Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) was the leading English church composer and keyboard player of his generation: a Gentleman and organist of the Chapel Royal, organist of Westminster Abbey, and an Oxford Doctor of Music. His tunes for the 1623 Hymnes and Songs of the Church, composed for George Wither's texts, are the first body of music written for an English hymnbook.

George Wither (1588–1667) was a poet and pamphleteer whose Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1623) became the first English hymnbook. A royal patent ordered it bound with every metrical psalm-book; his own assignes printed it, with the tunes he commissioned from Orlando Gibbons.

Antony Pitts is a composer, conductor, and producer, and the founder of TONUS PEREGRINUS. For this collection he realized Gibbons' tunes for today's choirs, composed several of the new hymns, and directed the September 2004 recording, playing a 1766 John Byfield chamber organ from the Finchcocks Collection.

Alexander L'Estrange (b. 1974) is a British choral composer, arranger, and jazz musician, educated as a chorister at New College, Oxford, and later at Merton College. He co-realized the collection with Antony Pitts, composed new hymns for it, and sang countertenor and played double bass on the recording.

John Michael Pitts is a composer and one of the three Pitts brothers on this album, with Antony and James: in his setting of Thy way, not mine, 'chromatic hymnody is pushed to the edges' (booklet notes).

Richard James Pitts is a composer and one of the three Pitts brothers on this album, with Antony and John: his Ascensiontide hymn O Lord Most High brings together traditional harmonies and a more exotic rhythmic lilt (booklet notes).

Joanna Forbes L'Estrange is a British vocalist, choral composer, and choir director. After reading music at Oxford she spent seven years at the helm of the five-time Grammy-winning jazz vocal group The Swingle Singers; she sang soprano on this recording as Joanna Forbes.

Rebecca Hickey began singing in her local church choir at the age of five. A long-standing member of TONUS PEREGRINUS, she also sings with the early-music vocal ensemble Stile Antico, taking Renaissance polyphony across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

Kathryn Knight read music at Worcester College, Oxford, where she held a Music Scholarship, and has pursued a career across publishing, education, and technology in the UK and USA. A founder-director of the national schools singing programme Sing Up, she sang alto on this recording as Kathryn Oswald.

Richard Eteson (b. 1975) was Head Chorister and later a tenor choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge, where as a boy he sang the opening solo of Once in Royal David's City for the world-famous carol service. A member of The Swingle Singers from 2000, he has sung in many of the world's leading venues.

Alexander Hickey KC started singing as a chorister at Hereford Cathedral and went up to Christ Church, Oxford, as a choral scholar. He combines singing with professional choirs in and around London with a career as a barrister specialising in construction law.

Francis Brett has sung professionally since graduating from King's College, Cambridge, and the Royal College of Music, with TONUS PEREGRINUS, the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, The Sixteen, and Exaudi, and as a soloist under conductors including Trevor Pinnock and Richard Hickox.

Nick Flower first sang with TONUS PEREGRINUS in 1990 and appears on the ensemble's recordings of Passio, The Mass of Tournai, and Seven Letters. He runs the production, website, and data management departments at Hyperion Records.

The vocal ensemble founded and directed by Antony Pitts. This collection was recorded from 28 to 30 September 2004 in Bromley Parish Church and at Finchcocks, Goudhurst, Kent, engineered by Geoff Miles, produced by Geoff Miles and TONUS PEREGRINUS, and released on Naxos 8.557681 in 2006. The record is in eight sequences: Songs of joy (tracks 1 to 6), Songs of love (7 to 12), Songs of sacrifice (13 to 16), Songs of lamentation (17 to 21), Songs of triumph (22 to 27), Songs of unity (28 to 33), Songs of faith (34 to 39), and Songs of hope (40 to 42).