Patmos Book of Carols Released by Tonus Peregrinus
THE PATMOS BOOK OF CAROLS
Twenty-one years ago, the TONUS PEREGRINUS album of The Naxos Book of Carols was commissioned and released by Naxos Records, distributed to hundreds of thousands of UK homes with the Sunday newspapers, and the following year the sheet music for The Naxos Book of Carols was published as a carol-book by Faber Music.
The sequence of carols – brand new arrangements and a couple of original carols by composer and conductor Antony Pitts – opened 24 windows onto the story of Advent and Christmas in a refreshingly original and innovative manner, dubbed by him as “carols for musicians”.
Now, two decades on, TONUS PEREGRINUS returns with The Patmos Book of Carols – not a single, but a double album of 24 new carols and arrangements by four members of the ensemble: Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, Alexander L’Estrange, Richard Eteson, and Antony Pitts – as well as two other members of the Pitts musical clan.
Now, two decades on, TONUS PEREGRINUS returns with The Patmos Book of Carols – not a single, but a double album of 24 new carols and arrangements by four members of the ensemble: Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, Alexander L’Estrange, Richard Eteson, and Antony Pitts – as well as two other members of the Pitts musical clan.
Soprano Rebecca Hickey steps forward to sing the words and thoughts of the Virgin Mary, and the whole ensemble enters into the most solemn and most joyous aspects of the celebration of Christmas.
The Patmos Book of Carols takes its inspiration from passages from the Book of Revelation (written down by the disciple John while exiled on the Greek island of Patmos, not far from the seven churches on the mainland that is now Turkey): the sevenfold repetitions of the ‘O’ Antiphons of Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s Advent ‘O’ Carol echoing the seven trumpets of Revelation, as the story of Advent both looks back to the first Christmas and forward to the return of the King, once a baby in a manger in Bethlehem.
The Patmos Book of Carols takes its inspiration from passages from the Book of Revelation (written down by the disciple John while exiled on the Greek island of Patmos, not far from the seven churches on the mainland that is now Turkey): the sevenfold repetitions of the ‘O’ Antiphons of Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s Advent ‘O’ Carol echoing the seven trumpets of Revelation, as the story of Advent both looks back to the first Christmas and forward to the return of the King, once a baby in a manger in Bethlehem.
Although the secular world makes a great deal of Christmas, commercially and communally, it tends to do so almost exclusively before Christmas actually begins. And so, this sequence of carols takes us from Advent to Christmas and beyond to the next Advent.
In the first of two volumes – “Today in the city of David” – The Patmos Book of Carols brings together arrangements of favourites such as "The Angel Gabriel", "Once in royal David’s city: (with an opening verse as you’ve never heard it before), Holst’s seasonal melody for "In the bleak mid-winter," and a mysterious rendition of "Let all mortal flesh keep silence," alongside two brand-new carols from Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, one of the Royal School of Church Music’s best-selling composers, and up-tempo settings of "Hark! the herald angels sing" and "It came upon the midnight clear" by Antony’s older cousin, Jonathan Pitts.
One of the notable aspects of The Patmos Book of Carols is the use of location to set the scene and draw the listener in: recorded both in a château at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer in Northern France, and in the mediaeval Charterhouse in London, we hear the intimate sounds of the stable alongside heavenly choirs and rollicking wassailers out for a bout of lively carol-singing – with "The Sussex Carol" and Richard Eteson’s "A Jolly Wassel-Bowl" framing a sophisticated carol by William Byrd, "An Earthly Tree," and a miniature a cappella gem by Alexander L’Estrange, setting Rossetti’s "Love came down at Christmas."
Christina Georgina Rossetti’s poems feature several times across the double album, including Richard Eteson’s evocative retelling of the story of "The Holy Innocents," and Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s entirely new version of "In the bleak midwinter", complete with the pointillist harp playing of Olivia Jageurs. Joanna also provides her own words for the earthy and intimate "I will hold Him", portraying the Virgin Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel.
The second volume of The Patmos Book of Carols takes the listener through the story of Herod’s infanticidal rage and the visit of the wise men (referenced in the psalm text of John Sheppard’s ethereal Reges Tharsis) to the Advent season once more, taking us full circle to the final words of the "Advent ‘O’ Carol" that began our sequence: “Tomorrow I will come”.
As well as "The Coventry Carol (Lullay Lulla)" and mediaeval tunes such as "Alleluya – a nywe werk" and "Unto us is born a Son," there are four new carols by Antony Pitts including a setting of Thomas Hardy’s perennially questioning "The Oxen", published one Christmas Eve during the First World War, and "Miryam’s Lullaby" – inspired by the Holy Land – in which the words of Simeon (author of the Nunc Dimittis) to Mary take on their poignant meaning in sonorous harmonies looking ahead to the events of Holy Week. The album concludes with Antony’s younger brother, John Pitts’s rousing carol-hymn, "Lord Jesus, come!", which has long-time collaborator Paul Ayres playing the organ at the Charterhouse Chapel.
TONUS PEREGRINUS has Christmas carols in the blood: three former Scholars at King’s College, Cambridge, are singing on this album – Francis Brett, Alex Knight, and Richard Eteson (who once sang the treble solo in "Once in royal David’s" city during the famous broadcast of Nine Lessons and Carols); Alexander Hickey was a choral scholar at Christ Church Oxford and Alexander L’Estrange, whose "Lute-book Lullaby" and "Song of the Angels" draw deeply on a wealth of Christmas musical tradition, was a former chorister at New College, Oxford.
As an ensemble that has remained largely unchanged for more than a quarter of a century, and that has created several significant albums while on holiday together – including Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral (the opening track featuring Rebecca Hickey has over three million listens on Spotify) – TONUS PEREGRINUS knows well how to celebrate in style, as well as how to share in the gamut of emotions and feelings that come with Christmas. This time we were delighted to welcome Nicholas Garrett into our midst.
In holiday mood, we all (figuratively and literally!) picked up rusty instruments – an assortment of strings, rustic flute, hunting horn, and voluble percussion – to form an ad hoc gallery band on its wassailing way; and each married couple – Alexander & Joanna L’Estrange, Alexander & Rebecca Hickey, Alexander & Kathryn Knight – took turns to duet in the verses of Byrd’s "An Earthly Tree." The tear-stained joy that Byrd wrote of infuses the rich tapestry of The Patmos Book of Carols from beginning to end – as we very deliberately sing “why on earth should men be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?”
Special thanks to Isabelle de Conihout and Guillaume de Conihout, and to the Master and community of the Charterhouse.
cover image incorporating Seven angels with trumpets from BL Royal 15 D II, f. 136v Apocalypse (the ‘Welles Apocalypse’ by Peter of Peckham)
In the first of two volumes – “Today in the city of David” – The Patmos Book of Carols brings together arrangements of favourites such as "The Angel Gabriel", "Once in royal David’s city: (with an opening verse as you’ve never heard it before), Holst’s seasonal melody for "In the bleak mid-winter," and a mysterious rendition of "Let all mortal flesh keep silence," alongside two brand-new carols from Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, one of the Royal School of Church Music’s best-selling composers, and up-tempo settings of "Hark! the herald angels sing" and "It came upon the midnight clear" by Antony’s older cousin, Jonathan Pitts.
One of the notable aspects of The Patmos Book of Carols is the use of location to set the scene and draw the listener in: recorded both in a château at Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer in Northern France, and in the mediaeval Charterhouse in London, we hear the intimate sounds of the stable alongside heavenly choirs and rollicking wassailers out for a bout of lively carol-singing – with "The Sussex Carol" and Richard Eteson’s "A Jolly Wassel-Bowl" framing a sophisticated carol by William Byrd, "An Earthly Tree," and a miniature a cappella gem by Alexander L’Estrange, setting Rossetti’s "Love came down at Christmas."
Christina Georgina Rossetti’s poems feature several times across the double album, including Richard Eteson’s evocative retelling of the story of "The Holy Innocents," and Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s entirely new version of "In the bleak midwinter", complete with the pointillist harp playing of Olivia Jageurs. Joanna also provides her own words for the earthy and intimate "I will hold Him", portraying the Virgin Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel.
The second volume of The Patmos Book of Carols takes the listener through the story of Herod’s infanticidal rage and the visit of the wise men (referenced in the psalm text of John Sheppard’s ethereal Reges Tharsis) to the Advent season once more, taking us full circle to the final words of the "Advent ‘O’ Carol" that began our sequence: “Tomorrow I will come”.
As well as "The Coventry Carol (Lullay Lulla)" and mediaeval tunes such as "Alleluya – a nywe werk" and "Unto us is born a Son," there are four new carols by Antony Pitts including a setting of Thomas Hardy’s perennially questioning "The Oxen", published one Christmas Eve during the First World War, and "Miryam’s Lullaby" – inspired by the Holy Land – in which the words of Simeon (author of the Nunc Dimittis) to Mary take on their poignant meaning in sonorous harmonies looking ahead to the events of Holy Week. The album concludes with Antony’s younger brother, John Pitts’s rousing carol-hymn, "Lord Jesus, come!", which has long-time collaborator Paul Ayres playing the organ at the Charterhouse Chapel.
TONUS PEREGRINUS has Christmas carols in the blood: three former Scholars at King’s College, Cambridge, are singing on this album – Francis Brett, Alex Knight, and Richard Eteson (who once sang the treble solo in "Once in royal David’s" city during the famous broadcast of Nine Lessons and Carols); Alexander Hickey was a choral scholar at Christ Church Oxford and Alexander L’Estrange, whose "Lute-book Lullaby" and "Song of the Angels" draw deeply on a wealth of Christmas musical tradition, was a former chorister at New College, Oxford.
As an ensemble that has remained largely unchanged for more than a quarter of a century, and that has created several significant albums while on holiday together – including Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral (the opening track featuring Rebecca Hickey has over three million listens on Spotify) – TONUS PEREGRINUS knows well how to celebrate in style, as well as how to share in the gamut of emotions and feelings that come with Christmas. This time we were delighted to welcome Nicholas Garrett into our midst.
In holiday mood, we all (figuratively and literally!) picked up rusty instruments – an assortment of strings, rustic flute, hunting horn, and voluble percussion – to form an ad hoc gallery band on its wassailing way; and each married couple – Alexander & Joanna L’Estrange, Alexander & Rebecca Hickey, Alexander & Kathryn Knight – took turns to duet in the verses of Byrd’s "An Earthly Tree." The tear-stained joy that Byrd wrote of infuses the rich tapestry of The Patmos Book of Carols from beginning to end – as we very deliberately sing “why on earth should men be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?”
Special thanks to Isabelle de Conihout and Guillaume de Conihout, and to the Master and community of the Charterhouse.
cover image incorporating Seven angels with trumpets from BL Royal 15 D II, f. 136v Apocalypse (the ‘Welles Apocalypse’ by Peter of Peckham)
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Editor's Note: Description is the ensemble's own.
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