A benefit of our new reciprocal membership arrangement with the American Guild of Organists is free access to their journal The American Organist. We look at the magazine in more detail, and also preview a new addition to our choral and conducting resources on iRCO: two films on working with orchestras from conductor Nicholas Cleobury. 

There are of course differences between individual grand pianos, and cellos, and flutes, but of all musicians, organists have to be the most prepared to adapt, often at short notice, to enormous variation in the size, shape and scope of their instrument. This month’s Learning during Lockdown focusses on the instrument and its builders, and how all this variety came about.

Organists really do have something to shout about regarding Beethoven after all, says Richard Brasier, in a new film that is the RCO’s contribution to the celebrations around the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth this year.  In Learning during Lockdown this month we look at Beethoven’s relationship with the organ, and at the wider legacy of organ music from the Classical period.  We also note how two organists took a major role in shaping the content of the live music this year’s COVID-constricted BBC Promenade Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall.

We are recording our current series of live webinars on harmony for the RCO examination written papers, so they can be viewed on iRCO.  This month’s Learning during Lockdown suggests how you could use these, and other resources, to start or continue your studies of harmony, depending on your existing knowledge.   We also introduce live looping, an improvisatory technique from the world of electronic music, which can be creatively applied to the organ.

Current guidance from the Church of England allows for the organ to be played for communal church services, which recommenced earlier this month.  However there can be no group singing or chanting while worshippers are present, though a single singer or cantor is permissible.  This month’s Learning during Lockdown explores options for suitable organ music when the staples of the organist’s repertoire—hymns, mass settings, and choral accompaniment— are excluded.

The College has just announced a new reciprocal agreement with colleagues in the American Guild of Organists, which allows members of either organisation to join the other as affiliate members, and benefit from a range of perks.  We look at the AGO and what it can offer RCO Members, and at other American resources that might be of interest.

The June 2020 edition of RCO News, the College’s bi-annual magazine, can be downloaded by RCO Members here in pdf format.

As of last week, organists within the Church of England were allowed access to church buildings again, for organ practice, under new government guidance.  So we hope it’s not too optimistic to focus this week on pedalling technique, for organists who may be moving back to a pedalboard for the first time in many months; with advice on how to start playing again, and pedals-only music.

This week’s Learning during Lockdown introduces new films on iRCO, which, coupled with recordings of recent webinars, form an introduction to practical harmony for the beginner, and a course in keyboard harmony and the structure of Bach chorales for RCO examination students.  During lockdown many organists have been taking to keyboard instruments other than the organ: we explore the results, and the music they’ve chosen to play.