The 2023 edition of the College’s research publication, The Journal of the Royal College of Organists, can be downloaded here as a complete edition. It explores the organs of Lincoln Cathedral before 1702, how new organs were commissioned in 19th-century France, the surviving sources of Franck’s Trois Chorals, the solo organ works of South African composer Stefans Grové, and Cecilia McDowall in conversation with RCO Chief Examiner Stephen Farr.

Richard Brasier investigates the sources that are known to have survived of Franck’s Trois Chorals, comparing sketches, engravers’ copies, and fair copies to reveal a wealth of interpretative details.  This article has benefitted from the comprehensive work the author has done to produce a complete edition of Franck’s organ works for Lyrebird Music in recent years.

Individual teaching can be an important part of an organist’s work, and this Working Webinar outlines strategies for building and sustaining a teaching practice.

Alterations from 1955 to an internationally-recognised baroque organ in The Netherlands are being corrected, with a more historically-informed restoration now underway.

Tom Bell continues his video diary around the preparation of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen for performance, now looking at Messiaen’s organ music more widely.

The College’s bi-annual magazine for members contains features, details of forthcoming events and courses, and general news and views from the RCO.

Drew Cantrill-Fenwick traces the processes whereby an organ was build for La Madeleine, Paris, by an increasingly influential Aristide Cavaille-Coll.  His archival research allows us to see, stage by stage, the construction history of this much-lauded instrument.  The project was a multi-disciplinary affaire in which the influence of the artisan was replaced by that of the scholar, the administrator, and the politician.

The recent centenary of Stefans Grové’s birth has been a catalyst for Herman Jordaan to investigate Grové’s monumental Afrika Hymnus, where the compositional materials, timbres and resonances, often removed from organ conventions, are stimulating and rewarding for the player and listener alike.  The author puts the music in the context of the environment and cultures of his native South Africa, and has prepared recorded music examples to accompany the article.

Magnus Williamson recounts the archival and archeological detective work that has taken place at Lincoln Cathedral, in conjunction with the Byrd quatercentenary.  By bringing the building in line with post-Restoration practice in 1702, the Dean and Chapter also ended a spatial arrangement which had once generated the rich pre-Reformation tradtions of organs and voices in ‘alternatim’.  The characteristics of the building, and their musical implications, are probed in detail.