Peter Williams makes an interdisciplinary study of how we have the organ – in particular how we have it in church, in this article from the RCO Journal of 2011.  In a review of five publications relating to early Christianity and music, he discusses the interaction between Mediterranean technology, church authority, church practice, and function […]

In this paper from the RCO Journal of 2011, Desmond Hunter reviews possible meanings of the grace signs in the sources of English keyboard music from around 1530 to the middle of the seventeenth century.   His argument concludes that the embellishment of this music requires an imaginative approach, rather than reliance on a particular formula. […]

Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) was arguably the most distinguished member of a Nuremberg family, and  among the first of a succession of German musicians to further their studies and stylistic development in Italy. Christopher Kent describes his life and times, with analysis of his organ works, and discussion of registration based on the possible stop […]

The Theewes claviorgan is a Tudor keyboard instrument, and its magnificent case can be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London  The word ‘claviorgan’ is an anglicised form of the Latin ‘claviorganum’—the term for a harpsichord and organ combined in a single instrument. The revival of interest generated by the reconstructions of the […]

This article expands upon a paper given by Jane Flynn at the London Organ Forum on 22 November 2008, and upon other papers she has presented for the Early English Organ Project.  It analyses Tudor organ versets in the light of techniques of improvised descant against chant, and shows that they are closer in style […]