David Davies (b.1973) was Organist of Buckfast Abbey 2019–2023. During this time, he composed these two expansive arrangements of well-known hymns for the Abbey Choir, both of which have been recorded on Ad Fontes.

Henri Frederich Hémy’s rousing tune Stella sets to music the words of Hail, Queen of heaven by John Lingard, an English priest and historian. One of the most popular of Roman Catholic Marian hymnody, this arrangement breaks forth in a multi-voice texture with a triumphant descant and reharmonisation for the final verse, ‘And while to him who reigns above’.

Adeste fideles is a favourite at Buckfast, in part no doubt due to a paper written by Buckfast monk and amateur musicologist Dom John Stephan in 1947, entitled ‘Adeste fideles – A study on its origin and development’. Dom Stephan examines the chance discovery of a small musical manuscript book from the Harmsworth Library, dating most likely from c.1687, predating the earliest known manuscript of the melody by some 50 years. Owing to the text, the verse beginning ‘Sing, choirs of angels’ has become accustomed to special treatment, particularly a succession of fine arrangements associated with the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. The substantial version here develops into a joyful celebration of the Word made flesh, and includes a non-obligato part for the Glockenspiel stop on the Ruffatti organ of Buckfast Abbey, played by a third hand.

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