Organs, liturgy, and spaces at Lincoln Cathedral before 1702
Magnus Williamson recounts the archival and archeological detective work that has taken place at Lincoln Cathedral, in conjunction with the Byrd quatercentenary. By bringing the building in line with post-Restoration practice in 1702, the Dean and Chapter also ended a spatial arrangement which had once generated the rich pre-Reformation tradtions of organs and voices in ‘alternatim’. The characteristics of the building, and their musical implications, are probed in detail.
Michael Tippett’s shorter choral music
In ‘Michael Tippett’s shorter choral music: some personal reflections’, Nicholas Cleobury has distilled his work on, and with, Tippett over many years into an engaging commentary on some wonderful but often forgotten music.
Thomas Tomkins’s musical antecedents
Marking the 450th anniversary of Thomas Tomkins’s birth, John Caldwell investigates this ‘honest quiet peaceable man’ as one contemporaneous document characterised him. The focus of Caldwell’s study is the keyboard music, and not least how Tomkins reacted to the idioms and techniques he discovered in an important English sixteenth-century manuscript which came into his possession.
Re-editing the English virginalists
Terence Charlston looks at recent editions from the newly founded publisher Lyrebird Music. In this review article he not only reacts to the editorial mission and accomplishment but also stimulates our engagement as keyboard players with the interpretative challenges of the virginalist repertoire.
Music for a Queen
The public were quick to show their appreciation of all the music that underpinned the services marking the passing of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We look at the contributions made in particular by organists, choral directors and composers, including those associated with the RCO from its earliest days.
Stanford’s Six Short Preludes and Postludes, with Andrew McCrea
Andrew McCrea discusses how to approach the organ repertoire question of the CRCO written paper with particular reference to Stanford’s Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Op.101 and Op.105, the set repertoire for July 2022–January 2023.
Performing Purcell’s Voluntary for Double Organ
The most substantial of Purcell’s organ works, the Voluntary for Double Organ has been described as ‘an exuberant product of the English Baroque’. This paper by Desmond Hunter reviews aspects of the notation and considers several issues concerning the work’s performance, set against the background of a more general discussion of the genre.
An introduction to the organ music of England 1730-1830 with Margaret Phillips
A presentation by Margaret Phillips, with Andrew McCrea, on English organ music from 1730-1830.
The Tudor Organ – a film by Magnus Williamson
Magnus Williamson, Professor of Early Music at Newcastle University, presents a film on Tudor organs and organ music, featuring the Wetheringsett organ built in 2002 by Goezte & Gwynn.