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One of the exceptional privileges of working with @TONUSPEREGRINUS is the ability to pursue major projects over a number of years with the same core of virtuosic and versatile performers, drawing on expertise and resources from colleagues around the world. Sometimes that means brand-new music including my own; sometimes it is very old indeed. Opening The Eton Choirbook continues a journey with real impact on the future of early music-making – as in our previous explorations of the Dow and Sadler Partbooks with the support of the @UniofOxford's Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM), our singers are learning and interpreting the music by reading directly from the original notation. This time it is the magnificent Eton Choirbook from @EtonCollLibrary. When we stand around a central music stand there is a different look and feel from a normal choral performance – as we step into the shoes of those who first sang this glorious polyphony from the same black and red dots more than half a millennium ago.
In my work on the Eton Choirbook over more than a quarter of a century – first with the pioneering @Cap_Pratensis, then on record for @naxosrecords with TONUS PEREGRINUS, then with @TheSongCompany in Australia, and now again from original notation with TP, as part of my research as William Byrd Fellow & Ambassador at Excelsia University College – I have paid particular attention to an aspect of the music largely lost over the centuries. Together we try to bring the dots on the page to life by recovering their often vibrant harmonic colour. Reading directly from the Choirbook is a huge challenge for modern singers, but it opens the door into a world where melodies and counter-melodies tell a new story together, and where the resulting harmonies ring with a particular sense of community and purpose. This beauty of purpose underlies everything we do in TONUS PEREGRINUS, whether the music was written 500 years ago or yesterday, and we look forward to Opening The Eton Choirbook and sharing this glorious polyphony with audiences far and wide.
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