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Track(s) taken from CDA67507

The First and Last

composer
1988
author of text
Revelation 1: 13-18

Tonus Peregrinus, Antony Pitts (conductor)
Recording details: September 2000
St Peter and St Paul, Wadhust, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Produced by Martin Cotton
Engineered by Geoff Miles
Release date: June 2005
Total duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Cover artwork: Finale (detail). David Jenks
Private Collection / Reproduced by kind permission of the artist
 

Reviews

‘Tonus Peregrinus is a double quartet of expert singers brought together by the composer. With firm, fresh voices and precise intonation … they sound as ideal a group for fulfilling his intentions as he is likely to find on this side of the Heaven to which so much of his music aspires’ (Gramophone)

‘Seven shorter pieces complete the programme, the best of which are Adoro te and Amen, both of which make striking use of dynamic and spatial effects. The performances are excellent’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Heatedly recommended’ (Fanfare, USA)
Set in the robust genre of a worship-song The First and Last makes only passing reference to Pitts’s characteristic devices of added-note harmonies and cross relations. The text describes St John’s vision of the living Lord and is given an unrelenting rhythmic impetus that drives the music inexorably towards an optimistic and colourful conclusion. The seven lamps of the first verse represent the seven churches of Asia Minor, and the seven stars their bishops.

from notes by Jeremy Summerly © 2005

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