Andrew McCrea takes a brief look at the rich history of organ anthology production in Britain in the last two centuries.

Only one inanimate object has been habitually described as having lungs or as being capable of a kind of mechanical breathing. That the organ lends itself to imagery and metaphor has not gone unnoticed: Francis O’Gorman takes this subject on by investigating a range of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century poetry.

It may seem slightly perverse to be looking performance skills in Learning during Lockdown, when the coronavirus pandemic currently preventing most musicians from performing at all.  But lockdown is possibly an opportunity to step back and reflect on how we felt about our own performances in the past, and how they could improve.  iRCO has resources on performance techniques, and we look at competitions for organists that are still taking place in the next year.

Regular lessons may have fallen into abeyance during lockdown, and keeping up impetus and engagement in solitude can be difficult even for the best of us, without some sort of structure.  This week’s Learning during Lockdown looks at ways in which beginner and developing organists can gain inspiration and keep engaged through the structure of the RCO’s early qualifications, up to CRCO.  Established organists might like to use the enforced thinking time of lockdown to imagine how they could diversify their careers, and we have some suggestions.

A series of webinars, presented by Frederick Stocken, covering the Bach chorale question from the CRCO Diploma examination written paper.

This October marks the 150th anniversary of Louis Vierne’s birth, and here on iRCO we celebrate the anniversary with a new film presented by Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick discussing Vierne’s life and legacy, and point to other resources on the composer. 

Information about how to clean the organ keyboard, of particular interest during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a review of Timothy Day’s I Saw Eternity the Other Night, about the evolution in modern times of an English singing style, David Wright gets inside the multiple frameworks—economic, social, cultural—which help to invent and regulate traditions.

This week’s Learning During Lockdown is a helping hand towards discovering new repertoire, whether you have access to a practice instrument, or are simply looking for inspiration for the future.  On iRCO we have films from specialists in many specific areas of organ repertoire, explaining the elements of style, fingering and pedalling for the different periods. We also have suggestions for music transcribed for organ, with examples and sources.