NOW *The most fascinating beautiful little piece in all of music*
Kathryn Oswald talks to Antony Pitts and Alexander L'Estrange
about the new TONUS PEREGRINUS recording on Naxos.
Listen to the free 'cast at:
http://www.goldenradio.co.uk/HYMNSpodcast.m3u
or download the MP3 from:
http://www.goldenradio.co.uk/HYMNSpodcast.MP3
Hymns and Songs of the Church (Naxos 8.557681) is available from
http://shop.thewelcomestranger.org
WEDNESDAY 23 AUGUST 4pm (1500-1600GMT) *Choral Evensong*
including Edington Festival commission 'Before Abraham was, I AM'
broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 (90-93FM in the UK)
and on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3.shtml
Edington is a small village on the edge of Salisbury Plain in
Wiltshire. Forty minutes' drive from Bath or Salisbury, it lies
four miles east of Westbury on the B3098. For one week in August
every year since 1956, Edington has hosted a "festival of music
within the liturgy" in its magnificent fourteenth-century priory
church. Singers from many of the great cathedral and collegiate
choirs come together to take part in the week's daily services.
There are no tickets for the services and seats cannot be
reserved. Doors close at 3.55pm for Wednesday's Choral Evensong.
Throughout the week Matins and Compline are sung to plainsong by
the Schola Cantorum (directed by Andrew Carwood, conductor of The
Cardinall's Musick), whilst the principal services are led by a
Nave Choir of men and boys (conducted by Robert Quinney,
Sub-Organist at Westminster Abbey) and a Consort of mixed voices
(directed by Jeremy Summerly, Head of Academic Studies at the
Royal Academy of Music and conductor of Oxford Camerata). The
festival is directed by Julian Thomas, Assistant Organist of
Norwich Cathedral, and this year takes the Gospel of St John as
its theme, with Jesus's I AM teachings forming the daily focus
for worship. More info at: http://www.edingtonfestival.org/
This year's festival commission - Antony Pitts's motet for three
voices, 'Before Abraham was, I AM...' - is the last motet to be
composed in an eight-motet cycle (for 1 to 8 voices) setting the
"I AM..." sayings of Jesus. True to the nature of its
paradoxical and controversial text, the motet has ended up being
the first piece in the cycle. More info on the cycle is at:
http://cd.tp/APTIASoJscores.html and the score itself is
available from http://shop.thewelcomestranger.org.
24/7 *Hymns and Songs of the Church*
scores (from £1) and texts (free) of all the hymns are available
exclusively via http://www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk/hymns.html
The way it works is refreshingly simple: first you choose which
score or scores to buy and pay with a credit card; then a pdf is
specially created with a password and is emailed to you (normally
within one to two working days) for you to make as many copies as
you like for local use, i.e. for your church, your choir, your
college/school, your home. That's it.
The first online shopper at http://shop.thewelcomestranger.org
lives in Auckland and the first person to buy an electronic score
lives in Florida, so it's been truly global from the beginning.
The shop's warehouse is manned by real people (who have real
lives and therefore aren't always available 24 hours a day), but
should you need technical help, please do email us at
shop@thewelcomestranger.org, and we'll respond.
Adobe Reader (pdf reader) can be freely downloaded at:
http://www.adobe.com/.
Next month, online video at last and a piece of Jerusalem...
Happy listening and browsing,
Antony Pitts
www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk
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