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Track(s) taken from CDA67507

Amen

composer
Antony Pitts (b1969)
2000
author of text
Anonymous - traditional

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: 8 minutes 24 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)
'Amen' is the conclusion of every Christian prayer and this piece sets the single word many times. Two spatially separated four-voice choirs explore a kaleidoscopic vocal texture in a similar way to The Lord’s Prayer – the effect is one of changing patterns of light and shade. Yet again, the tonal ambivalence of the ‘English’ cadence infuses the whole piece, and at the end the motif and its inversion are audibly presented as an ecstatic coda.

from notes by Jeremy Summerly © 2005

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