death to life, leading his people from slavery and freeing them from the bonds of death. At the Easter Vigil we learn again the reason behind all singing in the Christian liturgy: we have been redeemed, and so we sing.

Martin Baker plays the Chaconne from J. S. Bach’s Partita in D minor (BWV 1004) in the monumental arrangement for solo organ by Wilhelm Middelschulte. Written between 1717 and 1720, the Chaconne is the final movement of the suite and is written in the form of variations. It lasts approximately as long as the first four movements combined and demonstrates both the sheer virtuosity of the performer alongside the vast array of colour available on the Ruffatti organ of Buckfast Abbey.

Matthew Searles plays Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden) from Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) on the Ruffatti organ of Buckfast Abbey. Evoking a sense of mystery and serenity, the piece starts on the distant, ethereal stops of the solo organ and builds to a thrilling conclusion on the tutti.