The Art of the Chorister
Music for treble voices

The Choristers of New College Oxford
Collegium Novum String Ensemble
Collegium Novum Baroque Strings
directed by Edward Higginbottom

New Records: NCR 1380

To purchase this CD, visit the
A - B listings page


Recorded in New College Chapel, Oxford,
March & July 2006
Producer and engineer: Adrian Hunter
Playing time : 59:40   DDD


Since New College choristers have been around for over six hundred years, you might be forgiven for thinking that everything about their lives is very traditional. Happily this is not the case: being a chorister these days is cutting-edge, and traditions are only as long as the memory of the oldest chorister, a mere five years. The Choir does not rely on a static repertory, or indeed on a fixed way of doing things. Both change in response to challenges, circumstances, and personnel. In recent years New College choristers have sung in many places around the globe, and recorded on average two CDs a year, most famously the best-selling Agnus Dei.


This programme of music for treble voices is eclectic not only in its variety of repertory but also in its contexts, from church, to theatre, to music room. It provides a snapshot of New College trebles in the year 2005/06.


Felix Mendelssohn (arr. E Higginbottom)

1     Laudate pueri [6:25]

François Couperin

2     Lauda Sion [6:08]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

3     Ave Maria, K.554 [2:01]

Felix Mendelssohn (arr. M Hall)

4     Veni Domine [3:41]

John Ireland (arr. M Hall)

5     Ex ore innocentium [2:58]

Thomas Tallis

6     Audivi vocem de caelo [4:43]

Henry Purcell

7     O dive custos [6:12]

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

8     Stabat Mater [3:50]

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

9     Sancta Mater [5:35]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

10   Seid uns zum zweiten Mal willkommen [2:04]
      (Terzetto from Die Zauberflöte, K.620)

Johann Sebastian Bach

11   Schlummert ein, BWV 82 [8:37]

Jehan Alain

12   Ave Maria [1:57]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

13   Laudate Dominum [4:31]
      (from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K.339)