XL

40-part motet by Antony Pitts commissioned by the Berlin Radio Choir - duration: c.13'00


This score is also available direct from Faber Music

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XL is designed to be a companion piece to Thomas Tallis's famous Spem in alium, and is a setting of the first three verses of Psalm 40 (hence the title, although the Psalm is numbered 39 in the Vulgate).

The direct parallels with Spem in alium include:
- 40 voices, arranged in eight 5-part choirs
- Latin text, with final "sperabunt" echoing "spem"
- the sonority of richly-voiced chords and the filigree offered by 40 individual lines
- may be sung in a complete circle or a semi-circle
- may be performed before, after, or simply in the same concert as Spem in alium.

XL is based almost entirely on a panintervallic tetrachord (a set of 4 notes containing all the intervals):



and the use of approximate addition tones to create harmonic fields such as this one:



however, the music is neither dryly academic nor impossibly difficult - XL is designed for a choir that can manage Spem in alium and, say, Poulenc's choral writing.

The motet (c.13') is structured in three main sections:
- in the first section, the singers are divided into 20 pairs to create an undulating texture which is harmonically translucent yet never static;

- in the middle section, 4 double choirs of 10 voices hocket and echo each other at regular and less regular intervals;

- in the final section, a long and winding melody (perhaps the "new song" of the text) is passed from one voice to another and the whole choir combines over various pedal-points, ending on an optimistic note:

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Proms 2005
on XL (Harmonia Mundi HMC801873) programmed and conducted by Simon Halsey:
"...to keep the best to last: that is XL, an impressively inventive and resourceful companion to Spem by Antony Pitts..."

CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE
September 2005
on XL (Harmonia Mundi HMC801873) performed by the Berlin Radio Choir / Simon Halsey:
"...helped by imaginative surround sound and rich choral singing, [the disc] is crowned by Antony Pitts's Tallis-inspired XL."

CLASSICS TODAY www.classicstodayfrance.com
July/August 2005
on XL (Harmonia Mundi HMC801873) conducted by Simon Halsey:
artistique 10 / 10 technique
"XL, pour chœur extra-large ! XL, pour 40, 40 comme le nombre de voix du célèbre motet de Tallis, Spem in alium. XL, titre d'une ambitieuse partition chorale du compositeur anglais Antony Pitts (né en 1969), en hommage à Tallis, son glorieux prédécesseur à la Chapelle Royale. Cet enregistrement devrait faire date dans le répertoire choral. Le SACD est techniquement réussi: cinq configurations différentes ont été adoptées, en fonction de l'agencement spatial des compositions, les possesseurs d'installations multicanal apprécieront! ...L'œuvre de Pitts est fort intéressante, lisible et par moments hyper-expressive, notamment la troisième partie qui explose sur les paroles 'et dedit in ore meo'. ...La prise de son contribue à ce résultat étonnant...
...XL, comme excellence!"