Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yet another busy and hectic weekend, on Saturday especially as I spent the morning playing for the Parliament Choir in St. Albans before trekking across London, down to Guildford and playing for the performance of the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle by the Occam Singers. On Sunday morning I was playing at Mary Abbots, a diet of Flor Peeters despite the posters’ proclamation of a performance of my Si Diligitis Me, while St. George’s performed the Missa Seria.

The rhythm of my weeks appears to be settling down to writing, lecturing and choir training, while the weekends are concerned mainly with playing. At times over the past couple of days I have felt that I was running to keep up, but thankfully my fingers are still in decent shape, able to get round most of the notes.

As the voluntary after Sunday morning’s service I played the Toccata from Percy Whitlock’s Plymouth Suite, and was quietly pleased with the number of people who approached the organ to ask what it was. Whitlock is a name only barely known, even to organists, but his music has genuine charm, and it is usually thoroughly fulfilling to play, engrossing but wonderfully laid out for the instrument. I play a couple of other pieces by him, although I think I am getting too old and lazy to tackle his Sonata, more’s the pity. Were I still an organist who composed things might be slightly different, but my priorities lie slightly elsewhere.

The next performance of my work will be the first performance of The Lord Is My Light on the evening of the 4th November at Southwark Anglican Cathedral, the piece currently in rehearsal. I have also spent this morning tidying up some small details in He Makes His Messengers Winds in preparation for its first outing in December, while the manuscript at the top of the pile is Why Should We Not Sing?, something I am optimistic of getting finished by the end of the week.

There are also two other pieces to be prepared for competitions, but the pressures of time are slightly more forgiving on these, so they will come afterwards. Meanwhile there is still much to be done.