The composer writes:

Putting together a collection of carols at the beginning of the 21st Century is at once a daunting and a liberating task: tunes and words alike have acquired the privilege of tradition, but also its plasticity. Carols are part of a living ritual which grows and evolves every generation: composers, singers, and listeners have each added their interpretations and memories, which makes finding the 'authentic' version of a Christmas carol usually both hopeless and pointless. The melodies that have survived have mostly done so because they are great tunes — now indelibly associated with the events of Christmas, and re-enacted and celebrated each year in church, on the street, in the pub and at home.

This collection is made up of 24 carols arranged in four sequences, each focusing on a different part of the Christmas story. The arrangements are all new — commissioned by Naxos specially for this recording — and tread a careful line between familiarity and novelty. The customary alternation of unaccompanied verses, descants and last-verse harmony has been followed in most of the best-known carols; but there are also plenty of surprises to be unwrapped. The arrangements are designed for widespread use: it should be possible to sing along with the tune in each verse, while the choral parts are almost never in more than the standard four: soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

Antony Pitts

TONUS PEREGRINUS

TONUS PEREGRINUS was founded by the composer Antony Pitts, while studying at New College, Oxford and has been exploring a repertoire of some 800 years over the last decade. It is only recently, however, that TONUS PEREGRINUS has stepped into the limelight with a debut disc of Arvo Pärt's iconic Passio hitting the No.1 spot in the UK monthly chart. That success was followed up by a unique pairing of the earliest choral settings of the Mass and the Passion on Naxos 8.555861. Such a blend of old and new is part of the original vision of the group and is neatly expressed in the choice of name: the "tonus peregrinus" is an unusual plainchant with a tone that "wanders" from one half to the other; although the chant is very old indeed, it was also known as the "tonus novissimus", the "very newest tone". The current release of specially-arranged Christmas carols taps into the singers' combined experience of singing at Westminster Abbey, King's College Cambridge, and New College, Magdalen College and Christ Church in Oxford. The group's next recording projects for Naxos include the first-ever opera - Robin and Marion by 13th-century Adam de la Halle, and discs of Perotin from Notre-Dame in Paris, and England's own John Dunstaple.

For more information visit their site at www.tonusperegrinus.co.uk