Gordon Phillips - Organ Music

[timothyguntrip]

I’ve recently taken delivery of quite a few pieces by Gordon Phillips (Oxford reprints from Banks) which join a fair few others in my collection. Most are fairly small miniatures, although there are a couple of fairly substantial suites and larger pieces. 
 

Not having ever played any of his music before, do any other contributors have any experience of this music? 

 

[S_L]

 

I met Gordon Phillips in the early 70's, one day after a recital her gave at All Hallows by the Tower. I'm told that his Postlude for a Festival is eminently playable but, I think, there is also a big Sonata. As far as I know his compositional output is entirely for organ.

There is a Gordon Phillips Society who may be able to point you in the direction of his other music. He, too it would appear, was influenced into playing the organ by hearing Vierne, in Nottingham, play the Widor Toccata

[Martin Cooke]

Thanks for airing this Tim. I am bound to say that I have struggled to appreciate GP's works over the years. It all began with his Six Carol Preludes which must have been amongst my very earliest purchases in the 70s. It's a long time since I played any of these but I will whip them out and re-appraise them. I do have some volumes of his published by Hinrichsen (perhaps in the Sunday by Sunday series??), but I have never made much of them, I'm afraid. [There are other 60's organist-composers whose works I have recently adopted though. They're in that Novello series with the rather dull grey covers and include the Hurford Dialogues.] 

[Martin Cooke]

OK - well, the Six CPs are definitely worth having out this Christmas! I especially like The Angel Gabriel (using the 'other tune'), and The First Nowell. I found just one other volume of his in the end and this is in the Hinrichsen Advent to Whitsuntide series. I only played through the Veni Emmanuel piece but felt this was worth a proper re-visit. 

There's an awful lot of Christmas material out there and yet for many of us, Christmas is over in a flash, whereas there are always 3 or 4 Sundays in Advent and a good number in Epiphany. I notice though that most cathedrals play the 'Christmas card' as it were right up to The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple in terms of anthems, so perhaps the playing of Christmas organ music can be extended in similar fashion. Is that appropriate? I'm not going to hijack Tim's thread any further - this is meant to just be about Gordon Phillips... so I am just going to open a new one that relates to this.