Vaughan Williams wrote 18 original hymn tunes and adapted 37 others, mainly from folk songs. Some of the tunes have been treasured by one generation after another; others are associated with less popular hymns and are not so well-known. His hymn tunes, at both extremes, have inspired other composers to write or arrange works based on them. This album explores those arrangements; some of the hymns are also sung as they were written, so that the tunes can become familiar.The tune Mantegna was written for a passion-tide hymn about Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The poem was called ‘The Agony in the Garden’, which is also the name given to Mantegna’s 1455-6 painting (the album’s cover picture). Clearly, Vaughan Williams knew the painting, and named his tune after the artist.

The organist Francis Jackson (1917-2022) was fascinated by the tune Mantegna, and wrote a set of orchestral variations on it, called Homage to Vaughan Williams. This is the most substantial work on the disc. We commissioned another organist, David Briggs, to write an organ Carillon, based on another Vaughan Williams tune, White Gates. Other composers and arrangers represented here include Percy Whitlock, William H Harris, Henry Ley, Helen Glatz and Malcolm Riley.

Dulwich Choral Society was founded in 1944 and performs with the London Mozart Players, the UK’s oldest, freshest and most adventurous chamber orchestra. James Orford is a prize-winning organist and is the Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. William Vann is particularly renowned for his revival performances and recordings of lost and lesser-known works of vocal and choral music by British composers.