Church organists and what to teach them

This download from the RCO Academy suggests ways of preparing a student for a church post, and providing support for the amateur student who is already a church organist.  Even if students think they will never want to play in church, there are still important skills to be acquired in learning to play hymns and […]

The changing face of Church Music Society publications

The Church Music Society (CMS) was founded in 1906 ‘to facilitate the selection and performance of the music which is most suitable for different occasions of Divine worship, and for different kinds of choir’. Richard Lyne reviews the history of the Society’s publications from the early twenty-first century, and notes how the publishing policy and […]

The use of organs in English hymnody from the Reformation to the present day

Attitudes towards the use of organs to accompany the congregational singing of hymns and metrical psalms varied dramatically across the centuries and from place to place. Religious zealots denounced them as vainglorious ornaments, whilst musical reformers advocated their use to impose order on undisciplined singing. This makes an account of the subject problematic since almost […]