Sanctus

And by my cockscomb,'' he added, ``I think it be even so Hearken but to the black sanctus which they are singing in the hermitage!''

Abbas beati Martini, SCILICET REX FRANCIAE, est canonicus de consuetudine et habet parvam proebendam quam habet sanctus Venantius, et debet sedere in sede thesaurarii .

It is almost invidious to single out other obbligato players, but Michael George's firm bass in 'Quoniam tu solus sanctus' is finely matched by the horn playing of Roger Montgomery, while the second soprano, Catherine Denley, is partnered by some deft violin playing from the leader, David Woodcock, in 'Laudamus te' (the only number which I feel is taken a shade too fast - not so much for the music as for the words).

ponne arist Sanctus Michael and he goeth forth and he nihth to ussum haelende and he bid[ep] [paet he him forgife ponne thriddan dael paes forwyrhtan weredes.

Besides, as noted above, the early versions of the Benedicite from the Service in B-flat Major, the appendices in this volume include an incomplete Sanctus in G Major and, more interestingly, the Evening Service (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) in G Minor, a well-known work long attributed to Henry Purcell here provisionally assigned to his brother Daniel.

It also helps that I'm a sucker for good old-fashioned harmony, whether it's the Jordanaires (who backed the early Elvis), the Ray Conniff Singers and a song like Far Away Places (love their melodic impression of a train whistle), or a gymanfa ganu in full flow (I am always reminded of a jam-packed Regent Palace Hotel in London back in the 1960s on an international rugby weekend - the place would rock to the sound of a mass male voice choir belting out Sanctus, which gave a whole new meaning to the Swinging Sixties).

Moments of brilliant precision in the Sanctus and the fragile Benedictus - which Lockwood led with real elegance - stand out.

And he responded by blowing them a kiss of appreciation for their sterling work in a piece that certainly challenges youthful voices, with plenty of demanding, high passages, vocal trills and, in the opening of the Sanctus, a particularly tricky interval to master.

This time the collaboration was in Faure's exquisite Requiem, its soundworld galaxies away from that of most ballets, and the Sinfonia collaborated with delicacy and tactful reticence (sometimes perhaps too much so, as in the virtual inaudibility of the violins in the Sanctus).

It's the follow up to Sanctus and the clever author/ publisher put the first three chapters of it at the end of Sanctus, just to draw you in.

TICKETS are still available for the Manama Singers production of the African Sanctus ethnic African musical tonight.

The artists will also be showing their work at the Crowne Plaza Convention Centre on June 11, in association with the Manama Singers production of the African Sanctus. All the work in the show is based on reportage drawing done on site in Kenya last summer.