Graham Barber makes an appraisal of the origins and characteristics of Henry Smart’s (1812-79) compositional style, and identifies his most compelling works, in this article from the RCO Journal of 2013. It includes an annotated catalogue of Smart’s organ output, from the generally difficult concert pieces to easier works designed for divine service or pedagogic […]

William Russell gained high regard both as a musician and a man, as his obituary of 1813 shows, but his music has since been relegated to inconsequentiality, with the exception of some of his Anglican chants and organ voluntaries.  Gillian Ward Russell examines William Russell’s life and times, and discusses his organ music. Written at […]

Paul Spicer discusses the music he has spent a lifetime espousing – the choral music by the composers who reinvented the musical wheel in this country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a genre which, in the right hands, could stand up and be counted, holding its own in any company, given a […]