John Pitts (sometimes credited as John Michael Pitts) is a British composer, born in Surrey in 1976.
Pitts studied Music at Bristol and Manchester Universities, and specializes in music for piano solo or multiple hands. He was winner of the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Composition Prize 2003, and twice SPNM-shortlisted. Composer of the album of piano music "Intensely Pleasant Music: 7 Airs & Fantasias and other piano music". His setting of
O Little Town of Bethlehem
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is a Christmas carol. Based on an 1868 text written by Phillips Brooks, the carol is popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but to different tunes: in The United States, to "St. Louis" by Brooks' collaborator, Lewis R ...
features on
The Naxos Book of Carols sung by
Tonus Peregrinus
, the wandering tone, or the ninth tone, is a reciting tone in Gregorian chant.
The chant example here is not identified as the ''tonus peregrinus'' in the ''Liber usualis'' (see LU, pp. 760–761), although it is in Aeolian mode. For the ' ...
, and his hymn
Thy Way, Not Mine is included in
Hymns and Songs of the Church, another
Naxos
Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...
recording of
Tonus Peregrinus
, the wandering tone, or the ninth tone, is a reciting tone in Gregorian chant.
The chant example here is not identified as the ''tonus peregrinus'' in the ''Liber usualis'' (see LU, pp. 760–761), although it is in Aeolian mode. For the ' ...
. Composer of "Are You Going?" for
piano six hands
Music described as piano six hands is for three pianists at one piano. More rarely the neologism 'Triet' is used, by analogy with the duo/duet distinction sometimes made between 2 pianos and piano four hands (and also because piano trio is an al ...
, Pitts curated two
Severnside Composers Alliance concerts of music for piano triet by living composers.
He is the younger brother of the British composer
Antony Pitts
Antony Pitts (born 1969 in Farnborough, Kent) is an international composer, conductor, and producer.
His compositions have been published by Faber Music, with CDs of choral music on Hyperion Records and other recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, ...
.
He also teaches Music at Clevedon School, where he is much loved by all students. He is a very popular music teacher, and has written pieces for their band such as ''Traudet Autem''.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, John
English composers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)