Not every organ possesses a Zimbelstern, but this ‘toy stop’ has been a popular addition to organs for hundreds of years. John Kitchen, Edinburgh City Organist, suggests how and when you might use it, demonstrating on the organ of Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.

Katherine Dienes-Williams, a Trustee of the RCO and also Organist and Master of the Choristers at Guildford Cathedral, hears from RCO Members about how playing the organ has changed their lives, and what membership of the RCO has meant to them.

Organist Kevin Bowyer gave the first UK performance of Xenakis’ organ piece Gmeeorh. He discusses aspects of performing this remarkable piece, with excerpts played at the organ of St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City.

The art of accompanying a choir, and conducting (or ‘waving’) at the same time, is explored by Simon Williams, a Director of the RCO, and also Director of Music of Harrow Choral Society.

Director of Oundle for Organists, Ann Elise Smoot, explains how the Organ Voluntary developed as a new form of organ music, in the context of the new liturgy of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century England.

RCO Chief Examiner, Stephen Farr, discusses the significance of Urtext Editions for the practical performer, and comments on the issues surrounding them.

Meantone, Werckmeister, and ‘the wolf’: Cathy Lamb compares temperament systems and explains how they came about. 

Gerard Brooks gives a brief survey of the organ works of Camille Saint-Saens, and describes what made him different from other organist-composers of his time.

In Q is for Quiet, Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick discusses the use of silence in music, and how composers from Monteverdi and Bruns to Franck and Messiaen have used space within music to give meaning.