There seems to be no end to the musical glories of The Eton Choirbook. How fortunate we are that Stephen Darlington and his choir have produced yet another volume in this valuable series. This instalment contains five works dedicated to the Virgin Mary, including the first recording of Walter Lambe’s Gaude Flore Virginali, a text extolling the Virgin’s seven joys. Born in Salisbury about 1451, Lambe became a scholar at Eton in his mid-teens, later working at nearby St George’s Windsor. Notable for having composed the longest piece in the Eton collection, Lambe seems to have been a compositional show-off. His Gaude for four-part men’s voices is written out (so Timothy Symons tells us in his interesting annotations) using unnecessarily complex notational devices.

For all its artifice, Lambe’s setting is dwarfed by a grand setting of the same text by Hugo Kellyk, not only set in seven parts, but whose whole structure is permeated by the number seven. Its alternating solo and full sections build to an impressive climax. Solo treble, Sanuda Kariyawasam’s high, sustained singing impressively contributes to the overall blend. Richly scored for six-part men’s voices, John Browne’s O Regina Mundi Clara is another wonder from the pre-eminent composer of the collection and was possibly written for Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother. Robert Fayrfax’s Magnificat ‘Regali’ was originally part of the collection, but was subsequently lost. Luckily it survived in other sources. Its relative simplicity makes an interesting contrast.

Robert Hacomplaynt’s only work, a Salve Regina, provides a majestic conclusion. Here, as throughout this series, Darlington not only expertly evokes the grandeur of this marvellous music, but also conveys intimate sense of community and devotion that underpinned this extraordinary period of English music.