2nd November
Before the service Lamento Op 24 - Marcel Dupre
Offering  Improvisation - MS
After the service  "Placare Christe Servulis", No 16 from Le Tombeau de Titelouze Op 38 – Marcel Dupre 

9th November  (Remembrance)
Before the service Elegy - C Hubert H Parry
Offering  Nimrod from the Enigma Variations Op 39 - Edward Elgar
After the service Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV 537 - J S Bach

16th November 
Before the service Improvisation Op 174 No.6 - Josef Rheinberger
Offering  Improvisation - MS
After the service Kleine Preludien und Intermezzi No.6 - Hermann Schroeder

23rd November 
Before the service Three Cathedral Preludes - Arthur W Pollitt
Offering  Improvisation - MS 
After the service Sortie on "Laus Deo" - Norman Gilbert

30th November 
Before the service Pastorale - Domenico Zipoli
Offering  Improvisation - MS 
After the service Fugue in E flat BWV 552 ii - J S Bach

Marcel Dupre (1886 – 1971) was one of the most prominent of the twentieth century Parisian organist, serving the Church of St Sulpice, (which provided the architectural model for Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh), first as assistant to Charles M Widor and then from 1934 as Organist until his death in 1971. He wrote much music in many forms including a considerable quantity for his own instrument. The Lamento is a piece suitable for the Feast of All Souls which is today and the plainsong upon which Dupre bases his toccata-like conclusion to his Op 38 collection is the one appropriate for the Feast of All Saints which was celebrated yesterday.

Hubert Parry (1848 – 1918) came from a privileged background being educated at Eton and Oxford. He initially worked for Lloyds the insurers, but gave up commerce to devote himself solely to music and specifically composition. He was the first Director of the Royal College of Music in South Kensington and hugely influential upon those he taught. The Elegy was written for the funeral of the Earl of Pembroke who had died on the 7th April 1913.

J S Bach’s (1685 – 1750) Fantasia and Fugue in C minor is among the more dramatic and solemn examples of his organ music, being written in a sombre key and with a secondary fugue subject which lends itself to chromatic treatment. Edward Elgar produced an orchestration of it which has recently become quite popular. As the two sections are too long for church use, I am playing a shortened version of the Fantasia, but the Fugue will be complete.

Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901) was one of the most important German composers of the nineteenth century, but in Britain only his organ music became widely known, although he composed in every conceivable genre. In addition to twenty Sonatas for the organ, he composed about a hundred short pieces of which the Improvisation is one. They were grouped together in collections such as the Twelve Pieces Op 174 from which it is taken. Like all of Rheinberger’s music, it is well crafted and superbly laid out for the medium.

Hermann Schroeder (1904 – 1984) studied at the academy in Cologne and after two years as cathedral organist in Trier, he became a professor of music theory and later Director of the academy. Some feel that the neo-classical school of mid-twentieth century music was somewhat bland or tended towards outdated pastiche, but Schroeder’s music seems to me to suggest neither. The Preludien und Intermezzi are comparatively early and all are short, but stimulating pieces in a variety of moods.

Arthur Pollitt (1878 – 1933) was born and died in Liverpool, although he was a former chorister and sub organist at Manchester Cathedral. He returned to Liverpool and became Organist to the Church for the Blind and later of Hope Street Unitarian Church. He edited an edition of Gustav Merkel’s Organ Sonatas and wrote a number of pieces including a Sonata in C minor, which is on a substantial scale.

Norman Gilbert (1912 – 1975) was a pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow, whose music I will be playing at the beginning of next month. He served as an organist at Llanduddno before moving to Headlands Grammar School in Swindon where he taught for 25 years. Most of his organ music was intended for service use and many, like the present example, were based on hymn tunes.

Domenico Zipoli (1688 – 1726) was a pupil of Allessandro Scarlatti and Bernardo Pasquini and was organist of the Jesuit church in Rome. He eventually took holy orders and in 1717 went to South America (Argentina) as a missionary. His Pastorale is his best known piece and an edition appeared in London of his organ music in 1722, an indication that they must have been highly esteemed. He also published music for the harpsichord.

Bach’s Fugue in E flat was particularly well regarded in Britain where it was known as “The St Anne”, because of the similarity of the opening notes of the fugue subject to Dr Crotch’s hymn tune of the same name, which is sung to the word “O God our help in ages past”. The fugue is in three sections, each of which is said to represent a person of the Holy Trinity, Bach’s treatment of his material being a musical portrait of the doctrine. This concludes one of Bach’s few works which were published in his lifetime, the third part of the Clavierübung.