MacMillan: Tenebrae - Cappella Nova - The Times (Knowledge)

Most composers ignore the valuable resource of British church choirs. Not James MacMillan ( above), who has been composing since he was a precocious schoolboy the sacred vocal music that the excellent Edinburgh-based ensemble Cappella Nova sings here.

The Strathclyde Motets comprise an ongoing devotional canon written for a student choir. Sometimes the lower voices outweigh the treble, obscuring the tune, but if the beautiful writhing counterpoint reflects contemporary spiritual wrangling, then Mark O'Keeffe's seraphic trumpet in In Splendoribus is absolutely certain of its faith.