COP

[Martin Cooke]

There's not much time to prepare anything too complex, but does anyone have some ideas for organ music that might reflect environmental themes? Perhaps it would be useful to assume that I know good hymn preludes on hymns such as For the beauty of the earth. I have Judith Weir's The Tree of Peace half learned, but I'm struggling to appreciate it, if I am truthful. I'm sure there is a transcription of Beethoven 6 out there if I search - (the Scott brothers' website?). Any suggestions? (Just on my way to check out Edward Macdowell - To a Wild Rose etc).

[Rowland Wateridge]

From Five Preludes on English Hymn Tunes: East Acklam (“For the fruits of His creation”), the tune and the Prelude both by Francis Jackson, of course; published in revised edition by Banks, 2019. 

(I have just re-read your rubric, and this may well be one you already had in mind!)

[Martin Cooke]

Thanks, Roland. Yes, this is one of the few FJ pieces I can manage! And I played it at Harvest evensong. (I do revisit FJ's organ music on an infrequent but regular basis, but much of it is a struggle and I don't always feel I dwell on his harmonic landscape. But, in addition to East Acklam his hymn prelude on Love Unknown is delightful and I love the Chorale in Toccata, Chorale and Fugue. I keep meaning to learn the Arabesque from Three Pieces but other things have got in the way. I am sure all organists harbour a fondness for Archbishop's Fanfare!)

I've come to realise that there are all sorts of pieces that would probably qualify for COP, some of them transcriptions - I suppose I'm thinking of 'Morning' (Grieg), 'From the New World' with its Hovis link which must give it some green credentials. And then there are any number of Pastorales including the very beautiful one from Rheinberger 12 - other more obvious ones I'm keeping for Christmas.