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.

In a film to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Richard Brasier looks at his working life and short career as an organist in Bonn. 

RCO Director Andrew Macintosh gives a guided tour of the National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR), an online database of over 36,000 pipe organs in the UK.

Anne Page gives an introduction to Messiaen’s musical language and religious beliefs, illustrated with excerpts from a live performance.

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.

Frederick Stocken looks at the two-part counterpoint requirements of the ARCO written examination paper, in two webinars recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In a series of three webinars, recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown, Frederick Stocken looks at fugal techniques for the ARCO written examination.

Pam Hulme introduces live looping as part of the organists’ toolkit, in a film recorded on the organ of the Pfingstkirche, Berlin.

Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick introduces the keyboard skills which are elements of the RCO’s practical examinations – transposition, sight reading, score reading, harmonisation, and figured bass.