Tonus Peregrinus

Antony Pitts: Alpha and Omega

There are few better examples of a composer’s style developing concurrently with the emergence of a vocal group than in the a cappella vocal music of Antony Pitts. The Tonus Peregrinus octet exists to perform ancient and modern works interspersed with music written by its director. The two-way influence between consort and composer is palpable. The resulting compositions are as much theological statements as stand-alone pieces of music and as such they bear comparison with some of the monuments of, for instance, the music of the English Reformation. Specific musical germs such as false relations and the use of carefully controlled dissonances to create suspensions provide obvious aural connections with the music of the sixteenth century. But there are other musical devices such as medieval hocket, psalmodic chanting, jazz-infused rhythmic cells, and close-harmony effects which combine to create a simultaneously antiquated yet modern musical style.

An Easter Album

This 2 CD collection features a variety of music inspired by Easter, from early Gregorian Chant to Bach’s majestic Passion settings to selections from the popular Requiems by Mozart, Fauré and Rutter.

John Dunstaple - Sweet Harmony

Masses and Motets

Antony Pitts - Seven Letters

The Naxos Book of Carols

Gibbons - Hymns and Songs of the Church

The complete Orlando Gibbons melodies as published in 1623, with new realizations and original settings by L’Estrange and Pitts

Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral

Pärt: Passio (St John Passion)

Naxos is proud to present a brand new recording of Arvo Part’s Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem, a major milestone in Naxos’ recording legacy and only the third recording of the work to be released on compact disc. Composed in 1982, it is one of the works in which Part uses “tintinnabulist” techniques – the sound or music of bells. “I build with the most primitive materials – with the triad. … The three notes of a triad are like bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation”. (Arvo Part). This new recording by Oxford-based ensemble Tonus Peregrinus offers a radically different take on the music from existing recordings. When recording the work, the ensemble followed all Part’s score markings to the letter. After the recording session, the disc was sent to the composer who listened carefully and decided to clarify exactly what he had intended by the score markings; the present recording was then edited according to his new “rules”. This is therefore the very first recording of the Passio to take account of the composer’s recent clarification of precise note and rest durations.

Pärt - Fratres, Passio & Berliner Messe