That’s the music of the Dominican Friars of Poland, now available in English. A rotating cast of non-professional singers from across the country came together over an extended weekend in January 2020 to record two albums’ worth of liturgical music. The repertoire forms a basic corpus of music for the whole church year. It can be learned and sung well in a short amount of time, by dedicated choirs of modest means – just like our album, recorded by volunteer singers after a brief period of rehearsing.

Here we are excited to share with you the second album, Eva | Ave, with choral music for Marian feast days, Advent, and Ordinary Time. Its title is drawn from a medieval hymn Ave Maris Stella (Hail, Star of the Sea). It depicts Mary as the new Eve, and the former’s obedience restoring the grace lost through the latter woman’s disobedience. In Latin Eve is spelt „Eva“ which in reverse spells „Ave“ („hail!“), the greeting that the Angel Gabriel spoke in the Annunciation to Mary. Hence we sing: Taking that wondrous greeting / Which was by Gabriel spoken, / Changing „Eva“ to „Ave“, / Be of God’s peace the token. Our album features an arrangement of this hymn with a 17th century melody from a Benedictine monastery of Staniątki, harmonized by Fr. Dawid Kusz, OP, masterfully translated by Christopher Mueller.

The previous album from our series, featuring music for Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time can be found here. You may also like our 2016 album, Jesus I Trust In You.