This exemplary album by British chamber choir Tonus Peregrinus, led by its founder Antony Pitts, includes seven works of Renaissance polyphony and plainchant from the surviving 64 surviving pieces from the Eton Choirbook, which dates from around 1500. It's a mixed ensemble rather than the choir of men and boys that would have originally sung this music, but this is such an exceptionally fine performance that anyone who loves this repertoire, apart from the most diehard purist, is likely to be delighted with the chaste ...
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This exemplary album by British chamber choir Tonus Peregrinus, led by its founder Antony Pitts, includes seven works of Renaissance polyphony and plainchant from the surviving 64 surviving pieces from the Eton Choirbook, which dates from around 1500. It's a mixed ensemble rather than the choir of men and boys that would have originally sung this music, but this is such an exceptionally fine performance that anyone who loves this repertoire, apart from the most diehard purist, is likely to be delighted with the chaste purity, expressiveness, and interpretive choices of Tonus Peregrinus. Musical notation of the period was far from precise or consistent, even in terms of exact pitches, so performers must apply scholarship and informed intuition to the choices the manuscript leaves open to interpretation. Pitts and the singers, based on years of study and familiarity with the material, opt, when appropriate, for an approach that gives the music a tonally bright, major-key quality that contrasts with the...
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