The aim of interNational Organ Day in April 2021 was to restore the organ in the public’s consciousness to its former position central to music making across the world. The celebrations went online with the onset of lockdown, and they can still be enjoyed via YouTube. Here’s how The Organ Show was born, with links to some notable highlights.

A full listing, with links, of the Learning during Lockdown series, which ran as a series of 16 bulletins throughout 2020.

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.

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.

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

There are of course differences between individual grand pianos, and cellos, and flutes, but of all musicians, organists have to be the most prepared to adapt, often at short notice, to enormous variation in the size, shape and scope of their instrument. This month’s Learning during Lockdown focusses on the instrument and its builders, and how all this variety came about.

THE ENGLISH ORGAN is a series of films and recordings made by Fugue State Films, telling the story of the English organ and its music, over five hundred years.  In these three final films Daniel Moult takes the discussion from the nineteenth into the twentieth century, with performances of Stanford, Whitlock, and Patrick Gowers on historic organs.

THE ENGLISH ORGAN is a series of films and recordings made by Fugue State Films, telling the story of the English organ and its music. In these three films, Daniel Moult looks at the beginnings of English organ building, playing Byrd, Purcell and Handel on three historic organs.

In a series of special films Daniel Moult discusses the history of organ-building in England, and demonstrates the diversity of organ types, with appropriate music.  This first film takes an overview of the development of the English organ, from Tudor beginnings to the present day.