A recording of music for the Feast of St Thomas a Becket by the Lay Clerks of Canterbury Cathedral is a delightful idea. The music for this feast in the Salisbury rite is rich and memorable, particularly that for the Offices. In this case the selection from Matins includes five magnificent responsories and two antiphons, as well as the hymn Martyr Dei and the Invitatory, Assunt Thomas Martyris. This last is particularly valuable, since though the Invitatory has generally not found much favour in recordings and concerts (either as chant or set polyphonically), the cumulative effect of the form is extraordinary. This anthology also includes the Mass for the Feast of St Thomas (in which the Sequence, Solemne canticum, is especially impressive) and the Kyrie, Rex Splendens, attributed to St Dunstan.
The singing is restrained and sober and, I feel, somewhat lacking in colour. The problem seems to be that there is little response on the part of the singers to the words: the chant somehow does not sound 'organic', as though it were sung liturgically. This is a difficult problem to solve, and I should not want to give the impression that the disc is less than satisfactory, for there is no doubt that the quality of the singing itself is very high: I simply wish that it were a little more vigorous, more 'incarnate'. But certainly no one with an interest in Western chant should hesitate to buy this very worthwhile recording.'