Glenn Gould: “I always said the most fascinating beautiful little piece in all of music is a hymn by Orlando Gibbons, by the name Thus Angels Sang. I couldn’t count the times I’ve let these bars wander through my mind, or how often I’ve played them on the piano…” Gibbons’ exquisite tunes and rock-solid basslines for the first English hymnbook, Hymnes and Songs of the Church (published by George Wither with his hymn-texts in 1623), were written to be sung and played both at home and in church. In this practical and adventurous collection for choirs of all sizes and abilities (and accompanying the acclaimed TONUS PEREGRINUS recording on Naxos 8.557681), Gibbons’ music has been realized by Antony Pitts and Alexander L’Estrange in a variety of styles, interleaved with new English hymns by themselves and two more Pitts brothers – James and John, and arranged in eight sequences following the Church’s liturgical year, each capped with a different Amen.
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