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.

A practical guide to writing fugues for students, of particular interest to candidates for the RCO Diploma examinations, but useful to anyone with some skills in basic harmony who wishes to expand their knowledge.

Graham Barber performs and discusses the organ music of organist and composer Francis Jackson, born in 1917.

RCO Director Andrew Macintosh explores the resources that are available online for organists and choral directors, on the RCO’s virtual campus, iRCO.

An insight into the Hammond Organ – Jean Martyn explains how different styles are created, from Bossa Nova to Samba, Reggae, and A Whiter Shade of Pale.

Tom Bell introduces the organ music of two English composers for organ who lived hundreds of years apart: Orlando Gibbons, and contemporary composer Alan Gibbs.

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

To mark the 150th anniversary of Louis Vierne’s birth, Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick presents a film on his life and legacy.