This CD explores numerous aspects of the Crusades. The stirring three-part conductus Luto carens suggests a parallel between the crossing of the Red Sea and the journey undertaken by the Christian armies marching towards the Holy Land. Rachel weeping for her children, Luget Rachel, may refer to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. Other aspects include the emotions of those left behind; chants and prayers for victories as well as losses; devotion to the Blessed Virgin, often chosen as patron of the military Orders, and, not surprisingly, a certain anti-Semitism. Broadly speaking, we hear three styles of performance. The polyphonic pieces, alert and rhythmic, have that delightfully rough-edged vocal quality the men singers exploit to perfection. If one slid a page of parchment between finger and thumb, theirs would undoubtedly be the hairy side. By contrast, Catherine King’s would be the smooth. Her quiet, subtle phrasing graces her three solo pieces, including Hildegard’s O Jerusalem. The third style is the men’s quaint, peculiarly un-French singing of the chant: a Rogations antiphon, Invocantes Dominum for times of war, from the thirteenth-century Worcester MS F160 (or an identical source. Incidentally, the Alleluia cue should have led into the full version, shown on the opposite page). Then a Te Deum (also, I believe, from F160), sung triumphantly to the joyful accompaniment of bells; and the Easter Hec dies, Alleluia and Gospel from an exciting find, a twelfth-century Sacramentary from the Holy Sepulchre itself. The whole programme is a truly fascinating compilation.'