Early English Organ Project
Where to hear them
The Wingfield organ is currently housed at Brasenose College, Oxford. Brasenose's Graduate Director of Music, Nicholas Prozzillo, who is also an RCO Member, writes as follows:
"The King’s Hall and College of Brasenose were founded by the Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton in 1509 for the study of sophistry, logic, philosophy and, above all, theology. Brasenose was the last college to be established before the English Reformation. It is, therefore, appropriate that Brasenose has been able to mount a residency for the Wingfield organ as part of the college’s quincentenary celebrations. The reconstructed Tudor organ looks and sounds splendid in Brasenose's ante-chapel. We are most grateful to Andrew McCrea and Dominic Gwynn for their support.
The organ has been used to provide voluntaries for College Prayers, and it will be used more frequently during the services next term. We hope to establish a series of services from the Michaelmas Term in which organ scholars (from the University) will take charge of organ and choral music to adorn the liturgy. These services will provide organ scholars with a wonderful opportunity to explore the repertory appropraite to the Wingfield, create their own faburden if they wish, and learn how this early instrument may have been used before the Reformation.
Members of the RCO are most welcome to visit Brasenose and hear the instrument. Please contact Nicholas Prozzillo at nicholas.prozzillo@music.ox.ac.uk. We also look forward to school visits. A visit from New College School will take place shortly."
The Wetheringsett organ now resides at Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road, London SW7, where it is being used by the church in services and for education work, and by students in the organ and historical performance departments of the Royal College of Music. Tim Roe, Organist of Holy Trinity and an RCO Member, reports on the church's activities:
"The larger EEOP organ is in the 'north' aisle of Holy Trinity through 2009. It looks completely at home in this, the last of Bodley's designs, and is in line with the stern gaze of the architect's memorial effigy. The building's iconography features 29 angel musicians, of which four are playing portatives. The position is not ideal for integrating the organ into liturgy, but we had some Verbum supernum prodiens versets together with chanted verses during Advent, and we are going through the obvious verse anthems on a regular basis (Mundy: Helpless wretch; Byrd: Teach me; Weelkes: Give ear; Morley: Out of the deep) tackling all the knotty transposition issues. Either of the Principals provides much more sound to challenge the singers than the resident 'positif' which they are used to. A bare bones organ part of only two voices has often sufficed, and adjusted for the balance problem. I'm keeping scribbled transposed organ parts, done on train journeys, to make up a dossier for future use. It is a 'Matins' church, so the finest opportunities seem to lie around the Te Deum, in Sarum style. We've had the anonymous setting from the Gyffard partbooks (choir), and are going through the three organ alternatim settings in Stainer & Bell's Early English Church Music Vol. 6, edited by John Caldwell, when there is a reduced choir.
The position is also not very convenient for before/after voluntaries (given processional hymns), but with a little compromise Sweelinck, Scheidemann, and Byrd are supplying some magnificent moments, and attracting more people to hang around to both listen and to admire the artistry of the churchwarden on the bellows beams. Used to hearing only Edwardian 'organ fog' from a distant machine, the people are mesmerised by hearing clarity and articulacy, made visible. The new fingering patterns, which the keyboard demands, have to be within a gentle sort of activity on the keys so the action doesn't clatter and the speech consonants of the pipework don't constitute most of the music. It is astonishing how the instrument leads you on, with no teacher necessary.
Two schools are booked for visits, with more showing interest, and for these there is an 8'-4'-2' positif beside the Wetheringsett, trackered to the same pitch level and tuned to the Schlick temperament, so kids can hold the long chant notes in some of this repertoire, as well as being beam-monkey, and learning a lot about organ technology from the crates of spare pipework conveniently to hand at this venue.
'Easy access' is the key to this residency, and I hope people will have no hesitation in trying to arrange visits on Thursday or Friday evenings, preferably with their own human resource to raise the wind at the bellows though we can sometimes help with this. Concerts with the instrument start on Ascension Day, 21 May, at 7 pm when the church's plainsong group and professional septet will survey music of the Office. A regular series of concerts will commence in September. www.htsk.co.uk e-mail: tim.roe@talk21.com
A report on RCM activities will be given in the next issue (October) of RCO News."