GMCD 7225 You can order this CD in our E-Shop under Instrumental/Music for Organ Reviews ***Sound Clips***	Wondrous Machine Organ Works by Arthur Wills The Organ of Tonbridge School Chapel Jeremy Filsell - Organ  www.jeremyfilsell.com

Contents:

DDD Total Time = 77:37 Recorded: Tonbridge School Chapel, 24 October 2000

1. CARILLON ON "ORIENTIS PARTIBUS"
This is a brilliant toccata, first recorded by myself at Ely in 1976. It was commissioned by Dr. Lee H. Bristol Jr., a noted former President of Westminster Choir College, NJ. USA, for a collection of Hymn Tune Preludes. In medieval times "Orientis Partibus" was commonly known as "The Song of the Ass" because it was customarily sung at a service following Christmas where the Flight from Egypt was commemorated by having a mother and child ride an ass into church, down the aisle to the high altar. In recent times it has become more associated with Easter, often used for the hymn "Christ the Lord is risen again".

2. SONG WITHOUT WORDS (In Memoriam Sergei Rachmaninov)
I had for some time pondered the idea of a transcription of Rachmaninov's beautiful "Vocalise" for solo organ, before eventually deciding to compose a homage with some reference to his inimitable idiom. "Song Without Words" was begun in Ely on 7 June 1994, continued whilst flying to the USA over the North Pole, and completed and premiered (as an encore) in St. Andrew's Cathedral, Honolulu on 22 June 1994. It is dedicated to John McCreary, the then Organist of St. Andrew's.

3. PRELUDE AND FUGUE (ALKMAAR)
A memorable date in my recital career was the 16th July 1971, when I played a "Cheese Market" concert on the remarkable Arp Schnitger organ in St Laurens Kerk, Alkmaar. The enthusiasm of the Dutch audiences for organ music came as a revelation (one plays the programme twice - at 11.00 and again at 12.00 - both times to an equally large and enthusiastic audience!). I had originally  included in my programme a Prelude and Fugue composed in 1963, and somewhat in the French idiom. About three weeks before my Alkmaar concert I happened to discuss the programme with my Assistant, Roger Judd. He helpfully pointed out that the Alkmaar organ possessed a manual and pedal compass which ceased at D - thereby effectively ruling out my Prelude and Fugue. Given this information I composed a work expressly designed to exploit the superb tonal resources of the Schnitger instrument, which I also intended to be a homage to the North German school of organ music, especially indepted to the multi-sectional fugal idiom of Buxtehude and his adherants.

4. SCHERZO-FANTASY: 'THE ELY IMPS'
Composed in 1994, this work was suggested ny a reference by Dean Charles Stubbs, in his 'Ely Cathedral Handbook', to The Choir:- 'On the south side at the junction of the labels of the first and second arches of the choir is the curious grotesque known as 'the Ely Imps', concerning which the following lines have been written:-
"Ely imps you see,
Pickaback imps in glee,
With the wings of a bat
And the grin of a cat,
Making mock at you and me,
Sing nonny ho, nonny he,
Oh what fools poor mortals be!"
The piece is based on the plainchant Sequence used on the Feasts of St. Etheldreda which I have used in three other works - Missa Sanctae Etheldredae for Choir and Organ, and two solo organ works: Symphonia Eliensis (composed for the opening of the rebuilt Cathedral organ in 1976) and Etheldreda Rag.

5. WONDROUS MACHINE! A Young Person's Guide To The Organ - (Variations and Fugue on a theme by Henry Purcell) Narrator - Arthur Wills
(1) Introduction (2) Intrada (3) Theme (4) Scherzo (5) Nocturne (6) Trio
(7) Chorale (8) Rag (9) March Macabre (10) Sultry Song (11) Fanfare
(12) Lullaby (13) Interlude (14) Finale
This work was sketched out towards the end of 1995, the Tercentenary of Purcell's death. In his 1692 Ode, 'Hail, bright Cecilia, Purcell sets a poem by Nicholas Brady which exults in the superlative majesty of the organ above all other instruments; "Thou summs't their diff'ring Graces up in One, And art a Consort of them All within thy self alone." Each of my Variations demonstrates a characteristic organ sonority in accordance with Brady's "Diff'ring Graces".

6. ARIOSO AND INTERMEZZO (FROM FIVE PIECES)
Composed during 1961, the Five Pieces were published in 1963 and dedicated to Ralph Downes. The Arioso is largely based on material from the slow movement of the orchestral Symphony which I submitted for my Doctoral degree at the University of Durham in 1958. The Intermezzo offers a contrast, full of glittering sonotities and rhythmic displacement.

7. SCHERZO: 'HIGH HILLS AND STONY ROCKS'
David Salter is Director of Music at St. John the Baptist Church, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, and he studied the organ with myself during his undergraduate years at Cambridge in the 1960's. He has commissioned many works from me, and this one celebrates the addition of several new mutation ranks on the Positive manual of the organ at his church in 1990. The sparkling character of the new stops suggested the scherzo-like mood of this music, and also brought to mind some verses from Psalm 104:- "The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats: And so are the stony rocks for the conies."

8. VARIATIONS ON A CAROL
Composed in 1965, these Variations take for their theme the first of Three carols also composed in that year - "I sing the birth was born tonight". My Composer's Note states:- "The revival of organ building based on great classical models of the past has restored to many instruments characteristic organ timbres which are are not available on many instruments built in the first half of the 20th century. The present work is an attempt to exploit many of these colours in a systematic way, rather as the French classical composers did in their Suites and Masses. Many of the movements could have been given such titles as 'Flutes', 'Recit de Nazard', 'Basse de Trompette' and so on, and the whole work should be approached in this spirit of homage to classical French organ music." There are eleven variations.

9. THE NEW MILLENNIUM RAG
This is based on three hymn tunes associated with these texts:-
(1) 'O God our help in ages past' (2) 'God moves in a mysterious way'
(3) 'A safe stronghold our God is still'.
This is a very different treatment of the Rag idiom used in Variation 8 of "Wondrous Machine" and instead of the piano idiom found in that, I had in mind a celebration of the birth of ragtime and jazz in New Orleans 100 years ago. The bands that Louis Armstrong grew up with would frequently play in funeral processions, and the improvisatory and frequently dissonant textures of this idiom inspired my treatment of the material. It was composed in 1999.

10. POSTLUDE
One of the earliest of my compositions, the Postlude dates from 1959 - the same year as Missa Eliensis and the Introduction and Allegro. The inspiration obviously derives from Vierne and the sound-world of the Cavaille-Coll organ.  There are two themes; both are used canonically and then in combination. It is allowable to add the interval of a second to the final right hand chord!

Page revised Friday May 25 2007