Leeds Organists' Association

A warm welcome to the first of our Online Organ Recitals for the Autumn Term! We will be sharing an organ recital each Friday throughout the term, with a wonderful variety of music played by the Minster's regular recitalists Alexander Woodrow, David Houlder and Christopher Newton. We hope you enjoy these performances and look forward to perhaps welcoming you in person to a live recital at Leeds Minster in 2021! Today's programme is as follows: i) Sonata No. 3 in A major - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) (Con Moto Maestoso; Andante Tranquillo) ii) Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV 537 - Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) iii) Grand Choeur in G - Theodore Salome (1834 - 1896) Next Friday's recital will be given by Minster Sub-Organist David Houlder, with music by David German, Robert Cockcroft and York Bowen. Like this recording, it will be shared at 1.00pm on this YouTube channel (Music from Leeds Minster). Our links: Subscribe to the YouTube channel 'Music from Leeds Minster': https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-MSsiMVr4eRlfXzYnIF6Dw?view_as=public Leeds Minster Website: http://www.leedsminster.org/ Leeds Minster Choir Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChoirofLeedsMinster/

A warm welcome to the second of our Online Organ Recitals for the Autumn Term! We will be sharing an organ recital each Friday throughout the term, with a wonderful variety of music played by the Minster's regular recitalists Alexander Woodrow, David Houlder and Christopher Newton. We hope you enjoy these performances and look forward to perhaps welcoming you in person to a live recital at Leeds Minster in 2021! Today's programme is as follows: i) Festive Trumpet Tune - David German (b. 1954) ii) Soliloquy - Robert Cockcroft (b. 1951) iii) Fantasia in G minor Op. 136 - York Bowen (1884-1961) Next Friday's recital will be given by Dr Christopher Newton, with music by Cecilia McDowell, William Wolstenholme and Henri Mulet. Like this recording, it will be shared at 1.00pm on this YouTube channel (Music from Leeds Minster). Our links: Subscribe to the YouTube channel 'Music from Leeds Minster': https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-MSsiMVr4eRlfXzYnIF6Dw?view_as=public Leeds Minster Website: http://www.leedsminster.org/ Leeds Minster Choir Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChoirofLeedsMinster/

In Organcast 15 I’m playing music by Valente, Franck, Fleury, Widor and Karg-Elert on the 1869/79 Schulze organ at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley. I’ve edited together excerpts from two concerts I gave in 2014 as part of the celebrations to mark the ‘Grand Départ’ of the ‘Tour de France’ from Leeds, hence the predominance of French music. But first I play a piece by the Renaissance Italian composer, Antonio Valente, his 'Tenore del Passo e Mezzo' (Naples, 1576), six brilliant variations on a chord sequence. Then comes a relatively unknown piece by César Franck, his Andantino in G minor, dating from 1857, a delightful confection featuring a jaunty tune on the Oboe stop. That’s followed by André Fleury’s evocative Prélude, from Prélude, Andante and Toccata written in 1931/2; and then another set of variations, the first movement (Allegro vivace) of Widor’s Symphony No.5 published in 1876. Finally, I’ve allowed myself the indulgence of an encore, not French this time, but Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s indulgent ‘Valse Mignonne’. This will be the last of the weekly Organcast series, but I shall publish further performances from time to time. To get alerts when I upload something new you can subscribe to this channel for free if you haven’t already done so. Many thanks for watching and listening to this and all the previous Organcasts, and congratulations for surviving the surfeit of online offerings. Let’s hope we can get back to live performance soon! Here’s a summary of the programme: Antonio Valente (c.1520-1581?) Tenore del Passo e mezzo (Six variations on a dance theme) César Franck (1822 – 1890) Andantino in G minor André Fleury (1903 – 1995) Prélude , from Prélude, Andante and Toccata Charles-Marie Widor (1844 – 1937) Allegro Vivace, from Symphony No. 5 in F minor Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877 – 1933): Valse Mignonne, Op. 142 (II), No. 2 Played by Graham Barber on the Edmund Schulze organ (1869/79; Binns 1905; Harrison & Harrison 2004) at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley, West Yorkshire, U.K. (www.armley-schulze.co.uk; www.stbartsarmley.org.uk)

In Organcast 14, I’m playing music by Haydn, and by the contemporary English composer, James Brown. First, six of Haydn’s pieces for ‘flute-clock’ (Flötenuhr), written in the early 1790s, including material drawn from or shared with his own string quartets and symphonies. Haydn collaborated with the talented priest, musician and engineer Joseph Niemecz (Pater Primitivus) who had been appointed librarian at the Esterházy court in 1780, and who was a skilled barrel organ maker. He built at least three flute-clocks in the late 1780s and early 1790s, with an increasingly wide range of notes. In Haydn’s autograph for the Allegro in F, he notates the precise scale of 32 notes available, as provided in Niemicz’s most sophisticated clock, with the widest range. To begin, two pieces in C, a Minuet based on the third movement of the String Quartet Op.54, No. 2; and then a Fugue. I’ve added the middle, C minor Trio section to the Minuet, as found in the String Quartet, though it wouldn’t have been playable on the earlier flute-clock for which it was written, because of the smaller selection of notes (only 16 or 17), and its longer duration (it could only last one complete revolution of the barrel!) Next, a pair of pieces in G major: an Allegretto in G; and a Presto adapted from the String Quartet, Op.64, No.5 (originally in D). After that, another Minuet in C, this time from Haydn’s “Clock” Symphony, No.101, though it’s not the movement from which the symphony acquired its nickname. And finally, the Allegro in F major mentioned above, adapted from the Symphony No.99 in E flat. After that, I play a piece by my former colleague at Leeds University, James Brown, one of numerous compositions of his that remain unpublished. This is his Capriccio for organ, written in 1965, and revised in 1989. It has three sections: the first in declamatory style, with eccentric rhythms and piquant harmonies; the second, delicate and mellifluous; and then a fast, rhythmical finale, leading to a return of the opening material. That’s followed by an arrangement by the 19C. English organist, James Stimpson, of the theme and four variations from Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet, Op.76, No.3, featuring the Austrian National Anthem, written by Haydn. The transcription was published around 1850/60 by d’Almaine in the ‘Organist’s Standard Library’, 24 volumes of pieces ‘being selections from the Great Masters and consisting of pieces hitherto unpublished in this country, edited and performed at the Town Hall, Birmingham by James Stimpson, organist of the Town Hall, St.Paul’s etc. etc.’ I hope you enjoy the programme. Thankyou for watching and listening! Here’s a detailed summary: Franz Josef Haydn (1732 – 1809) Selection of six pieces for flute-clock (“Flötenuhr”): (1) Menuet (Allegretto) in C major (Hob. XIX: 9), adapted from String Quartet Op.54, No.2 (iii) [C minor Trio from the String Quartet added] (2) Fuga (Allegro assai) in C major (Hob. XIX: 16) (3) Allegretto in G major (Hob. XIX: 27) (4) Presto in G major, adapted from String Quartet Op.64, No.5 in D (iv) (5) In C major (Hob. XIX: 29), adapted from the “Clock” Symphony No.101 in D (iii) [Menuetto: Allegretto] (6) Allegro in F major (Hob. XIX: 32), adapted from Symphony No. 99 in E flat (iv) James Brown (1923 – 2004) Capriccio for organ (1965, rev.1989) Franz Josef Haydn (1732 – 1809) Poco adagio, cantabile, (ii) from the “Emperor” String Quartet, Op. 76, No. 3 in C, arranged for organ by James Stimpson (1820 – 1886) [Variations on ‘Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser’] Played by Graham Barber on his house organ built by Grant, Degens & Bradbeer (1976), restored Goetze & Gwynne (2018).

In Organcast 13 during the Covid-19 pandemic, I’m playing music by J. S. Bach, Hubert Parry, and the German composer and scholar, Wolfgang Stockmeier (1931 – 2015). First, Bach’s incomplete Fantasia in C, BWV 573. All we have is a fragment of 12 bars in Bach’s hand, before the manuscript breaks off. In this completion by Stockmeier, the work is expanded to 107 bars to create a grand, multi-sectional movement in ritornello form. That’s followed by Stockmeier’s own Toccata VII, which I commissioned in 2004, for the re-opening of the restored Schulze organ at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley (Leeds, U.K.), in memory of Geoffrey de Coup-Crank. Wolfgang Stockmeier was a great inspiration to me, not just as a phenomenal organist, but also as a kind, modest and warm-hearted human being. He composed a vast body of work (around 300 opus numbers), including organ, choral, orchestral and chamber music. His compositional style was uncompromisingly modern, but at the same time expressive, with an acute sense of texture, melody and harmonic nuance. In Toccata VII, ruminative outer sections enclose an animated central section, in which a jaggèd and insistent ostinato dominates the musical discourse. After that comes another of Bach’s incomplete pieces, his Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 562. Although the Fantasia is complete, and is often played alone as the Fantasia ‘in 5 parts’, the fugue fragment breaks off in the middle of bar 27. Again, Stockmeier has provided a fluent and convincing solution extending to 102 bars. That’s followed by his organ transcription of two movements from Hubert Parry’s ‘English Suite’ for Strings, ‘Air’ and ‘Frolic’. I hope you enjoy this programme of music from three different musical periods. Thankyou for watching and listening! Here’s a summary of the programme: Fantasia in C, BWV 573: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) (completed Stockmeier) Toccata VII (2004): Wolfgang Stockmeier (1931 – 2015) Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 572: J. S. Bach (completed Stockmeier) (i) ‘Air’ and (ii) ‘Frolic’, from English Suite for Strings: C. Hubert H. Parry (1848 – 1918) (transcribed Stockmeier) Graham Barber plays his house organ, built by Grant, Degens & Bradbeer (1976), restored Goetze & Gwynne (2018): I Chimney Flute 8’, Principal 2’; II Stopped Wood 8’, Flute 4’; Ped. Gedact 8’, Principal 4’; II/I

In Covid-19 lockdown Organcast 12, I’m playing music by the seventeenth-century Danish composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637 – 1707), and by the contemporary British composer, Martin Stacey (b.1975). Buxtehude spent most of his life as organist at the St. Marienkirche in the North German free city of Lübeck. He wrote copious amounts of choral music, and a significant body of organ music, of which the nineteen surviving Praeludia (Preludes) form the core. First, I play three pieces by Buxtehude in other forms: a Canzonetta in G, with an engaging, repeated-note theme; a Passacaglia in D minor, in which the ostinato bass theme modulates to F major, then to A minor, before returning to the home key; and finally, an infectious fugue in C, in which, towards the end the music seems to get stuck in a repeating groove. In German, the word 'praeludieren' exists as a verb, literally ‘to prelude’. What it denoted historically was a free, improvisatory style, with many rhetorical elements, in imitation of theatrical speech. The theoretical term for this was 'Stylus Phantasticus'. A typical North German Praeludium has five sections: free fantasy, Fugue 1 (in strict time), free fantasy, Fugue 2, and free fantasy, like a double fugue sandwich. Perversely, Buxtehude’s Praeludium in G minor has seven sections: four free sections interspersed with three fugues. In his 'Praeludium in stylus fantasticus' Martin Stacey adopts the five-part template, as well as appropriating many of the characteristic fingerprints of the style; however, he inflects them with a modernistic language that creates a novel perspective on the antique form. You can download a copy of this piece from www.martinstacey.com, as well as finding out more about his wider oeuvre and organ recordings. Thanks for listening and watching! Here’s a summary of the programme: Dieterich Buxtehude (1637 – 1707) 1. Canzonetta in G major, BuxWV 171 2. Passacaglia in D minor, BuxWV 161 3. Fuga in C major, BuxWV 174 4. Praeludium (manualiter), BuxWV 163 Martin Stacey (b.1975) Praeludium, in stylus fantasticus Graham Barber (organ) House organ by Grant, Degens & Bradbeer (1976), restored Goetze & Gwynne (2018)

Music recorded on the organ of Leeds Cathedral.

Andrew Bryden, Director of Music at Ripon Cathedral, plays the Introduction - Choral from Léon Boëllmann's well-known Suite Gothique.

Ethan Kendrick plays the Ciacona in F minor by Pachelbel. Ethan is one of the youngest members of the Association, a chorister at Ripon Cathedral and is having piano and organ lessons with Tom Coxhead (Assistant Organist at the Cathedral). On this video, he is playing a virtual instrument at home.