Something more dramatic for the feet
I’ve been following Michael Johnston of @michaelsmusic on Twitter for a while, and I had to share a recent tweet about his reprint of Dramatic Pedal Studies by Hamilton Crawford Macdougall (1858-1945) in which the parts given to the…
Hummingbird – a fresh take on music notation
It’s hard enough learning a new instrument, but mastering notation at the same time can make music just too much of a struggle for youngsters. Blake West and Mike Sall in Austin Texas have come up with an alternative notation,…
Five questions for…Anne Page
Born in Perth, Australia, Anne Page studied with Marie Claire-Alain in France, and with Peter Hurford in Cambridge – teaching as his deputy at the Royal Academy of Music for several years. She made her London debut at the Royal…
Sight read the pedals
Following my recent moan about sight-reading resources, Mark Ellis of atticbooks drew my attention to Sight-Read the Pedals! by Richard Ellis. Eighty short pieces for organ sight reading: the pedal line starts with just two notes (C and F) and…
The low-down on temperaments from Carey Beebe
Carey Beebe is a globe-trotting harpsichord maker, based in Sydney Australia, and I recommend his website to organists if they really, really want to get to grips with tuning and temperaments. He explains the Pythagorean comma before launching into a…
The Bulletproof Musician
I have Ruth Brons (@things4strings on Twitter) to thank for a link to The Bulletproof Musician, a blog solely about sports psychology for musicians, from Dr Noa Kageyama. He suggests ways to develop courage and confidence, discusses mental practice, slow…
Cherry Wainer with Don Storer
Every time I visit YouTube for worthy exponents of the classical organ repertoire, I get sidetracked. Here’s the best organist with a poodle on the bench ever – Cherry Wainer. Cherry was very busy in the 50s and 60s, and…
Everything Else An Organist Should Know
The authors of this book, Robert Leach and Barry Williams, cheerfully describe it as a dog’s breakfast of law, accounts, science, theology, regulation and received wisdom. They are being modest – it’s an essential guide to all those aspects of…
Playing Elgar – with Dr Christopher Kent
Elgar’s image-consciousness could put many modern celebs to shame. As photography got into its stride at the turn of the 19th century, he posed for the camera as the dapper country gent (above) or the distinguished composer about to dash…
Jane Watts
I foolishly passed up an opportunity in February to hear Jane Watts in London, and now I’m kicking myself, after listening to her on Spotify. Her technique is so fluent that nothing gets in the way of the music, which…
Go away, I’m practising
There’s something about an organ being played – like a traffic accident or a crime scene – that draws a crowd. Some excellent organists simply do not play in public, and I understand where they are coming from. If your…
Classical composer timelines
Was John Blow a contemporary of Albinoni? Find out with these classical composer timelines from Classical Net which you can download for free as pdfs. They helped me put all those Baroque composers in their rightful place when studying Bach…
Organlive and Positively Baroque
Thank you to Lillian’s students in NJ for a link that led me to US internet radio station Organlive.com, devoted to the classical organ. It’s great for background listening – they’re streaming Bach right now in honour of his birthday. …
Welcome
Organists are, by and large, a reticent bunch. We like to grumble, but we seldom complain. We know why we play, but we don’t talk about it much*. Maybe it’s because our chosen instrument is so darn difficult – after…
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