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Welcome to a roundup of information and links, which is a way of keeping in touch with members, not only while Life is Weird, but something to do in any case, to keep us together.

Miscellaneous:

1. I have attached the quiz form the last newsletter, with the answers (here).  This was just for fun, to keep you on your toes; some will have found it easy and others will have had to research.

2. Remember that the Royal School of Church Music and the Royal College of Organists have been providing regular e-mails not only to members and affiliated groups, but to anyone who wants to have frequent contact with, e.g. daily and weekly hymns and services, tuition online and so on.

3. Our own website (at sslso.org) has plenty to read: views, facts, past and future meetings  –  and you can hear sixty organ pieces played by our members.   Another word of thanks to Martin Callingham for looking after the website for several years now; the baton (or whatever) has been passed to Sam Gover, or will be within the next few days.

4. BBC Radio 3 has had to rethink its schedule recently, with loads of cancelled concerts.  Two positive things now: the last two weeks of the Prom Concerts will take place (i.e. early September) with reduced forces performing and, I imagine, with no live audience.  Also, from yesterday (Monday, June 1st.), live lunchtime concerts (1p.m. for an hour) are being broadcast from the Wigmore Hall in Mondays to Fridays during June.

June and July meetings:

1. Saturday, June 6th was to have seen our outing to Thaxted and Saffron Walden in North Essex, which both sound like a dream to visit just now!  We certainly aim to try again to include events which have been postponed and your Committee will meet (virtually) later this month to consider what can be done.   In place of the trip to Essex, we had a discussion on Zoom at on Saturday, led by Norman Harper and hosted by Ashley Valentine.  Please see a note of the event here.

2. The meeting on July 4th, with Richard Pilliner, has been postponed and we’ll let you know about this and other planned events as time goes by.

Links to sundry pieces of music:

1. I received this from Reg Boulton from the Bexley Association:  https://youtu.be/A_i8qdfW5u8

2. From Charlie Warren, former SSLSO members and a one-time student of mine:  some observations, followed by a performance of two Brahms Chorale Preludes: Op.122, No.2 here, and here.  Then Op.122, No.3 here and here.

3. An interesting take on Ravel follows here.

You are welcome to offer your own links and thoughts and I’ll send another letter out in a few weeks.  If you want to record a piece of music and send it to me, do!

Best wishes, John

Good to be in touch!  Thanks to members and to the organisation of our Committee, I now have the privilege to chair SSLSO, with the particular support of Richard Pilliner (Vice-Chair), Andrew Chadney (Secretary) and Peter Ramell (Treasurer).  Peter is also Membership Secretary.  The Committee will have its next meeting by Zoom on June 28^th.  Let me know if you’d like anything brought to our attention.  The Committee is hugely talented and we did have great plans for the rest of the year, so hopefully some will be able to take place!

I’ll now be sending out a newsletter every month, possibly more often.  (Occasionally colleagues will send it out.)  It will contain a mix of news and information, plus other things which may crop up, such as links, some less serious than others.  Andrew and Peter will send out messages relevant to their roles and Richard will send out a “recital round up”, once that that the phrase has a meaning once more.  Newsletters will go out to a representative of three other local societies and they will keep us on their missives.  You are invited to send items to any of us, for inclusion in our e-mails.  I’d prefer links to attachments, please.

Do please visit our website: sslso.org.  Our thanks have already been recorded to Martin Callingham for maintaining the site and he is rightly stepping back after a long time.   You can see articles by members Marilyn Harper and David Wakefield, plus recordings of sixty organ pieces.  The home page lists plans for the rest of 2020.  The Royal College of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music are sending weekly e-mails, to which non-members can have free access at present.  I recommend that you look at these, as there is much on offer, not only musical advice and “webinars” on offer, but the RCO is providing news about access to organs in churches during the current pandemic.

I have attached a quiz; nobody has to do it and there are no prizes; it’s just for fun, especially while many people have extra time available!  The answers will go out in the next newsletter, in three or four weeks’ time.

The next three meetings:

Andrew has been in touch about May 23^rd, so do respond if you are interested;

for June 6^th. there is a proposed outing to North Essex, which Norman Harper is still checking out, so we’ll come back o that;

on July 4^th. Richard Pilliner will do a session for us either in Penge or by Zoom, so that’s something else to let you know about.

From the newsletter of the Bexley and District Association:

From the Parish of Friern Barnet’s Dictionary of Musical Terms:

• Anon – composer of many 16^th. century anthems, sometimes wrongly attributes to Tallis, Byrd, etc.
• Bridal March – Signature tune to Horse of the Year Show.
• Chant – old English spelling of “can’t”, which is what the choir say when asked to do it.
• Descant – one of two nuisances in church, the other being pigeons.  A descant is a disagreement between choir and congregation about how the music goes.
• Great organ – British version of “fine instrument” known in America as “swell organ”.
• Ground Bass – what you might call a “basso profundo” after being run over by a steam roller.
• Handel’s Largo – 18^th. century great German taste for the great British thirst
• Handel’s “Messiah” – lesser known Prelude to the “Hallelujah” chorus.

(There is more…..)

And, as SW4 is part of our patch, here is one solution to the limerick which Bexley members were invited to complete:

There once was an organist from Clapham
Whose choir thinks she’s a bit of a madam.
The sops she berated,
The tenors she slated.
As they often sang flat in the anthem.

(From Lydia Gray)

Some links to see:

• May Morning at Magdalen
• Typos (offered by Peter Smith) 
• Organ music recorded mainly at home by Niall Baxter, a colleague of mine at St. John’s Church, East Dulwich
• A recent online version of Tallis’s “Spem in alium”
• Finally, an up-to-date version of an operatic piece.

You are welcome to respond or to generally keep in touch.

With good wishes,

John

John Webber