The clear division of Bach’s keyboard works into those for organ and those for clavier is one that is more evident to modern editors than it probably was to performers in eighteenth-century Germany.  Francis Knights discusses a few works that appear to fall into neither camp, and the evidence they provide for the particular instrument they may have been played on.

Tom Bell uses W. T. Best’s editions of Bach to open a window into the world of a Victorian musician, and to explore nineteenth-century performance practice. 

The most substantial of Purcell’s organ works, the Voluntary for Double Organ has been described as ‘an exuberant product of the English Baroque’.  This paper by Desmond Hunter reviews aspects of the notation and considers several issues concerning the work’s performance, set against the background of a more general discussion of the genre.

Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick demonstrates how the organ and organ music developed in post-Revolutionary France, on the organ of Hexham Abbey.

The French Revolution was both destructive and creative, and the story of the organ during the revolutionary decade was one of continuity and of change. Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick discusses a time when organ culture was in thrall to political forces, in this article from the RCO Journal of 2020/2021.

Films 9 and 10 in the Teach the Organ series curated by Anne Marsden Thomas, on teaching the specific skills required by the church organist.

Tom Bell presents a video diary of his preparations for a performance of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement. 

The 2020/2021 edition of the College’s research publication, The Journal of the Royal College of Organists, can be downloaded here as a complete edition.

The series of films in the Teach the Organ series continues, discussing how to develop practice techniques for students, and the importance of accurate learning.