Beatus vir. If ever there was a musician blest in the ways of his daily living, in family, friends and a long life (he died at the great age of 96), working amid the holiness of beauty, it was surely Herbert Sumsion. A Gloucester man by birth, he became organist of the Cathedral there, maintaining standards in the way of a man himself thoroughly trained and correspondingly thorough in everything he did. I suppose the word “provincial” is on some lips already, but the musical life which has been nurtured by him and his kind is national, and in a totally unostentatious way Sumsion was a national figure.

His music is the fitting expression of this. It does its job (and the calling is a high one); it does not waste time; it has a natural grace. Setting the Magnificat is the most natural act in the world: the spirit rejoices lyrically, without clamour of proclamation. When he chooses for the words of an anthem “O Lord, thou hast searched me out and known me”, no fearful apprehension attends the thought of His being “about my path and about my bed” because from the beginning the music tells of its ending: “thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold me”. In They that go down to the sea in ships the music can do pictorial justice to the sailors’ plight (“they stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end”) but it does so in the cheerful faith that “He bringeth them into the haven where they would be”.

The Ecclesium Choir (16 singers) are fresh-toned, efficient and under sound direction. The organist, David Leigh, plays admirably but at times one could wish for him Sumsion’s own organ at Gloucester. The acoustics at Keble College are a more effective substitute, providing resonance without obscuring. The booklet, with a fully informative note by Alan Kelly, has on its front cover the beatus vir himself (watchfully professional) and his cathedral, serenely set against the background of a cloudless, temperate sky.