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Tonus Peregrinus & Antony Pitts
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Tonus Peregrinus & Antony Pitts · Tonus Peregrinus is a British vocal ensemble that specialises in early music and in contemporary religious music. Antony Pitts founded it in 1990 and directs it. The ensemble recorded many CDs for Naxos. The first album, Arvo Pärt's Passio, won the Cannes Classical Award. For Hyperion it made two albums with music by Pitts himself, Seven Letters and Alpha and Omega. The album Music from the Eton Choirbook was recorded with a new microphone technique by the NRK engineer Geoff Miles. The ensemble also sang at the memorial for Alexander Litvinenko.
Music and breakthrough
In School of Rock the ensemble appears with Viderunt omnes, a two-part organum by Léonin, from around 1170. Léonin belongs to the composers of Notre-Dame in Paris. Organum is one of the oldest forms of polyphonic music in the West: above a long, sustained Gregorian melody, a second voice sings a freer line. A small group of singers can make this music sound good, because each voice remains audible.
Influence
In this way the recording forms a bridge between medieval church music and the centuries that followed. Anyone who wants to hear what the beginning of polyphony sounded like will find a clear rendering here.
Listening
Viderunt omnes, tweestemmig organum (Léonin) · Tonus Peregrinus & Antony Pitts, 1170