PETER-ANTHONY TOGNI

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Canadian Peter-Anthony Togni (b.1959) is an award-winning composer, pianist, organist, conductor and former CBC broadcaster. His music is spiritually rooted and contemplative, ranging from the ethereally quiet to the explosive outer limits of contemplation. He tours internationally, and his music is regularly performed and broadcast worldwide. Notable recordings include releases on Warner Classics UK, ATMA Classique and ECM Records (Lamentations of Jeremiah). His Juno nominated work Responsio won the 2014 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award and in 2021, Sea Dreams won an ECMA for Classical Composition of the Year.

In 2016 Peter-Anthony’s opera Isis and Osiris premiered to critical acclaim in Toronto. Voice of the Weaver, a commission for bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly and choir, with texts by Mi’kmaq poet Mary Louise Martin, premiered at the Elora Festival in 2022 with the Elora Singers and will again be performed at the 2025 Scotia Festival and at the Millbrook First Nations, with a commercial recording to follow. Togni’s newest work The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom premiered in Toronto and Guelph in November 2024 in a joint concert with the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Elora Singers.

Peter-Anthony performs with his longtime collaborator Jeff Reilly in the duo Blackwood, who recently released their newest album Passages, and tours his own music for solo piano. He teaches composition at the Acadia School of Music and is the organist and choir director at St. Benedict Parish. Originally from Pembroke Ontario, he composes from his beautiful home in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
visit www.petertogni.com

Alma Redemptoris - mvt #2 from Sea Dreams (trilogy)

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB – double choir – a cappella with 2 flutes – CP 1948  – duration 5:10

The second movement of SEA DREAMS, Alma Redemptoris, is a Catholic hymn from the 11th century and is thought to have been authored by Hermannus Contractus. This hymn was mentioned in the Prioress’s Tale, one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It is usually sung in Latin, Sweet Mother of the Redeemer, the passage to the heavens, the gate of the spirits of the dead, and the star of the sea, aid the falling. I was inspired by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s beautiful setting of it, a motet I have sung or conducted many times throughout my life and have incorporated the spirit of this 16th century masterpiece in this movement. Listen to the amazing recording by Luminous Voices – nominated for a Juno Award.

DIVINE LITURGY OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, THE

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella (Complete – 20 Movements) – CP 1663  – duration 55:00

Eleven Movements are available separately.
This is a Magnum Opus from the heart of composer Togni. This glorious music would be a complete and wonderful concert experience.

Earth Voices

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella – CP 1663  – duration 6:30
Peter captures the spirit of the lovely poem by Carman Bliss.
Then Earth to them made answer,
As with a slow refrain
Born of the blended voices
Of wind and sun and rain,
“This is the law of being
That links the threefold chain:
The life we give to beauty
Returns to us again.”  

The Final Word is Love

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella – CP 1364   – duration 2:00
I’m deeply moved by the American journalist, social activist and Catholic convert, Dorothy Day. In 1933 she along with Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker Movement. To this day it provides aid for the poor and homeless and those living in the margins of society. In her writings she points to what she calls the “long loneliness and how the only solution is love and that love comes with community” This composition is my direct and indeed simple sonic response to her life. As she said,”We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other”

Litany of Supplication

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella – CP 2176   – duration 1:45
Lord, have mercy.  (Kyrie eleison)

Our Father

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella – CP 2175   – duration 1:35
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy Kingdom come;
Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

Da Pacem Domine

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB a cappella – CP 1365   – duration 3:25
Da Pacem Domine is part of a work I wrote in 2014 called Warrior Songs, a work about the concept of non- aggression, of a true Warrior, one who never actually goes into battle. I drew inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist texts, from Malcolm X and from the from my own Roman Catholic tradition. My motet Da Pacem Domineis based on a one of the most beautiful Gregorian Chant melodies. Even though the text is peaceful and hopeful, it still calls for surrender to God’s will. The chant sounds rather serious, even somber, but again points to the fact that peace does not mean tranquility, it is often a steady walk in the face of adversity.

Prayer of St. Francis

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SAB with piano – KH 086   – duration 2:35
Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Togni’s rendition of the famous prayer is in three part harmony and sweet-pot vocal registers. The lovely melody and flowing accompaniment provide the perfect marriage for the text.

SEA DREAMS - (the complete trilogy)

by Peter-Anthony Togni

SATB with two flutes – CP 1965  – duration 20:00
Sea Dreams is a major award-winning work for an accomplished choir and two proficient flautists. Composer Peter-Anthony draws on profound texts from T.S. Elliot and Hermannus Contractus to create an ethereal masterpiece. Luminous Voices, directed by Timothy Shantz give a very convincing premiere.  Please listen!