

John Sheppard - Cantate Mass: The Sixteen
Two discs and only 4 of 20 tracks are the Cantate mass - there's also a good range of motets including many of Sheppard's best known pieces, such as the Christmas motet Verbum caro factus est and the beautiful Libera nos. If you need convincing of Sheppard's genius, just listen to the Amen of Jesu salvator saeculi, redemptis - taken individually some of the lines sound positively 20th century in their modernity, and in combination it takes your breath away - it's hard not to say 'he can't do that!' - but he does. Perhaps the only criticism is that the Sixteen underplay the clashes so they aren't quite as shocking as they could be. Even so, probably the best introduction to Sheppard now on the market.

Sheet music for services
Includes Mag & Nunc, Preces & Responses, Te Deum and other morning canticles, Masses and Others.
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis
The mainstay of evensong in some magnificent settings. If you like Mag & Nuncs, we've some good recordings in our CDs section.
Peter Aston
Richard Ayleward
Joseph Barnby
Adrian Batten
Brewer
William Byrd
George Dyson
Gerald Finzi
Orlando Gibbons
Howard Goodall
Basil Harwood
David Hogan
Herbert Howells - If baffled by quantity, try Collegium Regale (but be warned, it's non-trivial)
John Ireland
Grayston Ives
Kenneth Leighton
Herbert Murrill
Henry Purcell
John Sheppard
Charles Villiers Stanford - the great Edwardian. Try the B flat for starters
Herbert Sumsion
John Stainer
Thomas Tallis
John Tavener
Thomas Attwood Walmisley
Samuel Sebastian Wesley
Charles Wood
Miniature unaccompanied masterpieces that give the liturgical form to evensong and mattins. We don't currently have a listing for possibly the greatest of the responses, William Smith of Durham - Ayleward is a good, simple starter. If you want the Smith it's in a booklet called Tudor Responses in RSCM Music Direct.
Canticles for the morning service.
Benjamin Britten
William Byrd
George Dyson
Edward German
Orlando Gibbons
Herbert Howells
John Ireland
James Macmillan
Henry Purcell
Charles Villiers Stanford
Herbert Sumsion
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Settings of the communion service from Latin to Common Worship.
Frank Adlam
William Byrd - Byrd's 4 part mass is arguably one of the greatest pieces of music of all time. Superb.
Harold Darke
Basil Harwood
Herbert Howells
John Ireland
William Lloyd Webber
James Macmillan
W. A. Mozart
Giovanni Palestrina
John Rutter
Franz Schubert
John Sheppard
Charles Villiers Stanford
Igor Stravinsky
Herbert Sumsion
Thomas Tallis
Christopher Tye
Arthur Wills
Martin Shaw