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"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.
This disc contains dazzling, ecstatic, arresting, thought-provoking works, sung with limpid beauty by TONUS PEREGRINUS."
1 The Peace of Jerusalem 2007 SATB DIVISI [8'15]
2-3 Sanctus and Benedictus 1993 SATB [3'26]
4-5 A Thousand Years 1999 SATB DIVISI [7'50]
6 My Dove 1997 SSAATTBB [7'22]
The ‘I AM’ Sayings of Jesus 1996-2007 [41'09]
7 Before Abraham was, I AM 2006 MTB [5'45]
8 I AM the Bread of Life 2000 SATB [4'34]
9 I AM the Resurrection and the Life 1996 SSAATBB [4'46]
10 I AM the Light of the World 2001 SATBARB [2'11]
11 I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life 2001-2003 UPPER/LOWER [3'38]
12 I AM the True Vine 2003 SMATBARB [7'43]
13 I AM the Door-I AM the Good Shepherd 2003–2007 SOLO / UNISON [4'17]
14 I AM Alpha and Omega 2003, REVISED 2007 SATBSATB [8'12]
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INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW February 2008
"Antony Pitts, a composer not yet 40 years of age, has rapidly crafted a place for himself as one of Britain's more enterprising writers of choral music.... This is a most successful recording, TONUS PEREGRINUS never wearied by the vastness of its task and the vision of Christ always palpable in the composer's creative insights."
CHOIR & ORGAN February 2008
"TONUS PEREGRINUS is proving to be one of the most skilful vocal groups around. Its composer/founder/director demands much from his singers, which they accomplish with impressive fluency and musicality. Pitts shows considerable ingenuity and flair in his settings of sacred texts, which include The Peace of Jerusalem, Sanctus and Benedictus, A Thousand Years and the totally captivating My Dove. The outstanding work is The ‘I AM’ Sayings of Jesus, which Pitts constructs using various combinations of voices and intervals from the unison to the octave, but never in a mathematical sequence. The moods range from the austere to the ecstatic, from the simplistic to a dissonant but ordered turmoil – it’s a remarkable achievement."
ALLMUSIC
""One of the things that makes the sacred a cappella work of Antony Pitts (born 1969) stand out from that of the many excellent emerging choral composers of his generation is his fearless defiance of harmonic and melodic conventions; just when you think he's heading for an easy landing, he veers off into unexpected, exhilaratingly wild territory.... In the double quartet that he conducts, TONUS PEREGRINUS, Pitts has assembled an ensemble for which he can write with impunity. Their ability to negotiate the music's extreme demands is staggering, and they do it with wonderfully pure tone, warm blend, and impassioned expressiveness. Pitts is a composer to watch out for: these remarkably assured and compelling works should be strong interest to any fan of contemporary choral music."
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