To hear the Chapel Choir of Fettes College declaiming Henry Balfour Gardiner’s majestic setting of the ancient 7th Century hymn for the night office of Compline Te lucis ante terminum is a moment which stays with a person for a long time. During certain passages in that hymn it is not too much to say that the very hairs on the back of one’s neck stand to attention. The soaring phrases of the piece and the quieter moments reflect all that the Christian tradition of prayer and spirituality has to say about the mixture of thoughts and emotions to be found at the ending of any day. In that same Christian tradition, and particularly within its prayers and hymns, the end of the day is constantly equated with the time at the end of life. For that reason alone the only fitting conclusion to this CD is Sir Hubert Parry’s magnificent setting of Psalm 122 to the words found in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662. As the people of the Jewish nation rejoiced to go up to the Jerusalem Temple to find their God and to pray for the peace and plenteousness of that great city, so those of the Christian Faith may look forward as a comfort and a shield to the city of God as experienced in the longed-for life of eternity. The joy of producing this CD for a wider audience is that it extends to a global stage what may have been heard in our Chapel on any Sunday night of any term for the last century and more. Not here will there be found a selection of popular items randomly assembled, but rather some anthems and motets from the actual repertoire of our Choir which have offered to generations of our pupils a much-needed and much-valued space for reflection at the end of their day. In this encouragement of what may be called ‘the interior life’ there can be no doubt that our music plays an enormously impressive part – often far more so than the multitude of words by which they are surrounded each day. The listener will find here some of the great classics of the English Cathedral tradition, a tradition our Chapel Choir stands so firmly within and which has sustained the faith of nations, in some cases for more than half a millennium. But there is also to be discovered some of the musical riches of the Fettes College of our own day. Gordon Robertson’s setting of the Coventry Carol touched deeply the congregation which first heard it performed at the College’s Christmas Carol Service at St Mary’s Episcopalian Cathedral in Edinburgh in December 2010. David Goodenough, the Director of Music, never fails to move an audience or congregation with his own settings and compositions, two of which are included here. It is often said that the Chapel of Fettes stands at the centre of the communal life of this College. If that is true then it is also a truism that the Chapel Choir and its music stands at the heart of all we do in Chapel. Here just something of a glimpse of the privilege and gladness we feel at that fact is offered to you. If it enables you to gain even a fraction of the pleasure we have from hearing this choir live, then our gladness will be made complete.