Martin Cooke

The quote here was on the back of Paul commenting upon some George Oldroyd music. Does anyone know any of Walter Vale's compositions? Novello seem able to reproduce a Prelude in G minor in 7/4 time, but it would be helpful to have a comment or recommendation before splashing out. Actually, for once I have just remembered to check 'Henderson', and it seems that this is the only published work. Any thoughts? And while we're at it, how about some more 'luxuriant adagios'? I think I have a few up my sleeve. To get us re-started, how about... Rheinberger... Pastorale from Sonata 12, and 'Scandinavisch' from Sonata 16 - very appropriate this weekend as tomorrow and Sunday are national days for Denmark and Sweden. (A good opportunity to wheel out some Gade, too! That splendid Fantasia on Lobe den Herren, for example - though not a luxuriant adagio!

Something caused me to look back at this topic, and I thought I would mention that, 16 years on wince the original post, Rowley's Four Winds is available on imslp.

Yes, that widens the scope brilliantly.

It was a considerable responsibility for a 12/13yr old. I discovered, after processing in for evensong one weekday, that the copies of the anthem had not been put out from the cathedral stock by Taffy - and so with not that much time to resolve this problem which was not of my making, and unable to communicate mid-service with Taffy, the Vicar Choral in charge of the music library in the cathedral, I had to go and find the Head Boy's key to the 'back door' of the cathedral, let myself out, race back to the school to collect the choir school copies, and get back to the cathedral and distribute both sides of the choir in time for the anthem. This was all around the time when Christopher Dearnley was new - his second year, perhaps. Lots of the music was new and thus we had to look some way ahead to make sure copies of new music were ready for use in the Choir School. CHD once gave me a list of things to collect from the cathedral librarian. On it was something we couldn't read. 'Seiber Man' was all we could make of it. Who or what was Seiber Man? On seeking clarification it turned out we were going to be singing Matyas Seiber's Missa Brevis - so it was 'Seiber Mass!' Great times!

Were you i/c the choir school music library at SPCCS, by any chance, Robert?

Thanks for that S_L - I fear I was guessing!

... yesterday's (Sunday 16th May) superb Evensong from York Minster - Wood in E flat No 1, but, more importantly, a wonderful rendition of Finzi's 'God is gone up' with choir and organ in top top form. It's here. And... the last of Sam Bristow's all-Mendelssohn recitals from St Paul's. He includes the splendid Allegro, Chorale and Fugue as the finale. Here. And I think I am going to bring Mendelssohn's Trio in F major into my repertoire as well. If you missed Simon Johnson's recital last Sunday (6th May) which included Reger's big BACH piece, it's here. What a piece! What a player! I fear my copy is in the loft - (the water tank sort of loft, not an organ loft) - but I juggled between reading the score on imslp and watching Mr Johnson in action and I was agog. The St Paul's organists have done brilliantly with their online recital series celebrating 150 years since the 1872 Willis. I am lucky to have on my phone, close up pictures of the stop jambs from a visit there a few years ago - and so although one can't read the stop heads in the recital recordings, from their position on the jambs one can work out what's in use - especially on the right hand jamb. Less easy on the left where the camera is but you can guess and some of the dome pedal reeds are easy to discern. Sorry, a bit geeky, that! I could post the pics, I suppose, and then everyone could play the game!

Mmm... I don't think so. The footnote on page 138 of Carols for Choirs 3 makes clear... "the original piano accompaniment adapted for organ by David Willcocks." If he had composed (as opposed to arranged) a whole introduction with accompaniment, surely, it would say that. And also, I am sure I have seen and sung the whole thing, as it were, in a separate pamphlet in my youth.

Thanks S-L. Lovely to see.

Greetings and welcome, Andrea. As well as finding Walford Davies' version of O Little Town in Carols for Choirs 3, you can find some of it here in cpdl. I don't think you will find the full version with the solo verses online because of copyright so Carols for Choirs 3 is your best option. I'm sorry that I can't help with The holly and the ivy. As you will have seen, his copyright materials are all covered by his trustees who, in the ordinary way of things, might have been able to help, but I don't know who they are. I do just wonder if you might approach The Temple Church in London where he was functioning as organist in 1913... or, better still, perhaps you could try to contact Jeremy Dibble who is his biographer - see here. I would have thought he would know the answer to this if anyone does. I would try him as your next step. His email address is in that link. Best of luck!

Mmm... this is more of a task than I was expecting - he wrote a lot, and there are sometimes several pieces by him in each of the Mayhew volumes. In his weekly newsletter from Church Organ World, Dr Keith Harrington says that RHL had pieces in 44 of their volumes and that he wrote over 600 pieces of music. That's some output. I did start a personal reappraisal of some of the organ music yesterday and can only say that out of, say, ten I played through, I would have recommended eight. I shall keep going because I am playing a lot of music at church at the moment and there are clearly many delightful miniatures to enjoy and savour. I had forgotten a lovely piece called Recollection, for example - worth seeking out - and was taken by surprise by, I think, four contributions to a volume of music in the style of Lefebure-Wely, which could be very useful as crowd-pleasers at recitals, perhaps. If you have Mayhew albums that have slipped into disuse, this could be the moment to re-evaluate their contents as you look for a gem by Richard Lloyd. By the way, I recommend Keith Harrington's weekly mailing. Yes, of course, he's keen to sell Makin, Johannus, Rodgers and Copeman Hart instruments but you will remember that COW took on the Allegro Music stock, and in that capacity, Keith reviews and draws attention to new publications which might otherwise pass us by. I guess you just need to contact him via the Church Organ World website to get on the emailing list.

I would be interested in any recommendations of organ music of his that would be good to play. I have played his - Recollection, Sweet Sorrow, and hymn preludes on Melita and Ratisbon but not recently enough to pass comment without looking them up... which I will do shortly. His Church Parade was published (as is lots of other organ music of his) by Mayhew a long time ago and I have played that sometimes around Remembrancetide. In one Mayhew volume there is a piece by him dedicated to 'the organist at Odstock' who is Richard Seal. If I get a spare hour in the coming few days I will undertake a bit of an analysis of what I have by Mayhew - I have also just ordered (from Oxfam) a second hand copy of a Mayhew volume that has one or two of his pieces in.

Bravo for bringing that to us, Rowland - and... well, yikes!!

See the Radio Times, too, where Joanna Forbes L'Estrange has written to complain about the non-identification of the four singers and RT has attempted to put it right.

Is this the same recording by FJ that was used on 'The King of Instruments', or did FJ record it twice? I don't remember the Tuba sounding so unregulated, but my 'fi' was hardly 'hi' in those days. I just lay on the floor in front of my mother's mono record player.

Oh dear, the Tuba sounds awful in that recording! By coincidence, the Cocker was the voluntary at Canterbury's evensong on Saturday or Sunday... but it sounded as though the new Ophicleide stop might have been used instead of a Tuba. It didn't come over as well as the York performance (because of distance from the microphone, I suspect) despite a couple of tuning issues.

You may want to keep a close eye on Peterhouse as they are due to 'rebuild' their organ sometime soon and are fundraising for it. It sounds an 'interesting' project. In the meantime, I am sure you are practising assiduously for your audition! Many years ago, at James Lancelot's audition at King's with Sir David Willcocks, he was required to improvise with a right hand solo on the Nazard transposing down a twelfth, and sight read Brahms' Schmücke dich with the treble part played on the pedals on a 4 ft reed, amongst other things! Heck! But I repeat what I said before - that you should look at the people you will be working with and try to get a feel for what the choir gets up to especially if tours, recordings, visits to cathedrals etc all become possible again soon. I am sure you are getting good advice from school.

Welcome back! I wouldn't make this choice all about the organ but think about who you might get to work with and what the opportunities are at the different colleges. Quite a lot of the best ex-Oxbridge organists around over the last 50/60 years played fairly humble instruments whilst at university.

In answer to yourt query about how many of the pieces are organ, Dafydd... Intrada - two stave - marked for piano or organ Prelude in D flat - piano Pavane Nos 1, 2 & 3 - piano Slow Air - piano or harpsichord - (it looks as though it could work very well on the organ but I haven't tried) Carol - piano In the Style of a Sarabande - piano Sarabande - piano From a Holiday Sketchbook - piano A Little Lyric Piece - piano On a Birthday Morning - piano Serenade - piano Envoi - piano Musical Box - piano On the Triad - marked piano or organ From an Organ Sketchbook - organ (unsurprisingly!) Arioso - organ - the most substantial (longest) piece in the volume Three Pieces on Hymn Tunes - organ On Norman Cocker's 'Ryburn' - organ On Gibbons' Angel's Song - organ We have already used the word 'charming' in respect of the Gibbons piece but it is an adjective that applies to the production of the volume too. There is a very good introduction by John Turner, of Stockport, whose project it was to get it all into print (by subscription) and it is interwoven with delightful line drawings by a John Stanley of scenes from Cornwall where Douglas Steele spent a good deal of his holiday time composing this volume of largely miniatures. It is actually called 'Volume 1' and Mr Turner, in his introduction refers to 'these volumes.' There is a Volume 2 and this is a collection of songs by DS and I haven't purchased it.

Yes, 'charming' is just right - though, as it happens, when I needed a piece based on that tune at church recently, I needed something with more 'oomph' and used the Dyson - not the vacuum cleaner, you understand - Dyson, as in George, and 'in D.'

Thanks, Brizzle - it was 'Henderson.'

Does anybody have any idea how I might possibly get hold of a copy of the Prelude and Fugue on the name of BACH by GC Martin, sometime Sub Organist and then Organist of St Paul's Cathedral ? It was published by Novello but it is invisible online.

Thanks, Thierry - I haven't listened to everything yet, but I enjoyed the Toccata and it was good to hear the Prelude en La again.

Thanks Wolsey - so, we're going for Laus Deo as that is the custom with the two local lodges affected. They can't sing, of course, but I will play the verses and then add 'So mote it be' at the end. So, Wolsey, ought I to play this in the same key or will they expect to hear me move to C major (from G) for that?

Thanks, everyone, for your contributions. I have heard a couple of melodies for 'so mote it be' and I think I am aiming for John Morris's version as quoted. But I am still waiting to hear what tune the local masons are familiar with for the hymn. In a youTube version of all of this, they sing the hymn /ode to St Oswald and then wrench themselves into a different key for the 'mote it be' which sounds most odd. I shan't be doing that. So, if we're going for St Oswald in D major, I shall be going for D, B, C sharp, D. and if 'Laus Deo'... G, E. F sharp, G... which shouldn't be too far from the mark! Not, of course, that anyone can sing this!