Ad Fontes is the record label and publishing house founded by Buckfast Abbey dedicated to presenting the finest sacred music.
Given its roots within the Roman Catholic Benedictine tradition, the label specialises in choral and organ music drawn from that rich heritage, with a focus on the Choir of Buckfast Abbey and the new Ruffatti organ.
...The name of the label is taken from the Abbey’s motto, Psalm 41: Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus (Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God).
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Latest album releases
Cinquième Symphonie: Organ music by Vierne, Tournemire and Duruflé
Cinquième Symphonie:
Organ music by Vierne, Tournemire and Duruflé
...
The early twentieth century was a period of enormous innovation and inventiveness in French organ music. On his début album, Charles Maxtone-Smith brings together some of its finest treasures by three titans of the organ repertoire, namely Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Maurice Duruflé, making full use of the resources of Buckfast Abbey’s Ruffatti instrument.
Messe modale: Upper voices music for Mass
Messe modale:
Upper voices music for Mass
...
This recording from the sopranos and altos of Buckfast Abbey Choir captures the unique sound world of upper voices for the Mass. Drawing on repertoire from a short, yet vibrant, period in early twentieth-century France, the programme showcases Masses by Gabriel Fauré, Jehan Alain and Jean Langlais.
Veni Creator Spiritus: Second Vespers of the Solemnity of Pentecost
Veni Creator Spiritus: Second Vespers of the Solemnity of Pentecost
...Pentecost, the foundational moment of the creation of the Church, was an overpowering spectacle marked by mighty wind and tongues of fire, by which the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and set out upon their universal mission of evangelisation to all peoples. In this album, the Choir of Westminster Cathedral demonstrates the majesty and glory of this story anew through their performance of the psalms and chants appointed for the celebration of Vespers at the end of this day.
O sacrum convivium! Music for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
O sacrum convivium!
Music for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
...
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi celebrates each year the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. On this album, the Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents a musical offering bearing witness to this great celebration through music rooted in the words and ancient chants of this feast. At the heart of this album is a Mass setting by Martin Baker, Missa O sacrum convivium!, newly commissioned for the Choir of Buckfast Abbey and here given its premier recording,...
Sur le nom d'Alain: Organ music by Jehan Alain and Maurice Duruflé
Sur le nom d'Alain
Organ music by Jehan Alain and Maurice Duruflé
...
For his debut recording with Ad Fontes, Matthew Martin has brought together a recital showcasing two of the greatest organist-composers of twentieth century France: Maurice Duruflé and Jehan Alain. The lively voicing and colour of the Ruffatti organ of Buckfast Abbey provides the ideal vehicle for this programme, expertly captured in a building which lives and breathes the music.
L'Orgue Spirituel: Organ music by César Franck and Charles Tournemire
L'Orgue Spirituel
Organ music by César Franck and Charles Tournemire
...
The organ stands at the spiritual heart of music heard in French Catholic liturgy. In this disc, Peter Stevens invites us to encounter two contrasting titans of this world, César Franck and Charles Tournemire, at one time teacher and pupil, who forged compositional idioms that continue to dominate the world of the organ and its use as an instrument capable of inflecting the spiritual sensibilities of French culture.
L'Orgue Grégorien: A year of chant-based organ music from the London Oratory
L'Orgue Grégorien
A year of chant-based organ music from the London Oratory
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Prizewinning performer Ben Bloor makes his debut recording on the iconic instrument with which he is so well acquainted: the Walker organ of the London Oratory, designed by Ralph Downes in 1954. The carefully constructed programme is one close to his heart: music centred around Gregorian chant, and takes in a liturgical year of plainsong-based works from 20th- and 21st-century France, Germany and England.
Lumen Christi: A sequence of music for the Easter Vigil
Lumen Christi:
A sequence of music for the Easter Vigil
...
The Choir of Westminster Cathedral is the crowning jewel of Catholic church music and has been at the forefront of English sacred music since its foundation in 1901. This new disc draws us into the mystery of the Paschal Vigil, the very apex of the Church’s liturgical year, transporting us on a journey from darkness into light through a sequence of plainsong and polyphony.
Angelus: French Sacred Song
Angelus:
French Sacred Song
...
Marking the hours of the day by praying the Angelus is a tradition dating back to the eleventh century. By the late nineteenth century, this devotional prayer was given musical life in Louis Vierne’s triptyque for voice and organ of the same name, whose first and last movements’ timeless quality is imbued with the repetition of the tolling Angelus bell hidden within the accompaniment...
Missa Festiva: Choral music by Flor Peeters
Missa Festiva:
Choral music by Flor Peeters
...
Flor Peeters was one of the most significant Catholic composers of the twentieth century, whose deeply spiritual œuvre incorporates elements of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. This recording celebrates his Latin choral music, a perfect assimilation of the motu proprio of Pope Pius X in 1903, which was unjustly neglected following the Second Vatican Council but is now sung in both Catholic...
Processional: Organ music by Dom Sebastian Wolff
Processional:
Organ music by Dom Sebastian Wolff
...
The name Dom Sebastian Wolff is synonymous with the music of Buckfast Abbey. Born in Ireland in 1929, Fr Sebastian became a monk of Buckfast in 1948, and has crafted a considerable oeuvre of music including settings of the Mass, responsorial psalms for the complete three-year cycle, and a Requiem. However, it is perhaps the organ which provided his greatest compositional inspiration. In this, the first recording...
Symphonie Romane: Organ music by Dupré, Widor and Tournemire
Symphonie Romane: Organ music by
Marcel Dupré, Charles-Marie Widor and Charles Tournemire
...
Peter Stevens plays works by three towering figures of the French organ world. Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphonie Romane is a radiant meditation on the Gregorian chants of Easter Sunday, and the Fantaisie-Choral from Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique is a deeply spiritual reflection on two of the best-known chants of Pentecost: Veni Sancte Spiritus and Veni Creator Spiritus. Two contrasting pieces by Marcel Dupré bookend the...
Puer natus est: Christmas Day Mass from Buckfast Abbey
Puer natus est:
Christmas Day Mass from Buckfast Abbey
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The Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents music for the Mass of Christmas Day. Weaving between the Gregorian chant propers are George Malcolm’s evocative Missa ad Præsepe (Mass at the Crib), and traditional carols and festive motets. The much-loved hymn Adeste fideles opens the Mass, progressing from the original plainsong melody through to a dramatic new arrangement of the penultimate verse, epitomising the joy of the Incarnation.
Messe Da Pacem: Music by Pierre Villette, Yves Castagnet and Ravel
Messe Da Pacem:
Music by Pierre Villette, Yves Castagnet and Maurice Ravel
...
The Choir of Royal Holloway presents the debut recording of Pierre Villette’s Messe Da Pacem in a new arrangement for choir and organ by Rupert Gough. Alongside the Mass is Villette’s well-known Hymne à la Vierge, and works by contemporary Parisian composer Yves Castagnet recorded here for the first time. The album opens with a new choral arrangement of Ravel’s ever-popular Pavane pour une infante défunte. The Choir is joined by alumna,...
Ave Maria: First Vespers of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Buckfast
Ave Maria:
First Vespers of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Buckfast
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The Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents music for the First Vespers of Our Lady of Buckfast, the Abbey’s patronal feast on 24 May. The Gregorian chant of the Monastic Rite is interspersed with glorious polyphonic works by Felice Anerio, William Byrd and Francisco Guerrero, culminating in the splendid Magnificat Octavi toni by Tomás Luis de Victoria. A thrilling new arrangement of the traditional devotional hymn Hail, Queen of heaven is the climax of this joyous service....
Vexilla Regis: A sequence of music from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday
Vexilla Regis:
A sequence of music from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday
...
The Choir of Westminster Cathedral is world famous for its staple of plainsong and polyphony. The choir explores a wealth of music from this repertoire for the richest of liturgical seasons: Holy Week. Masterpieces of the Renaissance by William Byrd and Tomás Luis de Victoria are woven together with ancient Gregorian chants, including Pange lingua and Adoro te, and later penitential works by Anton Bruckner and Maurice Duruflé. Three of the Cathedral’s illustrious Masters of...
Pictures at an Exhibition: The Ruffatti Organ of Buckfast Abbey
Pictures at an Exhibition:
The Ruffatti Organ of Buckfast Abbey
...
Martin Baker plays works selected from his inaugural concert on the acclaimed new organ of Buckfast Abbey. This magnificent instrument – the largest in the South West of England – was the first built in the United Kingdom by the renowned Italian organ builder Fratelli Ruffatti. Martin's programme opens with music by Dom Sebastian Wolff, the Abbey's long-serving monk, composer and organist. Other works explore each nuance and tonal variety of this innovative instrument, located in both the Quire and West Gallery of...
Latest sheet music releases
Martin Baker: Ecce ego Ioannes
Martin Baker: Ecce ego Ioannes
...Ecce ego Ioannes Omnium Sanctorum (‘Behold, I am John of all the Saints’), was commissioned by St John’s College, Cambridge, and makes reference to John’s vision of the world’s annihilation with the opening of the seventh seal (Chapters 8 and 9 of the Book of Revelation). The prelude as a whole is dominated by a rising fanfare idea. This is developed in a series of three major recurrences, interspersed by quieter, more angular episodes, which grow in cumulative...
David Davies: Two hymn arrangements
David Davies: Two hymn arrangements
...David Davies (b.1973) was Organist of Buckfast Abbey 2019–2023. During this time, he composed these two expansive arrangements of well-known hymns for the Abbey Choir, both of which have been recorded on Ad Fontes. Henri Frederich Hémy’s rousing tune Stella sets to music the words of Hail, Queen of heaven by John Lingard, an English priest and historian. Adeste fideles is a favourite at Buckfast, in part no doubt due to a paper written...
Jack Oades: Sicut Cervus
Jack Oades: Sicut Cervus
...Sicut cervus was the winner of the Millennium Composition Competition held by Buckfast Abbey in 2018 to celebrate 1000 years since its foundation. Setting the first two verses of Psalm 42(41), the piece focuses on the theme of yearning in the psalm, creating harmonic progressions resulting in dissonances that only partially resolve; even at the end, there is still a sense of the desire for closure and certainty. Sicut cervus also pays homage to the setting by Palestrina, with a...
Martin Baker: Missa O sacrum convivium!
Martin Baker: Missa O sacrum convivium!
...Martin Baker composed Missa O sacrum convivium! in response to a commission from Buckfast Abbey, whose choir first performed it on Corpus Christi in 2024. The work principally draws upon two chants of this feast, opening with the melody of the Magnificat Antiphon O sacrum convivium! as well as Caro mea, the Alleluia proper of the day, whose modality suffuses the work with brightness and joy, the spirit in which the Kyrie opens the work. The...
Dom Sebastian Wolff: Lullaby Carol
Dom Sebastian Wolff: Lullaby Carol
...Dom Sebastian Wolff was a monk, composer, and long-serving organist of Buckfast Abbey. Fr Sebastian composed his Lullaby Carol for performance by the Abbey choristers towards the end of the twentieth century. This new edition draws upon a recently discovered older score of the carol, which, unlike the version used in more recent years at Buckfast Abbey, maintains a consistent rhythm of the melody throughout. Set in a lilting compound time, the simple beauty of the melody, which can...
Martin Baker: Postquam surrexit Dominus
Martin Baker: Postquam surrexit Dominus
...The Graduale Romanum includes multiple antiphons to accompany the washing of feet that takes place annually during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on the evening of Maundy Thursday. Martin Baker takes these chants as its starting point for a choral piece designed to be sung in order to cover (but not overrun) the entire washing ceremony. Taking inspiration from Maurice Duruflé’s choral settings of Gregorian chant, the arrangement incorporates the metrical freedom and shapes of the...
Andrew Reid: Fauxbourdon Magnificats
Andrew Reid: Fauxbourdon Magnificats
...This collection of fauxbourdon Magnificats, one for each of the eight tones, originated in a request to add to the settings available for the office of Vespers on Sundays at Buckfast Abbey. Fauxbourdons have been sung alternatim with chant for hundreds of years, and a considerable repertoire exists, particularly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many are in four parts and deploy a restricted ambitus across the texture; they can consequently feel rather plain on Sundays and feastdays when heard alongside...
Dom Sebastian Wolff: Complete Organ Works
Dom Sebastian Wolff: Complete Organ Works
...The name Dom Sebastian Wolff is synonymous with the music of Buckfast Abbey. Born in Ireland in 1929, Fr Sebastian became a monk of Buckfast in 1948, and has crafted a considerable oeuvre of music including settings of the Mass, responsorial psalms for the complete three-year cycle, and a Requiem. However, it is perhaps the organ which provided his greatest compositional inspiration. This new edition of his complete organ works has been prepared by Richard Lea as a companion to his...
Latest video release
Westminster Cathedral Choir sings Infelix ego by William Byrd
William Byrd’s Infelix ego is widely regarded as the pinnacle of his sacred music and one of the most powerful artistic achievements of the sixteenth century. The work sets a text by the Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, a meditation on Psalm 51 written while Savonarola awaited execution in Florence after leading a religious movement against the Medici family. The text expresses a tormented soul wrestling with guilt, fear, and despair, yet ultimately finding hope through Christ’s mercy. The piece mirrors Savonarola’s spiritual struggle through expressive melodic lines, shifting textures, and moments of tension and release. Byrd may also have felt a personal connection to Savonarola’s situation; as a Catholic composer living in Protestant England during a time of religious persecution, Byrd understood the experience of being isolated from one’s faith community. This shared sense of conflict and devotion seems to inform the music’s profound emotional intensity, culminating in a powerful conclusion that suggests the long-awaited acceptance of divine mercy.