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TONUS PEREGRINUS was founded by the composer Antony Pitts in 1990, during his studies with Dr Edward Higginbottom at New College, Oxford, to record Music for a Large Audience, and today is an established ensemble in Britain and abroad with a significant discography on Hyperion and Naxos. Acclaim in the BBC Music Magazine, The Gramophone, and The Telegraph speaks for itself: “utterly spellbinding”, “utterly beguiling”, “gloriously sung by this superb choir”.
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At the core of TONUS PEREGRINUS are a dozen singers who combine their diverse expertise to interpret a repertoire ranging from the end of the Dark Ages to scores where the ink is still wet. This breadth of vision is reflected in the name of the ensemble which comes from an ancient plainsong psalm tone with Jewish origins, directly linked to the Passover and the Last Supper. The tonus peregrinus chant starts on a different note in each half, hence “wandering tone” and was nicknamed tonus novissimus, the “newest”.
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TONUS PEREGRINUS has achieved major successes in both new music and early music, including the prestigious Cannes Classical Award for the ensemble’s chart-topping debut release of Arvo Pärt’s Passio. Firstly Passio, and then Seven Letters and other sacred choral music were picked as Editor’s Choice in The Gramophone; a third CD, Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral, was shortlisted for the first-ever BBC Music Magazine Awards.
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TONUS PEREGRINUS has a history of performing at extraordinary occasions such as the memorials for Alexander Litvinenko – a former audience member – and of putting on remarkable live productions such as a semi-staged version of the 14th-century Le Voir Dit by Guillaume de Machaut; other innovative projects include The Naxos Book of Carols – circulated to millions of homes in the UK and available as a printed carol-book from Faber Music – and the ensemble’s studio rendition of Tears for Fears’s Mad World.
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The journey continues with a new disc of music from the Eton Choirbook – the jewel in the crown of TONUS PEREGRINUS’s series of “milestones of Western Music” for Naxos – and a large-scale premiere recording of a powerful new oratorio by Antony Pitts, Jerusalem-Yerushalayim. As ever, the founding vision endures: authentic & original.
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