Reviews

HOLY WEEK LAMENTATIONS

** THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
Tallis, Ferrabosco the younger, Parsley, Byrd, John Mundy
Lay Clerks of St George’s Chapel, Windsor/Timothy Byram-Wigfield
Delphian DCD34068
John Mundy was organist at St George’s Windsor for at least 45 years until his death in 1630 and it is appropriate that it is from Windsor that we have this first recording of his Lamentations setting. One partbook is missing and has been reconstructed by Jeremy Filsell, one of the St George’s altos. The music is intense and anguished, and exploits the extremes of range of the male voices, notably in the bass. Texts come from Lamentations, Zephaniah and surprisingly Psalm 122 (‘O pray for the peace of Jerusalem’). Also on this CD are Lamentation settings by Tallis, Byrd and Parsley, and the first recording of a less austere one by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger. The singing is excellent and the acoustic of Windsor Castle’s Albert Memorial Chapel adds a splendid resonance. James Weeks writes the CD liner introduction putting the tradition of choral Lamentation settings in its musical and liturgical context.
Judith Markwith

*** SACRED HEARTS + SECRET MUSIC
Palestrina: Lamentations for Holy Saturday and Missa Veni sponsa Christi; Cipriano de Rore: Magnificat sexti toni
Musica Secreta/Celestial Sirens/Francis Kelly (harp)/Claire Williams (organ)/Kinga Gáborjáni (bass viol)/Deborah Roberts
Divine Art DDA 25077
Here is a contrast with the CD reviewed above, and indeed with almost every other CD of sixteenth-century music: these Lamentations and all the other music on the disc is sung by an all-female chamber choir. What music would nuns have sung at that time in their convent liturgy? Perhaps only plainsong, or perhaps works written for female voices all of which have been lost, or, and more likely, perhaps the same repertoire as sung by male choirs, transposed, ornamented and arranged as required. The liner notes describe the recreation of these performances as ‘a combination of educated guesswork and practical musicianship’. It is also a magnificent success. The music sounds new and fresh, as if originally written for the upper voices – one enjoys it on its own terms and not as a comparison or contrast – and the ornamentation sounds natural and right for the music. As well as the main works listed above there are motets by Palestrina and de Rore and chants for the Feast of St Agnes. The CD is at one level a soundtrack to accompany Sarah Dunant’s book Sacred Hearts. At another it is a tribute from her fellow singers to the soprano Tessa Bonner, a founder member of Musica Secreta who died shortly before the recording was made.
Judith Markwith

NEW HORIZONS

** NEW HORIZONS: Contemporary British Sacred Choral Music
The Ebor Singers/Paul Gameson
Boreas BMCD901
The Ebor Singers’ first recorded exploration of contemporary British sacred music, Dusk Songs, was reviewed and recommended in CMQ (June 2008). In this second instalment we are more aware of an evolving tradition. There is one ‘early’ piece, Howells’s Salve Regina published in 1915, with the influence of Renaissance polyphony particularly felt. Howells forged his own idiom and in turn influenced much that came after, particularly on this disc the five-movement Pilgrimage of Philip Moore. Two motets by Tarik O’Regan and Jonathan Dove’s setting of Dorothy Sayers’ The Three Kings also sound as if watered by this fertile stream as well as showing the originality and distinctiveness of both composers. Other traditions appear in Michael Finnissy’s Ave regina coelorum which seems to hark back to plainsong and indeed folk-song. Moore’s pilgrimage was commissioned by the choir, as was Kerry Andrew’s York Mass. Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei are set using wide-ranging vocal techniques – the sound worlds are certainly more Berio than Howells, but the music, however creative, is always the servant of the words. It would be good to hear this powerful and expressive Mass setting sung in the liturgy.
Judith Markwith

* DAVID BEDNALL: REQUIEM and other choral works
Chamber Choir of St Mary’s Calne/Philip Dukes (viola)/Davied Bednall (organ)/Edward Whiting
Regent REGCD327
David Bednall is another composer who has picked up the tradition of Howells and takes it towards new horizons, in this case mingled with twentieth-century French harmonies and timbres. It is frequently restless music, searching and striving, not least in the uneasy ‘Libera me’. But the following ‘In paradisum’ is all the more of a contrast as the vocal ‘chorus angelorum’ is led by solo viola to eternal light and peace. The musical techniques used are traditional but applied with skill and an emotional sincerity that results in a disturbing and rewarding piece. The chamber choir of St Mary’s Calne, 43 girls between 14 and 18, should be hugely proud of the vivid sound and mature musicianship they display.
Judith Markwith

WE RECOMMEND . . .

THE VOICE FOR LIFE CHORISTER’S COMPANION
RSCM: 208 pp. P/B
G0021
It is the wrong time of year to suggest the perfect Christmas present for every chorister, but this is also a good birthday or choir-admission present. Whatever the pretext, every chorister should have this pocket-sized encyclopedia. Lindsay Gray provides an Introduction, Aled Jones a Foreword, Harry Bramma a brief history of the singing church, Leah Perona-Wright a biblically-based overview of the role of the chorister and Peter Moger an exceptionally good and ecumenical description of the Church and its worship. There are sections about the organ, what to look for inside a church, and church music composers. Important sections about music are taken from Voice for Life publications, making this particularly useful for anyone progressing towards Voice for Life levels and awards, or indeed learning about music in school classroom or instrumental lessons.
Stephen Patterson

IN TUNEFUL ACCORD: The Church Musicians
Trevor Beeson
SCM Press: 246 pp. Hardback
978-0-334-04193-1
This fascinating survey of music in the Church of England over the last two centuries chooses key musicians and through them examines events, places, organizations and movements. Some connections are obvious: Sydney Nicholson for the RSCM, Frederick Ouseley at St Michael’s, Tenbury, John Stainer at St Paul’s, and Frederick Bridge at Westminster Abbey. York Minster is seen in terms of the succession from Bairstow to Jackson to Moore. The story starts with John Goss, ‘The last of the old wine’, and S S Wesley ‘The beginnings of reform’, covers nineteenth-century hymn writers and composers and also parish church choirs, and moves into the twentieth century around Edward Elgar, ‘The revival of English music’. The author is not insular and finds space for Schönberg, Fauré, Messiaen, Poulenc, Duruflé and Langlais as well as Walton, Lennox Berkeley, Tippett, Leighton, Britten and Howells. Harvey and Tavener are paired as a contrast and the survey is brought up to date with Górecki, Pärt, Bingham, MacMillan, Weir, Panufnik, Dove, Pott, O’Regan and Gabriel Jackson in one chapter, and Archer, Rutter, Goodall, Chilcott and ‘the music of Taizé’ in another. Other twentieth-century topics include the hymnody revival, cathedrals and the ‘rediscovery of the counter-tenor’ and Oxbridge choirs. Much information is presented with a light touch and very readably. The author writes that of all the books he has written over 50 years, this has given him the most pleasure: it will do the same for many readers.
Julian Elloway

COME CELEBRATE: Contemporary hymns from leading writers
edited by Michael Sayward
Canterbury Press: 306 pp. P/B with CD ROM
978-1-85311-993-4
That this resource book of 291 less-familiar hymn texts by living writers is a bit of a curate’s egg is not surprising given how it came into being. The twenty authors all have hymns included in widely-used hymn books. Each writer was allowed to present the texts in full of up to sixteen of their own hymns that they consider their favourites, excluding those most widely known. The aim was to combat the way a small number of hymns by living writers, mostly written before 1980, are widely used to the neglect of more recent texts. Graham Kendrick’s contributions differ noticeably from the rest with only two in a regular metre and several that are already well known, such as ‘Like a candle flame’, ‘Come and see’ (We worship at your feet) and ‘Restore, O Lord, the honour of your name’. In contrast are writers such as Graham Deans, Marjorie Dobson and metrical psalm writers Emma Turl and David Preston with whose work this collection will be the first encounter for many readers. Looking at the others, one is grateful in most cases for the authors’ own selections, not least in the case of Timothy Dudley-Smith who selects 15 out of his 378 (at the last count) and includes two Christmas hymns, ‘Light to the world, a child is born’ and ‘Stars of heaven, clear and bright’. Unlike the original curate’s egg where the good parts are entirely spoiled by the bad, there is much to recommend here, and with the added bonus of good biblical and metrical indexes, and a CD-ROM of the texts for copying under a CCLI licence.
Stephen Patterson

THE WESSEX PSALTER: The Psalms of David as set by the Book of Common Prayer
pointed and edited for Anglican Chant by J D Riding and N J Hale
The Phoenix Press: 306 pp. Hardback
978-0-9563573-0-4
This psalter is published by the aptly named Phoenix Press, as it was from the ashes of a disastrous fire in St John the Baptist, Devizes in 2006 that the idea for this book arose. The joint editors, Jon Riding and Nick Hale, have produced a psalter which is not only clearly laid out, but has the bonus of explanatory textual notes to satisfy both the curious chorister and the more serious scholar. For example, younger singers especially will appreciate the entry for psalm 74, verse 12, ‘Why withdrawest thou thy hand: why pluckest thou not thy right hand out of thy bosom to consume the enemy?’ which reads ‘Why are you pulling your punches God? Deck him with a right hook!’ As the editors state in the preface, ‘To sing psalms well it is essential to understand the story being told.’ This volume with its pointing sensitive to the text, enhanced by straightforward and well-chosen chants, will be a worthy addition to any parish or cathedral choir library where traditional psalmody is held in regard.
Trevor Jarvis

THE ANGLICAN PSALTER: The Psalms of David
pointed and edited for chanting by John Scott
Canterbury Press: 352 pp. P/B
978-1-85311-988-0
This is a renamed version of the New St Paul’s Cathedral Psalter of 1997, with a few corrections and updated composer biographies. Among the notable features of the original were the range of chant composers with lots of sixteenth and twentieth-century examples, the high ‘cathedral’ pitch of several of the chants, and the careful pointing that frequently omits chords from the chant in particular verses to achieve the most flowing verbal accentuation. The new title reflects the way the book has become used in non-cathedral churches. But caveat emptor, these settings, often at high pitch and with ‘chant surgery’ in specific verses, would not be suitable where an unrehearsed congregation sings with the choir. But they are highly recommended for choir use, and every director of a psalm-singing choir should have a copy at least to consult, and to read the excellent Prefaces by Bishop Christopher Hill and by John Scott with fascinating examples of how chants evolved over the years.
Stephen Patterson

SACRED SONGS [M]
Karl Jenkins
SATB and keyboard
Boosey & Hawkes ISMN 979-0-060-12008-4
Jenkins’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is still firmly in the Classic FM Hall of Fame top ten and its success must tempt many church choirs to try individual movements in worship. This collection includes the popular Benedictus and Agnus Dei from that work along with the ‘Pie Jesu’ and ‘In paradisum’ from his Requiem, and three sections from his Stabat Mater: ‘Ave verum corpus’, ‘Virgo virginem’ and ‘And the Mother did weep’ with its central section in Hebrew, Latin, Aramaic and Greek (a pronunciation guide would have been useful). The enjoyable choral writing is within the capabilities of most four-part choirs. More tricky at times is the keyboard part, marked ‘organ’ throughout the score but mostly clearly written as a piano part and in need of adaptation to work on the organ.
James L Montgomery

MAY THE MYSTERY OF GOD ENFOLD US [E]
SATB and organ
A LIVING STONE [M]
SATB
Simon Lole
Encore Publications
Here are two very different aspects of the same composer. May the mystery of God enfold us sounds like a Celtic blessing but is in fact from Aotearoa, New Zealand, with English words by Joy Cowley and subtitled ‘Arohanui blessing’. Arohanui is one of those Polynesian words with no direct translation into western languages, but is concerned with love, or ‘big love’, or indeed God’s love. The music seems to be following paths well trodden by other Celtic and Gaelic blessings, but then turns into a new and distinctive area for the heart of the piece: ‘May the wonder of God renew us . . . May the moving of God bring us peace.’
In contrast, A living stone is declamatory and resolute until the final ‘acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’. With words from 1 Peter, this could be a stirring introit for a Dedication Festival or confirmation or ordination or almost any saint’s day – I look forward to hearing it on lots of occasions!
James L Montgomery

WHATSOEVER THINGS [E/M]
O COME LET US SING [E]
Paul Fisher
SATB
available from the composer at www.paulfishermusic.co.uk
Paul Fisher is a musician and retired Anglican priest living in Yorkshire. Some of his organ compositions have been recorded by Kevin Bowyer at Blackburn Cathedral and his website includes music which can be downloaded. A member of the RSCM Bradford Area Committee, he composed these two unaccompanied anthems for Area Festivals in 2008 and 2009.
Whatsoever Things sets the well-known text from Philippians 4. The style is melodic, with some surprises in the harmony but each voice part is singable; with practice, a choir capable of singing in four parts unaccompanied would enjoy this gentle and atmospheric anthem. The composer’s ability to write successfully for voices is also apparent in O Come let us sing. The text, from the opening of Psalm 95, would make a very appropriate introit. Within 31 bars a pianissimo start builds to a climax and then dies away, leaving a sense of expectancy for the service to follow. The basses have a two octave range from low E, but some of their high notes could be avoided by a little judicious swapping of parts with the tenors.
Both pieces are accessible for church choir singers and it is good to commend music dedicated to the Bradford RSCM Area which deserves to be known in other places.
Gordon Appleton

SONG OF MARY and SONG OF SIMEON [E]
Margaret Rizza
SATB (or 2-part mixed voices) and keyboard
RSCM C0773
AVE MARIA [M]
Philip Wilby
Double SATB
RSCM A2272
‘All of my music is underpinned by prayer – which can consist of doubts, anxieties, desert stones . . . but also deep joy and gratitude’ – so said Margaret Rizza in a CMQ interview in 2002, before describing how she tries through music to share her prayer life. And the prayer life of the universal church has always been centred, evening and night, around the Gospel canticles of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, found here in Mary Holtby’s poetic paraphrases. The music is simple – folksong-like in the Song of Mary and more chant-like in the Song of Simeon, and with English verses interspersed with a Latin refrain. The composer’s introductions urge the singers to say the words first, so that an understanding of them affects how the music is sung.
Philip Wilby’s Ave Maria is a beautiful, haunting setting with the spaciousness of Bruckner, but without the difficulty of that composer’s setting of the same words. Wilby’s setting looks difficult, especially with several pages set out in eight-part open score and no keyboard reduction, but it is much simpler than a first glance at the spacious layout might suggest. The piece is framed by a little floating soprano solo which can be sung at a distance from the rest of the choir.
James L Montgomery

VENITE COMEDITE [E/M]
Robert Sharpe
SATB
Encore Publications
A slow and contemplative communion anthem with a feel of Arvo Pärt but a warm harmonic language all of its own, this striking setting of Proverbs 9.5 will leave a powerful impression, especially in a resonant acoustic.
James L Montgomery

JESU, THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE [M]
WE BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER [E]
Harry Grindle
SATB
Encore Publications
Harry Grindle sets Caswall’s much-sung English text of ‘Jesu, the very thought of thee’ with outstanding sensitivity to the words – from the opening repetitions of the ‘thought’ name of Jesu and the change of key on the ‘thought of thee’ itself, through to the real repose on ‘in thy presence rest’. The music journeys from G major to D flat major in parallel with the progress of thought in the text.
‘We believe in God the Father’ is Timothy Dudley-Smith’s paraphrase of the Apostles’ Creed authorized in Common Worship for liturgical use. It does not have a single established tune. The author published it with the recommendation it be sung to Abbot’s Leigh or Lux Eoi, but the music edition The Voice of Faith, edited by the author with William Llewellyn suggests neither of those but Everton or Blaenwern or Hyfrydol. Here is a sixth alternative – a new tune by Harry Grindle, Bangor Abbey, presented with four-part harmony for the first two verses, a splendidly reharmonized organ part for the third, and a descant for the final four bars.
James L Montgomery

ANTHEMS FOR PENTECOST

VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS [M]
Howard Goodall
SATB with divisi
Faber Music 978-0-571-53252-0
IF YE LOVE ME [E/M]
Stanley Vann
SATB
Banks Music Publications ECS 513
LITANY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT [E/M]
Philip Lawson
SATB and organ
Encore Publications
Goodall’s setting of the Pentecost sequence (in Latin) is a serious work, a true invocation of the power of the Spirit, concluding in a torrent of spirit-infused alleluias. Commissioned for performance by a school choir, it is not particularly difficult – highly recommended.
Stanley Vann’s setting of If ye love me is an excellent demonstration of the fine craftsmanship and gentle nature described in this month’s (March 2010) CMQ. Vann alludes to Tallis and Howells, somehow combining them into something altogether different, yet part of that tradition.
If you enjoy Peter Hurford’s Litany to the Holy Spirit, but want something more extended, take a look at Philip Lawson’s similar approach, but which has more variety between the different verses and a ravishing conclusion ‘Sweet Spirit, comfort me.’
James L Montgomery

SERVICE MUSIC

GOD OF THE EMPTY SPACE [M]
John Pantry
SATB, congregation, piano/guitar
RSCM D0231
‘Modern day church service music for choir and congregation’ is the subtitle of this collection of seventeen new songs and choral pieces. Successful songwriter and Anglican priest, John Pantry presents ‘Inspirational Breakfast’ on Premier Christian Radio. This is the sheet music of his album God of the Empty Space that you may already have downloaded onto your MP3 player. Although not labelled as such, there is a complete Mass setting from Kyrie through to Agnus Dei, canticles for morning and evening prayer, a benediction and a grace, and the song ‘God of the empty space’ itself. Texts are sometimes as in Common Worship and sometimes free paraphrases as in the memorable Nunc dimittis which ends with a reminder to Mary, ‘but a sword will piece your own heart too.’ The music is presented twice, firstly for choir and secondly for congregation with permission to reproduce words and music under a CCLI licence. The fresh musical style feels of today yet also timeless, of eternity perhaps – these songs are well worth exploring.
Stephen Patterson

MISSA JAZZIS (A Jazz Mass) [M]
Joe Utterback
SATB, soloists, trumpet, piano
available from www.jazzmuze.com
CMQ reviewers have often been enthusiastic about Joe Utterback’s jazz-inspired organ compositions. Here is a chance to experience the same style in a choral mass setting (with highly abbreviated words in the Gloria) with a Lacrimosa for use in a Requiem and an Alleluia movement. You will need a good organist, brilliant trumpet player, and musicians happy to swing the exciting rhythms. If you might be interested, go to www.jazzmuze.com and click on ‘Missa Jazzis’ – there you can hear each movement and decide. See also the review of the organ version under 'Reviews of printed music - Organ', below.
Stephen Patterson

WAR REQUIEM

BLACK LIGHT: A War Requiem [D]
Paul Fisher
www.paulfishermusic.co.uk
In Ripon Cathedral in February 2010 there was a temporary work of art called ‘6 Million Plus – Every Person Counts’, commemorating those who died in the holocaust and more recent genocides. It comprises six million buttons (one for each person who was killed), created by Kirklees Museums & Galleries working in partnership with artist Antonia Stowe.
Paul Fisher's war requiem, Black Light, would be a perfect adjunct to this art work. Its music is bleak and passionate as befits the theme of inhuman violence through war and suffering. Although a work of intense passion and sorrow, there are occasional shafts of sunlight as we yearn for healing and redemption through some of the text of the Requiem Mass. The libretto also includes a traditional lament from Skye, deeply felt poetry by Nancy Wood, priest-poet David Lockwood and additional texts by the composer. Paul Fisher, a retired priest and musician living in Yorkshire, dedicates this work (which lasts about 45 minutes) to ‘all those who, throughout the ages, grieve for loved ones killed through war, battle, conflict and man’s inhumanity to man’.
It is musically challenging for chorus (sometimes singing in eight parts), chamber choir and soloists, accompanied by organ. All singers need a secure grasp of pitch, rhythm and intonation as well as confidence to overcome the technical difficulties. A professional choir, or choral society of that standard, looking for music on this theme, may well find Black Light – A Requiem a moving work to perform.
Gordon Appleton

MANUALS ONLY

TWELVE VOLUNTARIES [E]
William Goodwin
SIX VOLUNTARIES [M]
Jacob Kirkman
ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications
William Goodwin (son of Starling, whose two sets of voluntaries are already published by David Patrick) left one set of twelve organ voluntaries, most of which are in the traditional two-movement form, including one for Cornet or Flute, three for Trumpet and echo, one for Swell (i.e. Oboe) and Vox Humana and four preludes and fugues of which no. 9 in A minor contains a rare example of crossed hands. The other one-movement pieces include one for Choir and Swell, one contrasting full organ and Swell, and the final piece for full organ, with full chords, vigorous dotted rhythms and triplets; it would work well as an extra movement to no. 8 or 9. Not technically over-demanding, these pleasantly tuneful pieces expand in particular the repertoire of pieces for solo stops by the contemporaries of Stanley.
Jacob Kirkman left only six Voluntaries in his set published in 1789, after he had succeeded John Keeble at St George’s Hanover Square. Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 6 are loosely constructed fugues of which nos. 1, 4 and 6 are preceded by a short full-chorded prelude; in fugue no. 1 the subject first appears in the bass and nos. 1 and 4 conclude with several bars of chordal writing marked Adagio (qualified by ad lib in no. 2), implying much freedom that could also be applied to the preceding bars of chords in no. 4. Nos. 2 and 5 are in one movement; no. 2 is a dialogue between Swell and Choir and contains much galant writing in demisemiquavers, warning against too fast a tempo, and no. 5 is between Great Diapasons and Swell. Both have places for the improvisation of an appropriate cadenza.
David Patrick provides the usual concise editorial notes, including brief biography, performance practice and a critical commentary, in these well-printed comb-bound editions.
John Collins

WITH PEDALS

IMPRESSIONS OF PARIS: Suite for Organ [M]
Alastair Johnston
fagus-music.com
This attractive Suite has five movements, each based on an aspect of Paris. The first, Gargoyles, conveys a sense of the grotesque in its dotted rhythms and quirky harmonies. Berceuse describes a meeting between two insomniacs, Franck and Vierne, and Summer Rain over the ‘Jardin du Luxembourg’ captures the scene perfectly. Nightscape from Sacre Coeur is in the form of a gentle melody, with a central section built round sustained chords. The concluding movement, Sunday Morning, is a spirited toccata in the traditional French idiom, effective in its simplicity and unconstrained by a desire to conform to a conventional pattern. This suite is a pleasure to play, and I can see it in a recital being accompanied by appropriate pictures. My only little quibble is that the titles and associated descriptive comments come at the end of each movement so if, like me, you plunge in at the beginning without looking, the imagination has to work hard.
Trevor Webb

THREE CHARACTERISTIC PIECES [M]
Gordon Lawson
fagus-music.com
The first is Meditation on Psalm CXXI, a gentle piece and a good introductory voluntary with its restful, predominantly quaver movement and pleasantly chromatic harmony. An Old World Minuet is not quite what the title suggests, not a pastiche but instead it captures a hint of an older style which manages to remain modern: something of a (pleasant) paradox. The concluding piece, A Tuba Tune (In appreciation of C S Lang) has just sufficient reminders of that favourite outgoing voluntary, with plenty of activity in a strong tune. These pieces all make good voluntaries or recital items.
Trevor Webb

AN ORKNEY SUITE [E]
Evelyn Stell
fagus-music.com
Subtitled 6 Easy Pieces for Organ, these useful pieces have only simple pedal parts and would be ideal for the pianist-turned-organist drafted in to help out. Prelude is for manuals only, but Landscape is a little more ambitious, requiring just a few pedal notes, as does The Flow. Elegy and Sunset continue the same plan. These characteristics make them useful teaching and sight-reading items, but the more advanced player should find plenty of interest too.
Trevor Webb

THE FAGUS COLLECTION OF INTERLUDES AND OFFERTORIES [M]
fagus-music.com
There are 40 short pieces in this book, mostly a couple of minutes or less long, but often adaptable in length. The collection is thus invaluable for those of us whose improvisatory skills leave something to be desired – it will certainly be a permanent occupant of my music case – and ideal for filling in those awkward gaps when the offertory hymn or communion administration finish too soon. Inevitably the majority are based on hymn tunes. A wide range of composers is represented, with such stalwarts as Gwilym Beechey, Humphrey Clucas, Brian Daniels, Paul Edwards, Geoffrey Atkinson – space precludes mentioning them all, but if you have any fagus publications in your library you will know who (and what) to expect: good quality and very playable and approachable music.
Trevor Webb

THREE IMPROVISATIONS ON AMERICAN FOLK HYMNS [M]
Geoffrey Atkinson
fagus-music.com
The first, on the tune Wondrous Love, is given a simple, quite plain treatment as suits the tune. Improvisation on ‘Poor Wayfaring Stranger’ is in similar style but with an extended treatment – the piece lasts almost four minutes. Both are pleasant, quiet voluntaries, with no technical problems. Improvisation on ‘Can I Keep from Singing’ is a lively, entertaining postlude on a catchy tune which would make a popular appearance in British hymnals (if it has not already done so). Marked ‘jauntily, very rhythmic and clearly articulated’, this is the best of three good pieces. One of my criteria when looking at new music is to ask if I would like to engage in real practice on a piece, and the answer for this last one is decidedly ‘yes.’
Trevor Webb

PSALM PRELUDE (Psalm 23) [M]
Stephen Burtonwood
fagus-music.com
This is an extended composition with echoes of Howells but not so difficult. The only likely problems occur in the central section where, briefly, there are some fairly complex chords. How far the music reflects the text is something the player/listener will have to decide, but keeping the text in mind certainly helps with interpretation. The music compels attention and merits more than one hearing. The printing is on separate card sheets, one side only: beware a drafty console!
Trevor Webb

RONDINO IN D FLAT and BARCAROLLE [MD]
William Wolstenholme
Fitzjohn Music Publications
Wolstenholme, who died in 1931, was a celebrated blind organist, a close friend of that other famous blind organist Alfred Hollins, and was taught the violin by Elgar. The list of his compositions is formidable, the style totally characteristic of the period – well crafted, elegant melodies, harmonically and rhythmically adventurous, but all in the best possible taste. Whilst sometimes long-winded, the pieces are usually worth resurrection.
Rondino (1922) has a lively main theme in D flat, whilst the others are much more chromatic, wandering into remote keys. The conclusion is interesting, in that by then the main theme has moved into D major, where it stays for 46 bars. Wolstenholme’s solution to the problem of getting back home is to have three full bars’ rest, and then two bars back in D flat. Barcarolle begins with a harmonically wandering introduction before settling down to a typical tune in thirds on the flute stop. This, for me, demands practice and eventual release on what I hope will be an appreciative congregation.
Trevor Webb

THREE PIECES [M/MD]
David Halls
Paraclete Press PPMO924
These pieces from a distinguished British cathedral organist are well worth a look. Salisbury Fanfare needs a good solo reed, and would be ideal for a grand occasion. Meditation is a pleasant reflective piece; Impromptu calls for neat finger work and is by far the longest and most difficult item. In all three pieces the pedal part is easy.
Trevor Webb

TOCCATA ON ‘OLD HUNDRETH’ [M]
Robert Lau
Paraclete Press PPMO942
Robert Lau is no stranger to these pages and this toccata is well up to his usual high standard. Written for the American Guild of Organists and their 2009 convention, it is a stirring composition. A large organ is needed to do it justice. Appearances of the tune are interspersed with recitative-style passages, the whole coming together with dramatic effect.
Trevor Webb

COMPLETE ORGAN WORKS vol. III [D]
Gerard Bunk
Bärenreiter BA9283
Gerard Bunk (1881–1958) was organist of St Reinoldi in Dortmund, a virtuoso player and the composer of large-scale works for organ. His music is largely unknown here, and I hope that the first publication of his complete works will make him more widely known. Volume III contains the Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Old Dutch Folksong, which the Preface says was highly regarded by Widor, Schweitzer and Bossi, the Sonata in F minor, and the Passacaglia in A minor. These three massive compositions were written when Bunk was in his early 20s and make great demands on player and instrument. A glance at the stop lists of the organs in Berlin and Dortmund will tell one much.
This edition has a comprehensive critical account of the composer, his music, and the two instruments which influenced him most in Berlin Cathedral and St Reinoldi. The former was damaged in 1944 but restored in 1993; The St Reinoldi organ, a magnificent five-manual instrument, sadly was destroyed in air raids in 1943/44, when Bunk also lost his entire collection of organ music and the Bach Society’s collection in the church. Of the music itself, probably the most immediately useable are the two Intermezzi in the Sonata. The second of these was also arranged by Bunk for violin and organ; the violin part is included. The price may be a deterrent, but well worth paying for such an absorbing volume.
Trevor Webb

CHORALVORSPIELE OP. 57 VOL. III [M]
Karl Hoyer
Bärenreiter BA 9218

Hoyer (1891–1936) was a pupil of Reger and Straube, and organist of St Nicolas Church in Leipzig. His large list of compositions contains many in choral prelude form. There are 23 preludes in this volume, on tunes very few of which will be familiar in English-speaking countries. Gelobt sei Gott appears in most hymn books, as well as Schmücke dich and O Haupt voll Blut und Wunde, but the remainder will be useful voluntaries. There is not much excitement, unfortunately; the preludes are well-written in a solid and rather dull way, serviceable, mostly a couple of pages long, and sight-readable.
Trevor Webb

JAZZ FOR ORGAN

JAZZ MEDITATIONS [MD]
Liselotte Kunkel
Bärenreiter BA 9256
This book contains six chorale arrangements, described by the composer as 'ecumenically common hymns: leisurely tempi, soft tone colours, and forms such as Ostinato or variation lend them their meditative character and provide a setting for reflecting on the words.' Using classical swing jazz these interesting pieces will provide a welcome change from more traditional chorale-based compositions – there is even a Waltz, and a Blues on Lobet den Herrn. The composer's Preface gives useful hints on performance. If you have enjoyed Bärenreiter's previous jazz publications you should enjoy this one.
Trevor Webb

JAZZ MASS FOR ORGAN [M]
Joe Utterback ed. Bill Todt
Jazzmuze 2009-313
available from www.jazzmuze.com
Utterback's name guarantees good music, playable and eminently approachable. This Jazz Mass has seven movements, all of which can be used separately. The composer's 'Special Notes' explain the origins of the work, and suggest visiting www.jazzmuze.com to hear each movement of the choral work on which it is based. Entrance is ashort trumpet solo, Kyrie a gentle clarinet piece whilst Sanctus is suitably much bolder. Gloria, marked 'bluesy' – there are four 12-bar blues choruses – would be a good concluding voluntary. Trail of Tears is quite simple, marked 'plaintive, poignant', followed by Agnus Dei. The Massends witha splendid Alleluia; the instruction over the final bar sums it up: 'loud, exciting finale'.
Trevor Webb

WE RECOMMEND . . .

*** HOWELLS FROM HEREFORD
Choir of Hereford Cathedral/Peter Dyke (organ)/Geraint Bowen
Regent REGCD316 Some of Howells's best-loved pieces are on this disc. The Collegium Regale morning and evening canticles frame the programme. Between come the Four Anthems: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, We have heard with our ears, Like as the hart and Let God arise. Separating each of the anthems are the evening canticles composed for the ‘Three Choirs’ cathedrals: Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester. The Choir of Hereford Cathedral sings with a controlled exuberance that captures perfectly the atmospheres and (often dark) moods of Howells’s magical music. Peter Dyke’s accompaniments are models of how to accompany Howells: they are full of colour while providing a rhythmically dynamic and solid support for the singers. A very enjoyable disc indeed.
Christopher Maxim

*** HEAVENLY FIRE
Chapel Choirs of Worcester College, Oxford/George Castle and Thomas Allery
Vif Records VRCD066
'Another compilation of choral music with no obvious theme other than to be a memento for choir members', I thought when I picked up this CD, encouraged by slightly dull packaging. How wrong I was! This is a marvellous anthology of some of the best short British choral works written by some of the best British choral composers alive today: MacMillan (A New Song), Saxton, Weir (Love bade me welcome), Bingham (Touch’d by heavenly fire), Dove, Grier, O’Regan (Locus iste), Tavener, Maxwell Davies, Pott (A Hymn to the Virgin), Harvey and Spicer (Come out, Lazar).
Worcester crossed the road to record this in Keble, but the acoustic and organ are ideal. The recording, direction and organ playing are splendid, and the music uses both the mixed and all-male choirs to best effect. There are good sleeve notes and complete texts.
Neil Price

** CAROLS FROM CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL
Chichester Cathedral Choir/Mark Wardell (organ)/Sarah Baldock
Herald HAVPCD 350
Beginning with Once in royal David's city and ending with Hark! the herald angels sing, this disc is a compilation of Christmas favourites, including In the bleak mid-winter (Darke), Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (arr. Willcocks), Away in a manger (arr. David Hill), Adam lay ybounden (Ord), Lully lulla (Leighton), The truth from above (arr. Vaughan Williams), A spotless rose (Howells), The little road to Bethlehem (Michael Head), Bethlehem Down (Warlock) and the Sussex Carol (arr. Willcocks). It is a sign of the place that it is carving for itself in the repertoire that Eric Whitacre's Lux aurumque finds itself among such august company.
The singing of the Chichester Cathedral Choir is first class with immaculate tuning, articulation and blend. Among excellent solos, tenor David Burrows's in The truth from above and bass Malcolm Munro's in Tomorrow shall be my dancing day and A spotless rose are especially commendable. Mark Wardell's fine organ solos are welcome additions to the programme. If you are looking for a disc of largely very familiar Christmas music, this one is warmly recommended.
Christopher Maxim

** CHRISTMAS FROM TRURO
Truro Cathedral Choir/Christopher Gray (organ)/Robert Sharpe
Regent REGCD 281
Here is another excellent compilation of Christmas favourites. Once in royal, Coventry Carol, Ding dong! merrily on high, Away in a manger, O little town of Bethlehem, The first nowell, Sans Day carol, O come all ye faithful, Adam lay ybounden (Ord), Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, The Angel Gabriel, See amid the winter’s snow, The truth from above, Angels from the realms of glory, While shepherds watched, Christians awake!, Hark! the herald and We wish you are merry Christmas are all there, and many of them in the Carols for Choirs arrangements/versions.
As you can see, a number of pieces listed above are 'congregational' carols. The other 'choir' carols featured are Mathias's Sir Christèmas; plus a lively and attractive piece commissioned by Truro from Gabriel Jackson, called Nowell sing we; and Howard Skempton's Rejoice, rejoice, which is recorded for the first time. There are no organ pieces on this CD: it is packed with choral music. All in all, the same may be said of it as for the Chichester disc: if you are looking for a disc of largely very familiar Christmas music, this one is (also) warmly recommended.
Christopher Maxim

** A CEREMONY OF CAROLS
The Ebor Singers/Melanie Jones (harp)/Paul Gameson
Boreas BMCD703
The first part of this disc features the great Advent 'O' antiphons, interspersed with a fine mix of pieces: Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin, Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium, Joubert's There is no rose, Leighton’s Lully, lulla, Howells’ A spotless rose and Bob Chilcott’s The shepherd’s carol. The Britten comes at the end of the programme. Unusually, the singers employ ‘authentic’ pronunciation of the texts, which certainly makes the performance distinctive.
Christopher Maxim

** SALVE PUERULE
Andrew Swait(treble)/Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir/Stephen Jackson
Herald HAVPCD 349
The familiar solo treble voice and spinning wheel organ accompaniment of Stanford's Magnificat in G at the start of this CD suggest more Anglican fare in this final recording of Andrew Swait as a treble. He was one of the three choirboys nurtured by Martin Neary for their Universal Records CD in 2007. For this Herald CD, recorded for Christmas 2008 but not released until after last December's reviews had appeared, he is joined by the 36 student voices of the Trinity College Chamber Choir.
There are some good choices for Andrew to show his exceptionally clear treble voice: Hear my prayer, Ireland's Ex ore innocentium, Charpentier's Salve puerule and Michael Head's Little Road to Bethlehem. In many respects this CD is a compendium of typical cathedral chorister favourites!
Stuart Robinson

** SING REIGN OF FAIR MAID: music for Christmas and the New Year
Ely Cathedral Girls' Choir/Edward Taylor(organ)/Danielle Perrett(harp)/Rachel Stroud (violin)/James Fussey (trumpet)/Sarah MacDonald
Regent REGCD284
This disc opens with Britten's Ceremony of Carols, of which there are many fine recordings. It is therefore a brave choice for the Ely Cathedral Girls' Choir's debut CD recording (made in 2008): brave, but justified since they give a great performance. The remainder of the programme is a mixture of choral pieces and organ settings of Vom Himmel hoch (Bach, Pachelbel, Karg-Elert and Garth Edmundson). The choral pieces include the attractive To the Queen of Heaven by Thomas Dunhill, further pieces by Britten (Corpus Christi Carol and A New Year Carol), Hadley's I sing of a maiden and a perky performance of Handel's Let the bright seraphim. Singing Handel's roulades in well-tuned unison is no mean feat! An arrangement by Sarah MacDonald of the fourteenth-century Gaudete is highly effective. This disc is beautifully sung, exhibits a good balance between the more and less familiar and succeeds in being 'Christmassy' without presenting the over-done, usual Christmas fare.
Christopher Maxim

** ADESTE FIDELES
Thomas Laing-Reilly plays the organ of St Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh
Delphian DCD34077
Thomas Laing-Reilly gives virtuoso performances of music from Pachelbel to Cochereau, a diverse programme well catered for by the organ since it is two organs in one: a ‘Gallery’ organ with Great, Swell, Solo and Pedal, and a somewhat more classical ‘Chancel’ organ comprising Great (effectively the Choir organ), Swell and Pedal. The instrument boasts an impressive array of stops, including two 32 foots (flue and reed) and a cymbelstern.
The programme opens with W T Best’s A Christmas Fantasy on old English Carols: virtuosic but rambling. Next come settings of Vom Himmel hoch by J S Bach, Pachelbel and J B Bach (1676–1749). The mood changes to the ethereal with Reger’s Weihnachten, followed by three jolly French Noëls by Dandrieu and d’Aquin. Cochereau’s Variations on ‘Adeste Fideles’ (transcribed by Jeremy Filsell) must have been a breathtaking improvisation, but does not stand up well to repeated listening. A number of gentle pieces follow: Guilmant’s Noël Ecossais, Demessieux’s Adeste Fideles, Langlais’ charming Noël Breton, Ireland’s The Holy Boy, Somervell’s Shepherd’s Cradle Song and Hollins’s Christmas Cradle Song. The disc ends with the dazzling showmanship of Garth Edmundson’s Toccata-Prelude on Vom Himmel hoch, followed by the bells of St Cuthbert’s. This is a disc filled with impressive and expressive playing.
Christopher Maxim

** SALMOW KERNEWEK – Contemporary choral music from Cornwall
St Mary’s Singers of Truro Cathedral/Tom Little (organ)/Christopher Gray
Regent REGCD291
I had no idea that the musical life of Cornwall was so vibrant with excellent compositions and performance showcased on this disc. The composers are Russell Pascoe, Paul Drayton, Jonathan Carne, Paul Comeau and Graham Fitkin, all working in Cornwall. Particularly striking are the works of Pascoe whose eponymous Salmow Kernewek (‘Cornish Psalms’) end the recital –atmospheric pieces showing the influence of his Cornish roots. His Blow, northern wind starts the disc and demands our attention from the first bar! The recording is excellently balanced and shows off this choir’s considerable abilities, for which Christopher Gray must take huge credit. And in Tom Little we have yet another young organist of astounding ability coming from our schools and colleges.
Neil Price

* THIS HOLY TEMPLE
St Edmundsbury Cathedral Choir directed by James Thomas with David Humphreys (organ)
Regent REGCD295
This is clearly a disc for sale in the Cathedral shop – a worthy memento of a visit to Bury St Edmunds. The music is largely connected with the Cathedral, either being written by the Director of Music or commissioned by the Dean and Chapter.
However, it is more than that. All but the last three tracks are British church music of the 21st century and as such are a valuable record of our time. James Thomas writes in an approachable style, with the influence of Tavener(especially in the excellent Sacerdos et Pontifex) being never far away. The works by Judith Bingham (Four Motets from The Ivory Tree) and Roxana Panufnik (Declare the Wonders) are challenging but worthy of inclusion.
The recording has its problems, with the closeness of the choir hindering blend. But this is clearly a competent and well-disciplined outfit and the playing of David Humphreys is masterful.
Neil Price

* NOW MAY WE SINGEN
Concord Singers/Paul Edwards (organ & piano)/Mary Lock
Lammas LAMM 045D
The Concord Singers are a Bedfordshire-based choir, formed by Mary Lock in 1979. They are a well-disciplined ensemble who sing with expression and commitment. This disc is particularly interesting because it includes seven carols commissioned by the choir from Richard Shepherd, Chris Allen, Cecilia McDowall, Peter Aston, John Bertalot, John Paynter, and Michael Rose. There are other new and less familiar Christmas pieces, too, and this disc is a useful showcase of seasonal material that choirs might like to explore.
Christopher Maxim

* CHRISTMAS AT SALISBURY
Boy choristers and Lay Vicars of Salisbury Cathedral/Daniel Cook (organ)/David Halls
Priory PRCD 1025
'We wanted to record a new CD of Christmas carols sung by the boy choristers and men of the choir and, from the wealth of marvellous music available, we chose carols which we know the choristers really enjoy singing' – so explains David Halls of a CD that starts with Mann's arrangement of Once in royal David's city and largely continues along familiar paths. The less-travelled paths, at least for listeners outside Salisbury, are five arrangements or original carols by David Halls himself. As well as the singing of the choir, particularly enjoyable are Daniel Cook’s performance of Grunenwald’s organ Nativité, and Hugh Hetherington’s singing of the solo in the Darke In the bleak mid-winter.
Judith Markwith

* CHRISTMAS FROM YORK
Choir of York Minster/John Scott-Whiteley (organ)/Robert Sharpe ·
Regent REGCD317
For Robert Sharpe's first recording with the Minster Choir since becoming Director of Music at York in September 2008 he has chosen a programme of mostly standard Christmas repertoire – certainly less adventurous than some of the pieces that he was associated with at Truro. There are however first recordings of new carols by Richard Shephard (The promise of peace) and John Scott Whiteley (Reges Tharsis). Tempi are mostly steady, as befits the Minster acoustic, but the musical singing and clear articulation always retain a feeling of movement and energy where required. Poulenc's Hodie Christus natus est comes off perhaps surprisingly well. At the end of the CD a splendid performance of We wish you a merry Christmas would send any Christmas congregation away happy.
Judith Markwith

RECOVERING THE LORD’S SONG: Getting Sung Scripture Back into Worship
Anne Harrison
Grove Books: 28 pp P/B and Ebook
ISBN 9781851747139
Many clergy and musicians in small churches have experienced difficulty in providing sung psalmody as part of their worship and, sadly, in many churches the psalms are absent from the main service altogether. Anne Harrison, editor of the RSCM’s Sunday by Sunday liturgical planner for several years, has had her finger on the pulse of available and recent resources for singing the psalms. In the first three chapters she eloquently makes the case for including and/or re-introducing psalms and canticles into our services. Many of us don’t need convincing about this but, if you are not yet convinced, you will read no more cogent or persuasive arguments than these.
Where most of us become stuck is over resources. The author spends three short chapters discussing different styles of sung psalmody, from chant to Taizé via hymns, songs and responsorial settings, pointing out the various advantages and disadvantages of each. Many settings use only part or a paraphrase of a psalm, some styles are difficult for congregations to learn and many examples are given here of ways in which particular items might be used. There are brief tables of ‘Selected Resources’, many of these referred to in the text, but in a small throw-away line at the end she mentions, ‘There is a page relating to this book on the Grove website (www.grovebooks.co.uk).’ This page allows a download of a very comprehensive 22-page listing of available settings of songs, hymns, anthems and chanted versions of each psalm and of many canticles. This is a most valuable resource indeed and we should be thankful to her for compiling it. An excellent booklet and highly recommended.
John Henderson

THE BOOSEY AND HAWKES MUSIC DIARY 2010
Boosey and Hawkes: black M060120626; red M060120640; blue M060120633
With a cover image of a Chopin Nocturne score to highlight 2010 as the year of the composer’s bicentenary, the B&H Music Diary comes to us again, brim full of information for the musician.
Diaries should be about dates, and this one certainly is, with at least five birthdays per day of the great figures of music, past and present. Along with the tube map and other things you would find in any diary, there’s some handy reference material: musical terms in French, German and Italian, forthcoming anniversaries, a directory of concert halls, opera houses, festivals, arts organizations and record companies, an ‘In memoriam’ for 2008 and so on. It is pocket size, in portrait format and available in three colours. So I share a birthday with Peter Warlock and René Jacobs, among others. Ideal for topping up that store of useless musical information – but great fun!
Neil Price

CHORAL REPERTOIRE
Dennis Schock
Oxford University Press: 787 pp. Hardback
ISBN 9780195327786
A book trumpeting itself as ‘the definitive and comprehensive one-volume presentation of the canon of the Western choral tradition’ has a great deal to live up to. In fact, the preface is more modest and I do believe the author has achieved his aims most admirably. The choral works of around 500 composers are divided into six eras; each era is divided into national schools of composers and within these the composers are ordered by date of birth. Fortunately there is a composer index to facilitate finding a particular composer. Each composer entry includes a mini biography, overview of choral oeuvre and more detailed discussion of important works. It is the listing at the end of each composer entry that makes this work so useful to choir directors. For each choral work listed, the voicing (including listing of solos) and duration of the piece is given. The works are usually ‘Selected and listed according to familiarity’, although familiarity is a subjective thing and varies on each side of the Atlantic (the author is American). There will certainly be some American composers here who are unfamiliar to English readers, but there is no great bias and the whole book is well balanced in its selection. It is also very up-to-date with Eric Whitacre and Tarik O’Regan meriting entries.
Although intended as a programming tool for choral directors and concert promoters, there will be many listeners to CD and radio and concertgoers who will find useful nuggets of information. It will also be of value to music students but maybe beyond their budget. I can certainly recommend this book.
John Henderson

THE LOST CHORDS
Reginald Frary
Canterbury Press: 132 Paperback
ISBN 978-1-85311-977-4
It is four years since the last instalment of Reginald Frary’s politically incorrect behaviour from church musicians and clergy was published; I think this is the tenth book. There is a sense of déjà vu in these tales, though some of the background comments suggest they were written in recent years. I enjoyed this book more than the last one, but then my peers will tell you I am getting as curmudgeonly as some of the characters herein. The eccentric organists, choristers singing like football fans, stalwarts of Victorian hymnody, diehard anti-worship-song folk and choir-hating clergy are all here. If you are a fan of the genre, then read on!
John Henderson

THE OXFORD BOOK OF FLEXIBLE CAROLS [E-M]
ed. Alan Bullard
OUP 978-0-19-336462-2 standard edition; 978-0-19-336463-9 spiral bound
This carol anthology adopts the same format as the Oxford Book of Flexible Anthems, with each of its 56 pieces presented with flexible scoring options to enable performances by choirs of all shapes and sizes. It is a valuable resource for small choirs, particularly those with few men, or with only unison or upper voices. Around a third of the pieces are in two parts, a quarter are written for SAMen and another third are scored for SATB (although all can be sung by smaller forces if required), with the remainder including a number of canons. The repertoire is well-crafted and very accessible on the whole, and the range of material is excellent. It encompasses new arrangements of traditional carols (from Chilcott’s attractive arrangement of Away in a Manger to a two-part version of O holy night) as well as modern favourites (including Rutter’s Star Carol and Gardner’s Tomorrow shall be my dancing day). There are contributions from the great and the good – including Rutter, Chilcott, Bullard, Cecilia McDowall, Cleobury and Willcocks – as well as new music from the younger generation, such as Graham Ross and Kerry Andrew. In addition, there is also a healthy smattering of world song, including arrangements of traditional carols from Africa, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, plus African-American spirituals and music by Kiwi composer Jenny McLeod. There are no congregational carols: the pieces are all carol-anthems, so you need to use it in conjunction with a hymnbook or another anthology. Also, a significant proportion require accompaniment, which means you would need to take a keyboard with you when you go carol-singing! Although this book has much to recommend it, the cost of buying a set for a large choir is considerable – but for small choirs it may well prove a godsend!
Esther Jones

CHRISTMAS IS COMING: A collection of carols for Advent and Christmas [E-M]
ed. Nicholas Temperley
mostly SATB or SSATB
Stainer and Bell D96
At last – an anthology of mostly well-known unaccompanied carols that can be used by small or large choirs, out of doors and inside! It will not answer every need, not least because it does not include the ‘standard’ congregational carols (its Hark the herald is an arrangement based on Samuel Arnold’s setting and the Away in a manger is the American version attributed to James Murray); but at the very least among the 37 carols are alternative and more practical versions of pieces for smaller choirs with other anthologies. Old Oxford Book of Carols arrangements by Charles Wood and Martin Shaw are not spurned within the 22 mostly new arrangements of carols from Britain, Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Poland and the USA. ‘Composed’ carols include Charles Ives’s Little star of Bethlehem and Bach’s harmonization of Scheidt’s O Jesulein süss and seven new carols composed by Nicholas Temperley himself. Many of the most influential hymn books and carol books have represented the taste and talents of one or two individuals: here we have the fruits of Temperley’s scholarship and musicianship in which carols have always played an important part.

THE JOYS OF CHRISTMAS: Carols from Worcester [E-M]
Donald Hunt
SATB with divisi and solos
Eyelevel Books 978-1902528-311
This is a narrower collection than Nicholas Temperley’s described above, with only 15 carols but at a higher price. All the carols are arranged or composed by Donald Hunt, so this is also more of a single-author volume. But carol singers wanting 'Carols from Worcester' as the anthology is subtitled are well rewarded, not least with ‘A Choral Suite of Worcestershire Carols’ comprising Come all you faithful Christians, King Herod and the Cock and As I sat on a sunny bank. That Suite is dedicated to the Elgar Chorale, and other dedications to Worcester Cathedral Choir and more recently to St Andrew’s, Ombersley show how the arrangements are drawn from a life of distinguished engagement with church music. All the pieces are unaccompanied; all are eminently suitable for carol singing in grand and simple gatherings; all will give pleasure.
Stephen Patterson

THE CAROL BOOK SUPPLEMENT
ed. David Iliff and John Barnard
RSCM D0227
Following the success of The Carol Book published by the RSCM in 2005 comes a supplement of sixteen carols based on traditional British and European carol melodies. Some will be well known, such as ‘The Truth from above’ and ‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’. Others will be less familiar, but on the whole nonetheless appealing. Each carol is presented in flexible arrangements, mostly SATB and SAMen, while several carols can be sung in unison or two parts. The popular photocopiable format has been maintained in this new volume and with many of the arrangements contained within four or five pages this is not an onerous burden for any choir. All the carols have English texts, some original but many others especially written for this supplement. This is a particularly refreshing part of this compilation. The carols are a balanced mixture for use in Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Also included is a new outline for a Carol Service which includes suggested readings, prayers and carols from the whole Carol Book.
All the carols have been skilfully arranged by David Iliff and John Barnard. I particularly enjoyed ‘Good people all’, an arrangement of the Wexford Carol; its two-part writing includes a simple round and descant. The beautiful Welsh Suo Gân is given the new words ‘Lay your burden, midnight mother’ whilst the arrangement is sympathetic and touching. The Gaelic tune Bunessan which appears here with the words ‘Child in the Manger’ is instantly singable. Two favourites, ‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’ and ‘The first good joy that Mary had’, are joyful pieces with simple playable accompaniments. My final pick is ‘The wise men came by starlight’, a lyrical Swedish melody in a charming arrangement.
This collection succeeds in providing accessible carol arrangements from across Europe and for all choirs. It is a useful addition not only to The Carol Book but to the wider Christmas repertoire.
Ian Wicks

EASTER (RISE, HEART; THY LORD IS RISEN) [D]
CHRIST IS RISEN (EASTER GARDEN) [M]
Stanley Vann
SATB
Banks Music Publications ECS 512 and 511
These two exuberant Easter anthems will give joy to choirs and congregations. Written in 1984 and now published for the first time, they show their delight at the thought of the risen Christ is contrasting ways. Easter, a setting of George Herbert, is mostly vigorous and assertive, whilst Christ is risen has more of the character of a folk carol as it describes the meeting with Mary in the garden, culmulating in a flood of Alleluias.

SPRING BURSTS TODAY (AN EASTER CAROL) [M]
Louis Halsey
SATB
I GOT ME FLOWERS [M]
Simon Lole
SATB with divisi
Encore Publications Louis Halsey sets Christina Rossetti with drama as ‘spring bursts’, reflection as ‘winter is past’, a gentle lilt for the morn to ‘break forth in roses’ and a final confidence that ‘this is the time of loves’. Changes of mood, tempo, key and dynamic abound but the whole is skilfully unified and will reward choirs that pay attention to its subtleties.

Simon Lole sets different lines from Herbert’s Easter, starting with a glorious melody that sounds so like an English folk tune that I had to check that it isn’t. Out of the unison melody four upper parts emerge, and then SATB with a dramatic triple forte cry of ‘I got me flowers’. The choir divides in two for a repeat of the opening melody, with SATB singing the tune in unison/octaves and SATB harmonizing and illustrating the words, and unifies again for ‘there is but one and that one ever’ and a solo baritone recalls ‘I got me flowers’ like a distant echo – magical!
James L Montgomery

MISSA BREVIS [D]
Jonathan Dove
SATB and Organ
Edition Peters EP 71780
Jonathan Dove is better known for his secular output than his church music. He has composed a number of operas ranging from Flight premiered by Glyndebourne in 1998 to community operas and even a television opera called Man in the Moon. It is a pity that he has not composed more church music. Many will be familiar with his atmospheric setting of Seek him that maketh the seven stars commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts; its distinctive use of close harmony and arching melody are also apparent in this Missa Brevis, commissioned by the Cathedral Organists’ Association for performance by Wells Cathedral Choir. That gives some clue to its difficulty. While the Kyrie and Agnus Dei are manageable by a good parish choir, the Gloria and Sanctus are another matter. The Gloria is energetic and joyful. But with a finely wrought but tricky organ part including tricky off-beat staccato chords you will need an assistant organist who can learn anything before breakfast.
Stuart Robinson

HYMNS OF GLORY, SONGS OF PRAISE
The Church Hymnary Trust
Canterbury Press
Full music 978-1-85311-900-2; Words only 978-1-85311-901-9
Many denominational hymn books make a claim to be ecumenical. This renamed version of the Church of Scotland’s 2006 Church Hymnary 4 has better claims than many. The original showed a remarkable breadth in what it included, and in what it didn’t (notably for a Presbyterian church in its decision not to include a full psalter). For hymn singers outside of the Church of Scotland the major interest in this book must be the input of John Bell, the ‘Convenor’ of the committee responsible. Edward Darling has memorably assessed that in this book ‘John Bell has done for hymnody in Scotland what Vaughan Williams did for hymnody in England when he worked on the English Hymnal.’ But beyond that, Bell’s work has had huge impact on hymn-singing Christians throughout the English-speaking world. Over 100 of the hymns and songs have Bell’s name against them in one role or another. In addition to Scottish folk music there is a splendid international inclusion of words and music from all over the world: this is the most international and ecumenical of hymn books. Nearer to home, RSCM choirs may appreciate the inclusion of parts of James MacMillan’s St Anne Mass. Anyone involved with choosing hymns and songs would enrich their worship by at least having a copy of this book at their side to broaden their choices.
Stephen Patterson

ABOVE EVERY NAME: 30 Contemporary Hymns in Praise of Christ
Timothy Dudley-Smith
SCM-Canterbury Press: 64 pp P/B
ISBN 9781853119781
I have already written words of enthusiasm about the previous four anthologies of texts by Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith and music edited by William Llewellyn. This is eloquent poetry, scripturally based but contemporary in both thought and language, in a variety of moods and with a fluency ideal for singing. The hymns in the other volumes are more overtly seasonal, but many in this volume could be used as more general hymns. Half have not been published in music editions before, a higher proportion than in previous volumes.
The music is a mix of well-known tunes together with contemporary tunes in traditional style, contemporary tunes in 'worship song' style and some older chorales. There seem to be more unison tunes than in the previous books. All except one fall within the compass of the organ and it is a shame that Vasey was not transposed up a semitone. Although clearly written for piano, it would have made no difference to the vocal range but would have avoided a succession of low Bs. It is nice to see Jesu, meine Freude, Wie Lieblich ist der Maien and Alan Gray's Bucklebury making an appearance and Eric Thiman's Park Chapel seems to be a newly arranged tune.
New texts can easily be introduced to congregations but new music is another matter. I suspect many of us will start by introducing these hymns using some of the alternative tunes that are recommended by the editors. In the case of 'Gold for a manger bed', the two tunes suggested strike a complete contrast, perhaps for different occasions. The editor's own tune is pastoral and triple time in keeping with the 'Infant King' whereas Vaughan Williams's Monk's Gate in 4/4 is angular and robust, more in keeping with the praise of the last verse.
Do investigate this book. As with the other volumes, the texts are covered by the CCLI licence but most of the music is not.
John Henderson

PRAISE TO THE NAME
Timothy Dudley-Smith
Oxford University Press: 82 pp Paperback
ISBN 9780193365889
Here are 36 hymns written between 2005 and 2008 since the author's last anthology, A Door for the Word. Unlike Above every name reviewed above, this anthology contains no music; only two texts feature in both. What makes this book especially interesting is the second half wherein Bishop Dudley-Smith gives a detailed account of the genesis and theology of each hymn. Between two and five tunes are suggested for each text and there are the usual indexes of Biblical references, metre, themes and subjects.' John Henderson

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THE CHURCH ORGANIST: A New Method Volumes 1 and 2
Christopher Tambling
Vol. 1 M570249565; Vol. 2 M570249572
Kevin Mayhew Recent years have seen several excellent new organ methods which all adopt different approaches, one even daring to start from the premise that the pupil has no keyboard knowledge at all. Christopher Tambling’s books are aimed fair and square at the pupil who wants to play for church services, as the title says, with the emphasis on service work: hymn playing, transposition, improvisation and voluntaries. The author assumes a basic knowledge of the keyboard and music theory, asserting that ‘pianists who are at the standard of Grades 4 or 5 of the Associated Board examinations will make much more rapid progress than those who are not. Those with a less secure keyboard facility should not be deterred, however.’ Importantly, he also says that ‘technical issues are addressed not with a series of dry exercises, but through a number of specially written miniature preludes, each based on a hymn tune’.
Volume 1, subtitled ‘The technique of organ playing’, deals comprehensively with manuals only, pedals, hymn playing, using the left hand, trios, registration, transposition and basic improvisation. After an introduction introducing the instrument, it plunges into two-part manual work using hymn tunes in both plain and prelude form. Work on exploring the pedals is next, starting with toes only as is usual, but introducing transposition. Hymn playing in four parts (manuals only) follows, and then more music for manuals. The importance of good registration is emphasized.
Work with toes and heels follows, using examples from hymn tunes, and then the serious business of hands and feet together. Hymn tunes again form the basis, with pedal parts using mostly sustained notes, helping to ease the difficulties of reading three staves as well as co-ordinating hands and feet. Playing the bass with the pedals follows, and a useful chapter devoted to left hand and pedals alone.
After trio playing, a chapter is devoted to suitable registration. The final chapters are concerned with developing technique through a series of different pieces, still with hymn tunes as the foundation. Two valuable chapters called ‘Sing with your feet’ help to develop independence and there are sections on bringing variety to hymn playing (including transposition), plus one on psalm and worship song accompaniments. The book ends with six pages of blank staves, for the teacher to add extra material. It is an excellent addition to the range of organ tutors.

Volume 2 is given over to repertoire, with 43 pieces by a wide range of composers. There is a lengthy introduction with notes on the performance of individual pieces. Part 1 has music for manuals only: fourteen pieces from Tallis to Guilmant. There are some warhorses, such as The Prince of Denmark’s March, and Wesley’s Air and Gavotte, but the majority are less common. The presentation is clear, free from editorial marking and fingering.
Part 2 is music for manuals and pedals, with a range from Fischer to Reger, Vierne and Stanford. Christopher Tambling appropriately has the last word, with five pieces. This section inevitably contains some music which is readily available elsewhere – I did wonder slightly about the inclusion of the Widor Toccata at this level – but the book does provide a handy collection of voluntaries for lots of occasions. Volume 3 is promised for May next year: if it is as good as the first two volumes it will be well worth waiting for.
Trevor Webb

CHRISTMAS FOR ORGAN II [M/MD]
ed. Andreas Rockstroh
Bärenreiter BA 9258
This collection of twenty-eight pieces provides mostly chorale-based items for Advent and Christmas. Its use for British organists will extend more widely over the church’s year, since only two of the tunes are likely to be familiar: ‘A great and mighty wonder’ and ‘From Heaven above’. Six of the remainder are from non-chorale based compositions. But there is much here to be enjoyed, whether the chorale melodies are known or not. Try, for example, Macht hoch die Täü by Karl Wolfrum or Willy Herrmann’s Festpostludium on ‘O du fröliche’. Hirtenmusik by Herzogenberg (1843–1900) is a non-chorale pastorale worth a look.
Apart from Carl Piutti the composers will be mostly unknown to British players. The earliest was born in 1812 and the latest died in 1937. The pieces vary in length from a single page to quite substantial movements: Piutti’s Auf Weihnacht runs to 204 bars. In general much is not beyond a good sight-reader, though some will require rather more than a cursory glance during the sermon.

PRAISE AND THANKS FOR ORGAN [M/MD]
ed. Andreas Rockstroh
Bärenreiter BA 8496
Twenty-seven pieces from unfamiliar composers covering much the same period as the Christmas album make up this useful collection. Many of the comments made about the Christmas album apply here. Nine pieces are on chorale tunes, but two of them are on ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’, and two on ‘Now thank we all our God’ (or Lob den Herren and Nun danket if you prefer). Seifert’s Festival Postlude is a rousing piece, as is his Fantasie. Many are quite sight-readable in an emergency, but some are definitely not to be thrown on the music desk at the last minute.
Are both volumes worth the £21 price tag? I would say yes, containing as they do some fifty-five pieces covering an interesting period in German organ music, and at under a pound a time.

A PURCELL ORGAN ALBUM [M]
ed by Martin Setchell
Oxford 978-0-19-336569-8
Here is a splendid book with which to celebrate this anniversary year. There are twenty-seven items taken from Purcell’s secular music, starting off with no fewer than eight Trumpet tunes. The rest are Airs and Dances ranging from short single-page pieces to more extended ones, some with pedals, some for manuals only. There are inevitably a few warhorses. Two of the trumpet tunes, the ‘Cibell’ and the well-known one ‘in D’ are there, as are the Symphony and Chorus from ‘Come ye sons of Art’, ‘When I am laid in earth’, and the Rondeau from ‘Abdelazar’, but there is so much which could well be unfamiliar that the book was for me a treasure house of new music. The ‘Chaconne: Dance for Chinese Man and Woman’, ‘Rondeau’ and ‘Dance for the Fairies’ all from The Fairy Queen were three which stood out.
All the pieces lie comfortably under hands and feet, and will sound good on the smallest of instruments. They will grace all kinds of occasions: do get it.
Trevor Webb

SIX FUGUES WITH INTRODUCTIONS [M-D]
George Drummond
SIX SONATAS SPIRITUALE OR VOLUNTARIES
Matthias Hawdon
ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications
The short-lived George Drummond (1798–1839), a pupil of William Crotch, published this set of introductions and fugues in c.1819. No. 4 is in D minor, the others in major keys not exceeding two sharps or flats. Only the second Introduction, based on a four-bar ground bass, is of any length; all are slow, the semiquaver writing in no. 4 precluding a faster tempo. Full chords in the bass octave in nos. 4 and 5 will require registration experiments to achieve clarity.
In the tradition of Wesley, Russell and Crotch, the fugues are well wrought and display a commanding understanding of form. The only ornament signs are the tr and the occasional appoggiatura but undoubtedly the contemporary player would have added others. Following the original print, octaves in the bass are indicated, but the pedals may well be used for some of the pedal points in the fugues as well as stretches of a ninth. Although marked as ‘fast’, the writing calls for a more moderate tempo; even so, these pieces require a well-grounded and secure technique, particularly in the several long runs in sixths and to ensure that the parts pass from hand to hand seamlessly. Although of considerable difficulty in places, these pieces are a valuable addition to the early nineteenth-century repertoire and deserve a place in recitals.

Matthias Hawdon (1732–89), organist at St Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne, from 1776 until his death, was buried beneath the organ there. He left six three-movement Voluntaries, each movement displaying galant language in its writing. The first is invariably a slow movement, either of a cantabile nature marked for Stopped Diapason and Flute, or else the opening is marked for RH on Choir and LH on Great before the RH moves to the Great.
The second movement in each sonata is a lyrical Largo Affetuoso for the Swell Hautboy accompanied on the Choir; although mainly a solo line, voices appear and disappear at will. Particularly charming is the Siciliano in no. 5. The third movement is a solo for either Cornet and echo of a lively nature, finishing with a section for full organ or with a passage marked for RH on Choir and LH on Great before concluding with both hands on the Great or full organ. Cadenzas are indicated. These pieces exude considerable charm and make a welcome addition to the established repertoire, although the lack of a Cornet or suitable substitute may limit their usefulness to the modern player.
David Patrick has provided concise editorial notes, including performance practice and helpful notes on the ornament signs found in the Hawdon sonatas, and a critical commentary in these well-printed comb-bound editions.
John Collins

WE RECOMMEND . . .

*** O BE JOYFUL IN THE LORD
Lincoln Cathedral Choir / Charles Harrison (organ)/ Aric Prentice
Guild GMCD 7325
The performances on this disc are of the very highest order and the various psalms that are sung to Anglican chant are models of perfection: both in terms of the singing and the accompanying. Each chanted psalm is paired with an anthem/motet-type setting; and these include Stanford’s Jubilate in B flat (Ps. 100), Byrd’s Sing Joyfully (Ps. 81), Lennox Berkeley’s The Lord is my Shepherd (Ps. 23), Palestrina’s Super flumina Babylonis (Ps. 137), and Schütz’s An den Wassern, zu Babel (also 137)with Colin Walsh at the harpsichord. The solo in Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer (Ps. 55) is sung by Avalon Summerfield with just the right balance between drama and innocence. A fairly rare – and all the more welcome – performance of Jonathan Harvey’s atmospheric I love the Lord (Ps. 116) is included; and a sumptuous rendition of Elgar’s mighty Give unto the Lord (Ps. 29) brings this first class disc to a rousing conclusion.
Christopher Maxim

*** JOHN BLOW AND HIS PUPILS
Timothy Roberts plays the organ of St Botolph, Aldgate, London
sfzmusic.co.uk SFZM0207
This unusual and exciting CD features music by Blow, Henry Purcell, his brother Daniel, John Reading, William Richardson and Jeremiah Clarke. There are examples of organ voluntaries, hymns, metrical psalm settings, a solo anthem (Daniel Purcell’s O let my Mouth be fill’d with Thy Praise) and Richardson’s Funeral Anthem for the Use of Charity Children. The hymn and psalm settings incorporate organ interludes of the kind that were popular in the period. The vocal music is finely sung by a small ensemble and, on a couple of tracks, by the enthusiastic audience at a recital given in 2006. The lion’s share of the music is by Blow – and wonderful it is, too. His organ pieces are full of strange chromatic turns, piquant dissonances and deft counterpoint. Timothy Robert’s excellent playing exhibits a warm affinity with the music, making for a very enjoyable listening experience.
Christopher Maxim

*** SOUNDS OF ST GILES
Thomas Trotter plays the Mander East organ of St Giles Cripplegate, London
Regent REGCD302
Thomas Trotter gave the magnificent opening recital on this new organ in April 2008. Designed largely as a teaching instrument, it has suspended key action and a straight pedal board. Milton is buried beneath St Giles, and it is therefore appropriate that a particular feature of this new organ is special accessories to assist blind organists. Continuing this noble theme, Trotter’s programme includes music by Handel (Organ Concerto no. 16 in F), Stanley (Voluntary in D, Op. 5, no.5), Bach (Trio Sonata No. 1 in E flat), and Litaize (Prélude et Danse Fugée). Music by other (sighted) composers comes from Lionel Rogg, Vaughan Williams (Three Preludes founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes in celebration of the VW anniversary year in 2008) and F W Holloway. There are also four pretty Renaissance pieces. The rhythmic assurance of Thomas Trotter’s playing gives his interpretations a poise and a grace that few organists can approach.
Christopher Maxim

*** ORGEL-IMPROVISATIONEN ÜBER DIE TOCCATA UND FUGE D-MOLL BWV 565 VON J. S. BACH – VOL. 1
László Fassang / Wolfgang Hörlin / Karl Ludwig Kreutz / Torsten Laux & Uwe Steinmetz (saxophone) / Jacob Lekkerkerker / Rudolph Lutz / Christian Ott / Peter Planyavsky / David Timm
ORGANpromotion OP 8004
In CMQ September 2008, I enthusiastically reviewed a large collection of improvisations from ORGANpromotion. Like those, the improvisations on this new disc are remarkably wide-ranging in style and mood, especially given the more specific stimulus: the Toccata and Fugue in D minor attributed to Bach. Kreutz, for instance, comes up with a jazzy toccata of great virtuosity that also contains periods of calm. Laux’s and Steinmetz’s kaleidoscopic Fantasie begins as a sensual, jazzy dream, gradually waxing more violent as it unfolds over a simple descending ground. Fassang sticks fairly closely to the stimulus, yet metamorphoses it; while Lutz and Ott are inspired to create neo-baroque pieces. The influence of the French symphonic school is evident in Timm’s Toccata; and the opening of Hörlin’s piece at times recalls Vierne’s Naïades. Planyavsky is hilariously irreverent. A fascinating disc, commended to all, and a ‘must’ for improvisers.
Christopher Maxim

** JOHN KITCHEN PLAYS THE ORGAN OF THE USHER HALL
Delphian DCD34022
This recording, remastered in 2009, was made in 2004 when the Norman & Beard organ of the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, was recently refurbished. John Kitchen, perhaps better known for his performances of the byways of earlier organ music, gives us an appropriately accessible, ‘town hall style’ programme consisting of arrangements of orchestral works by Elgar, Handel, Holst and Walton; plus some original organ pieces, including Bach’s monumental Prelude and Fugue in E flat BWV 552 and Liszt’s enormous Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen. The disc opens, however, on a much lighter note with Hollins’s Triumphal March, featuring the Carillon (a percussion stop). A Little Liturgical Suite based on Scottish Folk Melodies by Geoffrey Atkinson (b. 1943) is a charming inclusion in an altogether enjoyable disc.
Christopher Maxim

** PHILIP RUSHFORTH PLAYS THE ORGANS OF SOUTHWELL MINSTER AND CHESTER CATHEDRAL
OxRecs DIGITAL OXCD-103
On this disc Philip Rushforth presents an eclectic programme, played on two fine organs that he knows intimately: Southwell (where he was Paul Hale’s assistant) and Chester (a cathedral with which he has been associated since boyhood, and where he is now Director of Music). His commanding performances are full of colour, assurance and flair, from the bravura of Egil Hovland’s Toccata on Nun Danket alle Gott, to the bitter-sweet emotion of his own arrangement of Dido’s Lament. Among the other pieces are a brilliantly dynamic interpretation of Giles Swayne’s Riff-Raff, Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster, Francis Jackson’s Impromptu (a homage to Bairstow, nimbly and charmingly executed), and Walter Alcock’s magisterial Introduction and Passacaglia, which demonstrates the range and grandeur of the Chester organ and the skill and subtlety of Philip Rushforth’s musicianship.
Christopher Maxim

** MY BELOVED SPAKE: Favourite Anthems from Winchester College
Winchester College Chapel Choir / Paul Provost (organ)/ Malcolm Archer
Regent REGCD290
Taking its name from the first track, Patrick Hadley’s lovely setting of words from the Song of Songs, this disc also features pieces by Brahms (‘Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen’ from Ein deutsches Requiem and Geistliches Lied), Mendelssohn (‘If with all your hearts’from Elijah), Elgar (Light out of darkness), Vaughan Williams (O taste and see), Ireland (Greater Love), Byrd (Ave verum corpus), Howells (Like as the hart) and Balfour Gardiner (Evening Hymn). There are also pieces by James MacMillan, Mary Plumstead, Ernest Walker and Rheinberger. The singing is of a very good standard. A highlight of the disc is an atmospheric performance of Sumsion’s They that go down to the sea in ships.
Christopher Maxim

** THE SACRED FLAME: European Sacred Music of the Renaissance and Baroque Era
The Cambridge Singers/La Nuova Musica/John Rutter
Collegium Records COLCD 134
For nearly three decades, the Cambridge Singers have cultivated a distinctive, polished sound. In their beauty of tone, tuning and blend, they have few peers. This high standard is maintained on this latest disc, which is composed of pieces by G Gabrieli, Monteverdi (including the popular Beatus vir), Palestrina (including the sublime Sicut cervus), Anerio, Gesualdo, Lassus, Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Victoria, King John IV of Portugal (Crux fidelis, of course), Josquin (the serene Ave Maria), Hassler, Schütz and Bach (O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht). While the singing is undoubtedly beautiful, some listeners may prefer performances of Baroque music that have a bit more ‘bite’.
Christopher Maxim

** A TIME FOR SINGING
Exultate Singers/David Ogden
www.exultatesingers.org EXUCD002
21 tracks featuring 20 different composers or arrangers means that to list all the items would fill all the review, but would also mislead. For what appears an indigestible mixture from Byrd and Victoria to Ellington and Chilcott hangs together remarkably well as it leaps across the centuries and also liturgically between Christmas, Holy Week and Easter and less seasonally specific, sacred pieces. The recording, produced by John Rutter in St Augustine’s Chapel, Bristol, has a resonance more suitable for the earlier music, although it is probably for the twentieth-century pieces that this CD will be valued (did we really need another recording of Byrd’s Ave verum corpus even when performed by David Ogden’s Bristol-based chamber choir with exemplary tonal blend and discipline?). Finzi’s My spirit sang all day in particular has a uplifting freshness.
Judith Markwith

* EXCELSIOR
Concordia/James Orrell (treble)/Michael Smith(organ)/Timothy Noon
Amemptos Music www.amemptosmusic.co.uk AM-C2  
If the choir’s name sounds familiar, do not be confused – this particular Concordia was formed specifically for this recording. Also unfamiliar are the 23 pieces which were chosen following a trawl for unpublished and unrecorded choral music (all are now published by Amemptos Music). This CD has many attractive features: Timothy Noon’s direction of what must have been for him 23 new pieces, Michael Smith’s playing on the Nicholson organ in All Saints’, Stand, and the singing of James Orrell (head chorister of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral). The music, selected after consideration of hundreds of pieces, is unified by a conservative musical idiom, with varying degrees of musical originality and individuality: noteworthy are contributions by John Ellis and an imaginative treatment of I wonder as I wander by Paul Freeman.
Judith Markwith

* CATHOLIC COLLECTION II
The Choirs of Leeds Cathedral/Christopher Johns/Christopher McElroy/Benjamin Saunders
Herald HAVPCD 345
The Boys', Girls' and Adult Choirs all perform on this disc of varied repertoire, which ranges from plainsong to Immaculate Mary and Faith of our fathers via Palestrina, Charpentier, Rheinberger, Colin Mawby and others. This disc opens with Haydn’s Insanae et vanae curae. It is good to have it included in his anniversary year. Adult soprano soloist Sarah Kelly gives a lovely performance of Charpentier’s Panis angelicus; and the Adult Choir's rendition of Palestrina's Sicut cervus is a high point.
Christopher Maxim

* I HEAR IT IN THE HEART
The Choirs of Methodist College Belfast/Ruth McCartney/Lynda Barrett
PRCD 848 available from development@methody.org
This two-CD set features mostly contemporary music of a lyrical nature. The majority of pieces are sacred, though there are a few secular numbers too. The first disc is performed mostly by the Girls’ Choir, with the Junior Choir putting in four tracks. The girls make a fine, mature sound; while the juniors, though inevitably less mature in tone, are just as laudably clear, precise, disciplined and musical. The second disc, performed by the Chapel Choir, features some slightly more ‘meaty’ music, including Eric Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque, Purcell’s Hear my Prayer, Wood’s Occuli Omnium, and Debussy’s tricky Dieu, qu’il la fait, which the choir performs with an impressive level of control. Nevertheless, it is in the repertoire that is of a similar kind to that of the first disc that the Chapel Choir sounds the most confident. It is wonderful to hear schoolchildren singing with such commitment and skill.
Christopher Maxim

THE SINGING THING TOO: Enabling congregations to sing
John L Bell
Wild Goose: 144pp P/B
9781905010325
In The Singing Thing, enthusiastically reviewed in CMQ March 2003, John Bell explored the reasons why people sing. In this Book Two/Too, his concerns are more practical. How do people pick up new music? How do you encourage a congregation to learn a new song? How can you breathe new life into hymnody which has gone stale? This is the most helpful book I have read with advice for musicians on how to teach songs to congregations and groups. Many people have experienced John Bell’s skill in encouraging people to sing: here are his own insights into how he does it.
Stephen Patterson

MY HEART SINGS OUT
Fiona Vidal-White
Church Publishing
Pew Edition 9780898694741
Leader’s Guide 9780898695014
This is a superb collection of music for all-age worship that offers sacred songs and liturgical settings to engage both adults and children. The editor, Fiona Vidal-White, acknowledges the influence of John Bell and the Wild Goose Resource Group, and the shared principles are clearly evident in the preponderance of music from folk traditions around the world. Many of the songs are in unison, but it also includes rounds and some arrangements with simple harmonies. The Teacher’s Guide includes excellent advice on how to use each piece liturgically, guidance on the suitability of songs for each age-group of children and suggestions for how to accompany each piece, where relevant. Some of this music is likely to be familiar already, but Vidal-White should be commended for drawing together in a single volume a repertoire for this purpose. In addition to providing music for all-age church services, it would be a valuable resource for those leading collective worship in schools or children’s church groups.
Esther Jones

Music suitable for healing services

A CELTIC BLESSING [M]
Simon Lole
SATB and organ
OUP 978-0-19-335953-6
CELTIC PEACE [E–M]
Colin Mawby
SA soli, SATB and organ
OCP/Calamus 20328
CELTIC BLESSING OF LIGHT [M]
Tim Knight
SATB and piano
www.timknightmusic.com
These three anthems use traditional Celtic poems for their texts. Simon Lole has a gift for melody which is well used in A Celtic Blessing using the well-known text ‘May the road rise to meet you’. Set in the key of G flat major, and conceived with organ accompaniment, this could also be effectively accompanied on piano and will be a rewarding piece for a competent SATB choir.
Colin Mawby’s Celtic Peace looks as if it was written for a specific occasion, with alto and soprano soloists. With a simple organ accompaniment and voice parts, this is an effective setting of the words (whose source is not acknowledged) but each voice part divides, and so it requires careful tuning.
The text in Tim Knight’s Celtic Blessing of Light is not acknowledged either, and surprisingly there is no tempo indication. The rhythmic introduction suggested allegro to me and at this tempo it swings along happily – indeed, I thought it refreshing that a blessing was not conceived as smooth, slow and gentle. However, I could be wrong, or the composer is allowing the performers to choose.
Gordon Appleton

THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE [M]
Malcolm Archer
SATB and organ
OUP X494
LOVE FROM GOD [M]
Simon Lole
Mixed voices and organ
Encore Publications
LOOK TO THE DAY [E–M]
John Rutter
SATB and piano or organ
OUP X487
TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON [E–M]
John Rutter
SATB and piano
OUP X495
The River of the Water of Life by Malcolm Archer was commissioned for a Derby RSCM Area festival, and Love from God by Simon Lole was composed for an RSCM Festival of Gloucester and Bristol Areas. Both are clearly effective for a big choir in a large space but will be useful anthems for competent SATB choirs. Although suitable for general use, the Archer piece would be useful at a baptism service. The lovely text by Isaac of Syria is given effective treatment by Simon Lole, with melodic invention, effective key changes and variety of dynamic intensity.
John Rutter’s two new compositions are immediately appealing, with easily memorable melodies, accessible and well crafted, as one would expect. The composer wrote his own text and music for Look to the Dayat the invitation of Cancer Research UK for a service of thanksgiving. Written for SATB it is not difficult, with an interesting accompaniment exploring different textures and moving seamlessly through different keys (in a similar style to the composer’s Look at the World). The text of To everything there is a season from Ecclesiastes is given colourful treatment which singers in modest choirs will enjoy.
Gordon Appleton

ETERNAL LIGHT, SHINE INTO OUR HEARTS [M]
Malcolm Archer
SATB and organ
OUP X492
YOU ARE MY GOD [M]
Bob Chilcott
SATB and organ
OUP BC86
PEACE BE TO THIS CONGREGATION [M]
Alison Cadden/Harry Grindle
SATB
Encore Publications
AS WATER TO THE THIRSTY [E]
Brian Coleman/John Barnard
SATB and keyboard
Stainer and Bell W221
Alcuin of York’s well known prayer Eternal Light, shine into our hearts is set effectively by Malcolm Archer for SATB choirs. This interesting arrangement will be popular with parish choirs and useful in a variety of services.
A confident prayer by David Adam, You are my God, is given confident musical treatment in a contemporary style by Bob Chilcott, and dedicated to those whose lives are touched by HIV. With ‘upbeat’ piano accompaniment and effective four-part choral writing, this little anthem will be enjoyable to singers and listeners.
Alison Cadden’s Peace be to this congregation, arranged by Harry Grindle, is an effective anthem with words by Charles Wesley. It needs a confident choir with sopranos neither afraid of divisi nor a top B flat.
Many will be familiar with the setting by Brian Coleman of Timothy Dudley-Smith’s text As water to the thirsty, arranged by John Barnard, which is found in the RSCM collection Worship in Song. It is reprinted separately now, and is a most attractive and effective arrangement.
Gordon Appleton

HE WILL SPEAK PEACE [M]
Alan Bullard
S solo, SATB and organ
Spartan Press (Colne Edition)
TWO PRAYERS [M]
Christopher Gower
SATB
Encore Publications
I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES [D]
David Briggs
SATB with divisi and organ
Chestnut Music
One of the most innovative pieces reviewed here is Alan Bullard’s He will speak peace. Written in memory of his teacher, Herbert Howells, it has some reference to that composer’s harmonic language, but not with Howells’s usual level of difficulty. The anthem, based on the hymn tune Song 1 by Gibbons, is for SATB with some divisi, soprano solo and organ accompaniment. The choral parts are initially treated rather like improvisations between phrases of Gibbons’s hymn played on the organ. The text from Psalm 85 would also be appropriate for Advent and any services with the theme of peace.
Two Prayers by Christopher Gower are very short unaccompanied pieces – excellent for introits or occasions when a short choral piece can aid contemplation. These lovely prayers are set for unaccompanied four-part choir and will be most effective and rewarding to sing, but need careful intonation. More difficult, and for choirs that can cope with eight parts, unaccompanied adagio, and that will not shy away from note clusters, is a beautifully crafted setting of words from Psalm 121, I will lift up mine eyes, composed by David Briggs for Matthew Owens’s Exon Singers. Cathedral choirs and those of a similar standard should find this a useful addition to the repertoire.
Gordon Appleton

Carols by Mack Wilberg

MACK WILBERG CAROLS: EIGHT CAROLS FOR MIXED VOICES [M]
SATB div and piano
OUP CMB262
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO [E/M]
SATB and piano
OUP CMB304
NOE! NOE! [E/M]
SATB and organ
OUP CMD76
DING! DONG! MERRILY ON HIGH [E/M]
SATB and organ
OUP CMD77
Mack Wilberg is the Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a 360-strong amateur ensemble based in Salt Lake City, Utah at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His experience of working with amateur singers is evident from his compositional style, including repetitive structures, straightforward part-writing and homophonic choral textures. Much of the musical interest is found in the instrumental parts – either piano or organ in the versions reviewed here, although many carols are also available with orchestral parts or for piano duet. Nonetheless his music appeals to singers and audiences alike and would doubtless enliven a Christmas service or carol concert.
Only two of the eight carols in the anthology are original compositions: Gloria tibi Domine is a spirited piece that contains some delicious dissonances. Its fifteenth-century text is set to a melody in a driving 6/8 rhythm that harks back to this period. Lullee, lullai, lullo, lullabye is also reminiscent of an early carol style but is gentler in mood.
The other pieces in this volume are well-crafted arrangements, ranging from the march-like French Carol to the King (A Christmas Processional) to a toe-tapping version of The Virgin Mary had a baby boy and a lilting setting of the Catalonian carol What shall we give?. In places the divisi might prove a challenge for smaller choirs but all of the arrangements are very accessible on the whole.
Gloria in excelsis Deo is also a processional – and would work very effectively as such. The piece is based on a simple, repetitive melody and builds from a low, quiet start to a triumphant finish that sees the sopranos singing a fortissimo top B flat for seven bars.
Noe! Noe! is a charming arrangement of a French carol that would make a delightful addition to a carol service. There is a little divisi and a high ending for the sopranos but should be manageable for most SATB choirs. Wilberg’s arrangement of Ding! Dong! is also very accessible and will be known to some due to its premiere by King’s College Choir in their 2007 broadcast of ‘A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’. It is a fun and festive arrangement with a twinkling organ part that will certainly please the punters!
Esther Jones

Carols by Andrew Carter

ANDREW CARTER CAROLS: Twelve Mixed-Voice Settings [ME-MD]
SATB, mostly with organ
Banks BMP 010
Andrew Carter will be 70 in December and this inexpensively-priced collection is well timed for choirs who want to mark this birthday in their carol services. It is also a volume of music to treasure, distilling over three decades of distinguished and characterful writing for choir and organ. The front cover shows the Madonna and Child from the entrance to the Chapter House of Carter’s beloved York Minster, and a reminder that many of his earliest arrangements were written for the Chapter House Choir that he founded there. Places and people are important to Carter’s music: he so often writes for a person and an acoustic (and often a particular choir and a particular organ).
One of his earliest pieces in this collection is the 1977 Make we merry dedicated to Francis Jackson, under whom Carter was a bass songman at the Minster. Although the ‘Hereford’ Mary’s Magnificat finds a place, the other most popular of Carter’s carols are avoided.  So instead of the ubiquitous A maiden most gentle, King’s College is represented by Angelus ad virginem arranged for Philip Ledger and King’s in 1980. Three carols appear to be published for the first time, including a gorgeous Slumber Song written for Gainesville, Florida (and a reminder of how highly respected Carter is in the USA) with a subtlety of harmony and a quiet but fervent faith as each verse comes to rest on ‘Our Saviour Jesus’.
James L Montgomery

Upper-voice carols

JESUS CHRIST, THE APPLE TREE [E]
Alan Lees
SS and keyboard
animus CMC85
JESUS CHRIST, THE APPLE TREE [M]
Malcolm Archer
SSA and organ
OUP CMC83
Alan Lees’s setting of this well-known text is simpler than Archer’s. The simple melody is rather beautiful and is adapted for each of the three stanzas that he uses. The last verse includes an optional descant which enhances the final bars. In contrast Archer’s version is more extended – setting five stanzas in all. It also features a delightful melody, but the part-writing is more complex, requiring reasonably experienced singers to do it justice.
Esther Jones

TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY [M]
Malcolm Archer
SS and organ
OUP CMD64
CHRISTMAS BELLS [M]
Christopher Wiggins
SSA and organ
OUP CMB170
Archer’s setting of Tomorrow shall be my dancing day has an appealing folk-like tune that works well both in the major key of the opening as well as in the minor mode in the third verse. An arrangement is available for SATB and organ but this upper voice version is in two parts, with some divisi in the upper part towards the end.
Christmas Bells is a lively piece for SSA and organ. The three-part writing would be too demanding for the top lines of many parish choirs, which is a pity as it would undoubtedly be an instant hit with trebles. There’s also plenty of fun to be had with the organ part.
Esther Jones

Mendelssohn

ELIJAH Op.70
Felix Mendelssohn
ed. Christian Martin Schmidt
Breitkopf Urtext
Vocal Score 8649 EB 8649
Full Score 5311 PB 5311
This is a ‘pre-print’ from the forthcoming Elijah volume of the Leipzig Mendelssohn Complete Edition, issued in time (just!) for the Mendelssohn anniversary year and launched by Kurt Masur in Paris on 10 January 2009. As with Haydn’s Creation, different editions approach the text, and especially the English text, in different ways. This new edition claims that in it ‘the bilingual vocal text has been underlaid correctly for the very first time’: certainly, for better or worse, the English text which William Bartholomew created with Mendelssohn is shown intact.
The editor was able to consult the autograph score, which was only rediscovered around 1990. Differences are small, and mostly relate to the separation and numbering of different movements; this edition will not replace, in the UK at least, Michel Pilkington’s New Novello edition, but singers and especially conductors with older scores can beneficially consult it. The preface is particularly interesting with respect to the piano reduction over which Mendelssohn took great care. Full and vocal scores are printed at large format (the vocal score is 30.5 x 23 cms) and are exceptionally clear. Orchestral parts are also available on sale.
Stephen Patterson

ST PAUL Op. 36
Felix Mendelssohn
ed. John Michael Cooper
Bärenreiter Urtext
Vocal Score BA 9071a
Full Score BA 9071
The editor makes bold claims for the importance of Mendelssohn’s first oratorio, including that without it ‘the oratorios of composers as diverse as Robert Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, Dvořák, Bruch, and Tippett, each in their own way, would have been virtually unthinkable.’ What is less controversial is that firstly it cost Mendelssohn five years of hard work, secondly that the premiere established him as his generation’s greatest composer of sacred music, and thirdly that he substantially revised the work in various stages for performance and for publication of full and vocal scores in Germany and separately in England, adding to the complications for any editor today.
Choral singers and conductors will find much of interest in the extensive but very readable preface, including a discussion of the various conflicting organ parts and cues surviving from Mendelssohn’s performances that show how he revised his thinking on the use of the organ in different performances. There is also a seating plan drawn up by Mendelssohn for one performance with much of the choir placed in front of the orchestra, and, among other instructions the composer gave to his conductors, one to ‘have each movement of Paulus follow the preceding one immediately – not a bit of throat-clearing or nose-blowing in-between . . the movements constantly following each other like one mass of music.’
Stephen Patterson

PSALMS Op. 78
Felix Mendelssohn
ed. John Michael Cooper
Bärenreiter Urtext BA 8941
The three psalms, presented with German and English text, are Psalm 2 ‘Why rage fiercely the heathen’, Psalm 43 ‘Judge me, O God’ and Psalm 22 ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken me’. The first two psalms are printed complete twice, in first and second versions.  The second version of Psalm 2 removes the organ part and adds a doxology; the second version of Psalm 43 has numerous small changes as well as a completely different doxology.  The editor argues that in both cases the second version should be regarded as an alternative and not a replacement.
The influence of Bach’s motets seems never far away. Singers may well know the Psalm 43 setting from the inclusion of the first version in OUP’s European Sacred Music anthology. However there, as with most editions of the piece, it is without doxology at all, which the editor of this Bärenreiter volume regards as an error: certainly the two eight-part, F major doxologies given here form a splendid conclusion after the psalm verses that have moved from D minor to D major.
Stephen Patterson

Featured review

GETTING STARTED ON THE PEDALS: a new approach
Corinne Hepburn
animus
Arguments about pedal technique abound, especially when concepts of authenticity are involved. There cannot be many instruments where the questions of technique are so thorny and the pros and cons of how to begin so varied. Corrine Hepburn here follows on from the ideas of her two earlier tutors. After ‘Preliminary Thoughts’, and‘Actually on the Organ Bench’she launches into first exercises. Her aim is clearly stated: ‘to promote confidence in mapping out a clear pedal board geography whilst concentrating on the development of a secure pedal technique from the outset . . . fluency and fun are the goals here.’ So often, amateur organists are insecure in their understanding of the geography of the pedal board, tending to rely far too much on a random placing of the feet with knees akimbo, backed up by looking down as often as possible. The concept of instinctively placing the feet on the keys just as one does the hands is difficult to grasp or put into practice.
Miss Hepburn insists on a secure aural approach, thinking up from the pedals, and the exercises which follow develop these ideas. In the early stages, notational problems are simplified, with an emphasis on doing without written pitch. Heels are introduced from a very early stage. Later the imported melodies tend to be of the ‘school recorder class’ type (Auld Lang Syne, Skye Boat Song, Sing a Song of Sixpence), but they will help in the development of that primary aim of playing by listening rather than looking.
The bugbear of left hand and pedals is dealt with well in some interesting original music as well as with better-known tunes, and eventually both hands are called into use.
As with all tutors, additional material will be needed. This is a most interesting book, which every teacher should read and whose ideas are well worth trying out.
Trevor Webb

Mostly manuals

SIX CORNET PIECES with an introduction for the diapasons and a fugue [M]
PRELUDES, FUGUES AND INTERLUDES [M]
Charles Burney, ed. David Patrick
Fitzjohn Music Publications
Charles Burney (1726–1814) is far better known today for his voluminous writings on music history and on music and players encountered during his travels in Europe. He did, however, publish two collections of organ music both of which are here edited by the indefatigable David Patrick.
The Cornet Pieces (1751) are typical examples of this popular genre with running semiquaver and quaver passagework over a bass which varies between quavers and minims. The first one in E minor is prefixed by a spacious Largo to make a most satisfactory voluntary. The closing Fugue in F minor, a double Fugue à la Corelli with considerable freedom regarding part-writing, modulates to remote keys which must have sounded harsh in meantone tuning. Nimble fingers are required for the Cornet movements.
The Preludes, Fugues and Interludes from c.1787 consist of pieces ordered from A minor to D major, grouped into ten sets by David Patrick. The Preludes (titled Introductions in the body of the music) generally display the galant style (particularly in the B flat No. 5, with drama aplenty in the A minor and C minor) while the fugues blend the galant and the older styles satisfactorily. The three shorter Fughettas work equally well, the Fugue in A minor and Fughetta in C including the ascending chromatic tetrachord within the subject. Some of the Introductions will stretch the player but most pieces are readily accessible to a well-grounded technique in the period.
David Patrick has provided the usual concise editorial notes including performance practice and a critical commentary in these well-printed editions.
John Collins

HYMN MINIATURES: 28 Practical Settings for the Church's Year [M] 
Rebecca Groomte Velde
OUP
£10 could hardly be better spent. This is an excellent collection for busy parish organists: settings of 28 standard repertoire tunes, with the composer’s stated aims of service interludes, hymn introductions, inter-stanza interludes, communion meditations, preludes, offertories, and postludes, all splendidly met. The variety of settings does exactly what it says on the tin: ‘There is something for everyone.’ Whether I would have the courage to try out some of the uses in an actual service is another matter, certainly not without at least previously warning the choir. May we have another collection soon!
Trevor Webb

With pedals

FANTASY IN D FLAT MAJOR Op. 101 [D]
Robert Fuchs, ed. Peter Planyavsky
Doblinger/Universal DM 1345
Fuchs (1847–1927) was a prominent, influential composition teacher who numbered Sibelius among his pupils, and of whom Brahms spoke highly. This, the last of his three Fantasies, divides into four main sections, relying on ‘the organisational powers of the fugue to provide focus and closure’ (Planyavsky). The editor draws attention to the style being very much that of 1917, fifteen years after Schoenberg’s Three Piano Pieces and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. This is fine music which will need careful preparation, a worthy addition to the recital repertoire, and not without technical problems which will be satisfying to overcome.
Trevor Webb

WHEN IN OUR MUSIC GOD IS GLORIFIED: Prelude on Engelberg [M]
WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS: Prelude on Hamburg [M]
Joe Utterback
Jazzmuse Inc. 2008-305 and 2008-288
Apart from rich, colourful harmonies at the beginning of Engelberg, there is nothing here to frighten the horses – or the jazzophobes. However, it is not too long before the characteristic Utterback ideas begin to appear whilst keeping the stately nature of the original tune.
Hamburg is not the tune used this side of the pond, but a stately one arranged by Lowell Mason in 1824. As with Engelberg the emphasis in the first part is on rich chromatic harmony, with plenty of key changes throughout the whole piece. Utterback is quite specific about the tone colours he wants and the playing style, with instructions often reminiscent of Percy Grainger – ‘stretch’; ‘triumphant, glorious sound’, for example. Nowhere is the dignified nature of the tune lost. If you haven’t tried Utterback yet these pieces are a good place to start.
Trevor Webb

TEN PIECES [M/MD]
William Faulkes
Dr J Butz 2215
The demise of Oecumuse deprived us of many reprints of British organ music from the late Victorians to the middle of the last century; it is left to Bonn to bring some of the best of this neglected period back into use. The back cover of this publication lists 26 books of music from England and also America, covering music by Stanford, John Marsh, J E West, Smart, and others. This is one of two books of Faulkes’s music, ten attractive pieces suitable for a variety of occasions. I particularly enjoyed the March, Canzona, and Scherzo in D, but there are no failures in the ten. The collection should give pleasure to congregations and players alike, and has a multiplicity of uses.
Trevor Webb

Gershwin arrangements

3 PRELUDES [MD/D]
Gershwin, arr. Ralf Sach
Schott ED 20587
The nature of these Preludes is best summed up by Ralf Sach: ‘These are preludes in the traditional sense, characterized by Ostinato figures that establish themselves as motifs – and Gershwin “modernises” this form by bringing a strict and continuous Ostinato rhythm to these Ostinato figures’, the rhythms being ‘definitely in the style of New Orleans jazz’. The editor goes so far as to say it would be ‘entirely appropriate to use these “mood pieces” . . . during Holy Communion’, and upholds them as ‘models of “authentic” jazz music on a church organ’. These Preludes are a welcome addition to the present surge of publications in jazz idiom for the organ. They are not pick-off-the-pile last minute voluntary choices; a good Romantic organ is desirable plus a good technique. Note Gershwin’s own comment: ‘My favourite instrument is the church organ. But my main problem is that the church don’t favourites my music.’ This is a good time to put that right.
Trevor Webb

VARIATIONS ON ‘I GOT RHYTHM’ by George Gershwin [M/MD]
Harold Britton
Dr J Butz 2191
This excellent piece began life as a ‘fun’ piece to ‘provide a little levity during a classical organ concert’. It meets its aim. The variations include a rather fearsome fugue and a dramatic pedal cadenza with some double pedalling, as does the final Grandioso. The more timid among us could well get away with playing only the opening Allegro moderato, which is a full statement of the main theme. The whole thing would be a magnificent end to a recital.
Trevor Webb