Category Archives: Let the music sound

21 Let the music sound December 2017

The Choir, St John the Divine, Kennington, sings Christmas music

The church of St John the Divine, Kennington has a flourishing music programme which includes separate Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs and the Consort, a choir for older children and teenagers. Here, the Choir of adults sings two popular Christmas settings.

http://www.sjdk.org/page/2/welcome-st-john-divine-kennington

 

Lionel Bourne   Organist & Director of Music

 

Ding Dong! Merrily on High

In Dulci Jubilo

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20 Let the music sound October 2017

Andrew Chadney plays Fiocco (1703-1741) at St Stephen, Norbury and Thorton Heath 

Joseph Hector Fiocco was born in Brussels to an Italian father in 1703. He was principally a violinist and worked for a time at Antwerp Cathedral. His surviving music includes a volume of pieces de clavecin. A simpler version of this ‘Andante’ is included.

This arrangement I play is  by Noel Rawsthorne who sets the piece for a solo with a continuo accompaniment. I found this in a Mayhew book of wedding music which I’ve had for some time.

The original (I presume) version is on  IMSlp as a harpsichord piece. What I haven’t been able to find out is whether Rawsthorne or Fiocco developed it into the version I played.

Hear and see the performance (which last 5 mins) by clicking here

Details of the organ are given on the NPOR link which  is http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D08220

Andrew Chadney

(Andrew is currently the Chair of the Society – Ed)

 

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19 Let the music sound September 2017

Sarah Best plays Concerto in G major (Ist movement) Prinz Johann von Ernst 

I am a free-lance organist from North London, and a long-standing member of the Society. I  am also an accompanist for the London Transport Choir.

This transcription of a Violin Concerto in G was originally attributed to JS Bach, but was later found to be by Prince Johann Ernst of Sachsen Weimar.

He sadly died aged only 18 from a leg infection, in spite of this, he left a significant number of compositions.

Bach’s arrangement makes use of a double pedal part, and is written in two contrasting voices.

You can hear the recording  by clicking here . It lasts just under 5 minutes and was made at the Penge Congregational Church in Februry 2017.

More information about the church and the organ is given here

 

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18 Let the music sound August 2017

Samzu Agbaje plays Sonata in C minor (1st movement) by Johann F Fasch 

Click the picture to hear me play at our Composite Recital in February 2017 at the Penge Congregational Church. The piece last just over three minutes and has a slide show of churches from across the world.

I am an engineer by day, and am the Organist of Tulse Hill Methodist Church, where I managed the recent installation of a reconditioned, extension pipe organ. I study with Marilyn Harper.

The trio is the first movement of a longer church style sonata, formerly attributed to JS Bach, known to organists as BWV 585. It is light and elegantly lyrical rather than contrapuntally dense. I learnt this trio movement in order to develop full left hand independence, a skill required by all organists.

The organ at Penge has the following spec http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=P00484

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17 Let the music sound June 2017

John Webber plays the Overture from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (4 min)

This was the final piece from John’s recital at St Stephen, Walbrook in February 2017.

Click the picture  and hear the music.

 

 

 

 

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16 Let the music sound April 2017

Bridget West plays Suite on Sagina Concertino, Toccatina for the Flutes by Christopher Tambling

This performance was done at the 2017 SSLSO Consolidated Recital at the Penge Congregational Church.

Bridget West is the Assistant Master of Music at St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood.

Christopher Tambling left Christ’s Hospital a couple of years before Bridget joined the school. From there he went to Canterbury Cathedral and St Peter’s, Oxford, before taking up his first teaching post at Sedbergh School.

The Suite dates from his time at Glenalmond College (1989-97), with movements dedicated to his parents, his wife, Sara, both his sons, Edward and Benjamin, as well as Great Aunt Winifred.

The six movements, all pastiche- Concertino, Toccatina, trio, Aria, Fugue & Chorale and Tuba Tune – are beautifully constructed around the hymn tune Sagina. They are charming, and fun, and work well individually or collectively.

Click here to hear the music (5min).

The organ is a Lewis and the details are here

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15 Let the Music Sound November 2016

Norman Harper plays at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark

outsideSt George’s Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Southwark Archdiocese and the seat of the Archbishop of Southwark. Visit our webiste at www.stgeorgescathedral.org.uk

The original cathedral was built in the 1840s by the Gothic revivalist Augustus Welby Pugin, and opened in 1848. St George’s Cathedral was destroyed in April 1941 by an incendiary bomb, which gutted most of the cathedral building, but left Clergy House largely intact. It was rebuilt in 1953-8 by Romilly Craze, incorporating Pugin’s surviving chantry chapels; but, as with the original, money ran out before the tower and spire could be completed.

The musical tradition at St George’s is based on two chorister groups, girls and boys, who are trained to sing Masses on their own or together with our team of professional Lay Clerks.  The combined repertoire extends from the 12th   century Hildegard von Bingen to Duruflé, Britten, O’Neill, Tavener and Ives, taking in on the way Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, Byrd, Haydn, Mozart, Vierne, Fauré and many others.

On certain occasions in the year the choirs combine, for example during Passiontide and Easter, Christmas and at some diocesan events They have appeared on BBC TV three times at Christmas Midnight Mass, and this coming January they will sing on Radio 4’s Sunday Worship. 

Organ recitals have been a feature of our musical life, though at present we are confining recitals to resident organists, as the 1958 Compton, though a very fine instrument, is becoming less reliable, pending major work. See the spec by clicking here or going to http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N12637 to see the history.

front-windowThe next recital will be given by Norman Harper on Saturday 17 December 2016 at 11.00 and will comprise Messiaen’s beautiful Christmas meditations La Nativité du Seigneur.  (Norman is also playing at  the Christs-Chapel-of-Gods-Gift-at-Dulwich on the 12th March 2017.  See the Notification page as more information becomes available -ed)

Other choirs and musical groups enjoy performing in the superb acoustics of St George’s, including Morley College, the Holst Singers and Libera.

I  demonstrate the organ by playing Herbert Howells’ Rhapsody Op 17 No 1. Click the stained glass window to hear him play this beautiful piece (6 mins) or here.

Norman Harper

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