Gloria is a Christmas-themed overview of the development of religious music from Hildegard of Bingen (1098 — 1179) to Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) presented in the form of a lavishly illustrated hardback book and accompanying CD from the Hyperion catalogue.

The elegance of the production reflects its origins in a remarkable programme: Gloria on RTÉ Lyric FM, which has been running every Sunday without interruption since the station began in 1999. The precise and studied style of that programme’s presenter, Tim Thurston, has been matched by Associated Editions in this production.

Based on a text by Thurston on the development of European sacred music and on the lives of its most celebrated composers (including Byrd, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Williams and Britten), the book is also replete with images, chosen by Anne Brady of Associated Editions, reflecting 1000 years of sacred art in Irish collections, including from Trinity College Dublin, the Hunt Museum, the Ulster Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland, Waterford Museum of Treasures, the Chester Beatty Library and Glenstal Abbey. The thirty or so reproductions include such works as a painting by Patrick Pye, Harry Clarke and Evie Hone stained glass windows, Flemish and Armenian illuminated miniatures, a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, and folios from the Book of Kells and the Fagal Missal.

The content also features a timeline of the composers’ lives based on countries of birth (Germany/Austria, Low Countries/France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and East Europe), a short glossary of terms (Cantata, Parody Mass, Tenebrae), and a detailed track listing interspersed through the book composer by composer.

If you happen to be in the area, the author is giving a talk about the book tonight (Thursday, 8 December) in the Rathgar Bookshop. Otherwise, he is planning a series of such talks for 2012 at the institutions from whose collections the illustrations were chosen.

associatededitions.ie