New Chant

And suddenly, there was a chant! I guess all the chanting I mentioned in my last post have inspired me. When it comes to composing rules I have broken almost every rule there is. I have parallel fifths, parallel octaves, soprano part suggest a G minor ending (while it is G major), and Bach would certainly never used the modulations I have used. On top of this the first half of the soprano part is almost equal to the Evening Hymn by Balfour-Gardiner. Shouldn't I have known better? How can this be any good? The fact is that I think it is. When you put words to it, the music gets a whole new meaning because Anglican chanting is driven by the words. Try it together with e.g. psalm 7 (with the RSCM pointing), and you'll see what I mean.

You'll find my new chant at the Organ Amateur Page by clicking "Music" and "Music by me". You can also access the music here.

Anglican perfection...

Since the arrival of 2007 I've been playing and singing the psalms for each evening as set by The Parish Psalter (RSCM 1989 version) with chants mainly from the RSCM Chant Book (1981). As a guidance to tasteful accompaniment I've been using Church Organ Accompaniment by Marmaduke P. Conway (Canterbury Press 1952). Though I've been using my reed organ at home, I have tried to adapt the pipe organ characteristics.

I had almost forgot how wonderful Anglican chanting really is. This is the very essence of Anglican church music and worship combined. One can not really put a price on a well performed psalm, because it is such a wonderful and important element of Anglican worship. At the same time there is nothing more horrible than a psalm that doesn't follow the rythm of speach, and with a organ that does not allow the choir to bring forth the message of the spalm.

The church musician who does not grasp the concept of Anglican chanting is missing out on a very important dimension, I believe.

Regarding the previous entry...

First thing to remember is that you must have a reed organ of the same make and model as myself in order to make sense of the music.

Still composing

Today I finished my second piece of music written especially for the "The Lakside" Chicago USA reed organ. I do not have an electronic version yet, as it is a demanding job to type the music into the sheet music software. An alternative is to scan the papers, but my music hand writing is not so easy to read, so I doubt anybody will find it any useful. Some day...

THE Messiah recording!

Naxos 8.570131-32 gives you the 1751 version - no female voices, baroque ensamble and all the good music! The countertenor solo is just out of this world!!! My ears are certainly not worthy to receive those devine sound waves emitting from Iestyn Davies' mouth, but I let them anyway, because it gives me such pleasure. Much better than sex, sorry, six pints of English bitter ale! This is THE recording of Messiah you'd want if you want only one recording. It is "just" out, recorded in January 2006.