This piece shows the flexibility of the new AVO sample. Pileata solo with Gamba accompaniment. Part way through the manuals are coupled and for the last few bars the Flauta major is heard.
Peter Aston (5 October 1938 – 13 September 2013) was an English composer, academic and conductor who is well known for his choral works. Born in Edgbaston Birmingham, he studied at Birmingham School of Music and the University of York. In 1964, he became a lecturer in music in the University of York and in 1974 he was appointed professor of music in the University of East Anglia, where he subsequently became Emeritus Professor of composition.
One of his students was Simon Johnson, the present organist at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Although best known for his liturgical choral works, his output included chamber works for voices and instruments, choral and orchestral works and an opera for children.
He founded the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music and he was a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral. For fourteen years he was the conductor of the Aldeburgh Festival Singers. He was also involved with the Sacramento Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra. He was an editor of Baroque music and founded the Tudor Consort and the English Baroque Ensembles.
Among the first of his works to be heard were his Three Hymns to the Virgin Mary, which were performed by the Sine Nomine Singers in the City of London in 1963 and led one critic to remark how Aston “has a marked lyrical gift and considerable harmonic imagination”.
When the Church of England introduced the Alternative Service Book in 1980, many church composers refused to touch it. Aston, however, wrote a setting for the Communion – known as Aston in F – that is still used today. Later he added a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis.
The music is available from Banks Music Publishers in the UK.
http://www.banksmusicpublications.co.uk/composer/peter-aston/75/
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