Before Mahalia Jackson, Bill Gaither, Larry Norman and Amy Grant. Before modern classical composers like Aaron Copland and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Before the hymn writers of the 19th century, and before Martin Luther, Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts, or even before Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven made their indelible marks on sacred music, there was Saint Ambrose, Guillaume de Machaut, Giovanni Gabrieli, even the Apostle Paul. In The Music of Angels, composer, conductor and Director of The Christian Performing Artists’ Fellowship in Washington, D.C., Dr. Patrick Kavanaugh, charts a daring course through 2000 years of sacred music history. But wait! Before you pull out the No-Doze or recoil in

Kavanaugh’s book focuses not on the annoying details that show up on college music history exams, but on the complexity and continuity of sacred music throughout the centuries. (If you happen to be a music major in college, he also provides a fairly exhaustive "further reading" list that should make you howl with delight.) He demonstrates, in language music scholars and lovers alike can handle, how one era’s sacred music borrows from and fights against another. In doing so, he paints the depth and breadth of our sacred music heritage, a heightened understanding of which can only increase our commitment to writing it, recording it or simply singing it from our Sunday pews with gusto and excellence… in any form, in any era.