Kevin Bowyer
Encyclopedia
Kevin John Bowyer is an English
organist
, known for his prolific recording and recital
career and his interest in playing unusual, modern
and extremely difficult compositions.
and learnt the piano accordion
and organ
as a child. When the church where he practised refused to let him carry on practising, he says: "I went and had a key cut to the church and I got in anyway." At St. Mary's Church, Twickenham
, where he was organist, he managed to confuse the congregation in a way similar to that of Bach
by playing Malcolm Williamson
's Vision of Christ-Phœnix to conclude a confirmation: "the outcry there was at the AGM and in the parish magazine!". He attended Cecil Jones High School in Southend, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music
from 1979 to 1982 with organists Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
and Douglas Hawkridge, harpsichord
ist Virginia Black, and Paul Steinitz
. After graduation, he studied for two years with David Sanger
after winning a Countess of Munster
scholarship. When given a list of music to prepare at his first meeting with Sanger, he didn't realise that it was a term's work and had learnt it all by the next week.
While a student, he performed the complete organ symphonies
of Charles-Marie Widor
, Louis Vierne
and Marcel Dupré
(none of which he has yet recorded), and the complete organ music of Olivier Messiaen
. He was able to do this because, he says, "When I was 21, I developed a technique that allowed me to learn a French organ symphony every month" and "always started at the end and then worked backwards." His debut recital was at the Royal Festival Hall
in 1984.
He has won the following competitions, though he says "the standard hasn't been all that impressive":
He has performed and broadcasted all over the world, and has released around ninety recordings, including all of Bach
's organ music for the Nimbus recording label. His recital
repertoire
is enormous and ever expanding; in an article restricted to Europe
an organ music of the twentieth century
, he mentions over one hundred composer
s whose music he has played. Though he sees contemporary music as his 'vocation
', he plays organ music from the Renaissance
and Baroque
periods onwards, and has shown an appreciation for the qualities of historical instruments in such music.
He is the only person to have played and recorded Kaikhosru Sorabji's First Organ Symphony.
He was organist of the Parish of Warwick
from 1989 until 1998; during this time, he taught around the country for the St Giles International Organ School. In 2005 he was appointed university organist at the University of Glasgow
(with access to the Harrison & Harrison
/Willis
organ in the University Memorial Chapel
), while continuing his teaching career at the Royal Northern College of Music
in Manchester
and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
in Glasgow
. New projects include the annual Glasgow International Organ Festival and Glasgow Piepworks series of recitals of new music
for organ.
On learning music, he says: "I practise bits and pieces of it over and over again until my finger
s are moving faster than my brain
, then I home in on what is difficult and link these with the easier passages, but the easier passages are still no less learned than the difficult ones. Sometimes it's necessary to practise for twelve to fourteen hours a day, during which you need to keep your mind alert." A particular example has been when he had to learn Niccolo Castiglioni
's Sinfonia Guerriere et Amorose, 41 minutes of "nearly unplayable music. [...] I set my mind to encompass it in an eight-day learning period, a frame-work the piece naturally slipped into."
Aside from playing the organ, he reads modern literature
, especially James Joyce
, Samuel Beckett
and the Powys family
. He is a lover of real ale and malt whisky
, and lists his favourite recreation as "sleep
ing". He also enjoys the odd pinch of snuff.
Since 2008 he has been able, with the support of the Glasgow University Trust, to be engaged almost exclusively in preparing for performances of Sorabji's three organ symphonies, the difficulty of which are considerable:
The lengths are also considerable: the Second Symphony alone is an hour longer than Messiaen's complete organ music put together. The Second Symphony is intended to be performed in 2010 and the third in 2013 in Glasgow
— though there have already been several postponements due to the incredible difficulty of learning the pieces — and recordings are to be made by Altarus Records
. He is also preparing new editions of the scores for publication.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
organist
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
, known for his prolific recording and recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
career and his interest in playing unusual, modern
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
and extremely difficult compositions.
Biography
He sang in a choirChoir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
and learnt the piano accordion
Piano accordion
A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...
and organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
as a child. When the church where he practised refused to let him carry on practising, he says: "I went and had a key cut to the church and I got in anyway." At St. Mary's Church, Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, where he was organist, he managed to confuse the congregation in a way similar to that of Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
by playing Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
's Vision of Christ-Phœnix to conclude a confirmation: "the outcry there was at the AGM and in the parish magazine!". He attended Cecil Jones High School in Southend, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
from 1979 to 1982 with organists Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
-Biography:He was a chorister in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, and went on to study organ and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was taught by Arnold Richardson and Richard Rodney Bennett. His made his debut at the Camden Festival in 1966; his first major recitals were at...
and Douglas Hawkridge, harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
ist Virginia Black, and Paul Steinitz
Paul Steinitz
Paul Steinitz OBE was a pioneer in the post-war interpretation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded the London Bach Society and Steinitz Bach Players in order to put his scholarship into practice, performing all Bach’s cantatas in mainly London venues over the space of 29...
. After graduation, he studied for two years with David Sanger
David Sanger
David Sanger is the name of:* David Sanger * David Sanger * David E. Sanger , White House correspondent for The New York Times...
after winning a Countess of Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
scholarship. When given a list of music to prepare at his first meeting with Sanger, he didn't realise that it was a term's work and had learnt it all by the next week.
While a student, he performed the complete organ symphonies
Organ Symphony
This page lists the best known Symphonies for solo Organ and Symphonies for Orchestra and Organ. Organ concertos are not listed here.- Edward Shippen Barnes :...
of Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher.-Life:Widor was born in Lyon, to a family of organ builders, and initially studied music there with his father, François-Charles Widor, titular organist of Saint-François-de-Sales from 1838 to 1889...
, Louis Vierne
Louis Vierne
Louis Victor Jules Vierne was a French organist and composer.-Life:Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers, Vienne, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but at an early age was discovered to have an unusual gift for music. Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French...
and Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...
(none of which he has yet recorded), and the complete organ music of Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
. He was able to do this because, he says, "When I was 21, I developed a technique that allowed me to learn a French organ symphony every month" and "always started at the end and then worked backwards." His debut recital was at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in 1984.
He has won the following competitions, though he says "the standard hasn't been all that impressive":
- St Albans International Organ FestivalSt Albans International Organ FestivalThe International Organ Festival is a biennial music festival and organ competition held in St Albans, England since 1963. Originally held annually, it was changed to every two years in 1965 due to the complexity of organising the increasingly ambitious programme...
1983 - neither 2nd nor 3rd prize was awarded that year - OdenseOdenseThe city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.Odense City has a population of 167,615 and is the main city of the island of Funen...
International Organ Competition 1990 - PaisleyPaisleyPaisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
International Organ Festival 1990 - Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival 1990
- CalgaryCalgaryCalgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
International Organ Festival 1990
He has performed and broadcasted all over the world, and has released around ninety recordings, including all of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's organ music for the Nimbus recording label. His recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
repertoire
Organ repertoire
The organ repertoire consists of music written for the organ. Because it is one of the oldest musical instruments in existence, written organ repertoire spans a time period almost as long as that of written music itself. The organ's solo repertoire is among the largest for any musical instrument...
is enormous and ever expanding; in an article restricted to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an organ music of the twentieth century
20th century classical music
20th century classical music was without a dominant style and highly diverse.-Introduction:At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing...
, he mentions over one hundred composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s whose music he has played. Though he sees contemporary music as his 'vocation
Vocation
A vocation , is a term for an occupation to which a person is specially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity.-Senses:...
', he plays organ music from the Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
and Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
periods onwards, and has shown an appreciation for the qualities of historical instruments in such music.
He is the only person to have played and recorded Kaikhosru Sorabji's First Organ Symphony.
He was organist of the Parish of Warwick
Warwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
from 1989 until 1998; during this time, he taught around the country for the St Giles International Organ School. In 2005 he was appointed university organist at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
(with access to the Harrison & Harrison
Harrison & Harrison
Harrison & Harrison Ltd are a British company that make and restore pipe organs, based in Durham and established in 1861. They are well known for their work on instruments such as King's College Cambridge, Westminster Abbey and the Royal Festival Hall....
/Willis
Henry Willis & Sons
thumb|250px|St Bees Priory organ, the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis, 1899Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in Liverpool. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other...
organ in the University Memorial Chapel
University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel
The Memorial Chapel at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, was consecrated on 4 October 1929, and is dedicated to the memory of the former students and staff of the University who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. It is located in the West Quadrangle of the Main Building of the...
), while continuing his teaching career at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. New projects include the annual Glasgow International Organ Festival and Glasgow Piepworks series of recitals of new music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
for organ.
On learning music, he says: "I practise bits and pieces of it over and over again until my finger
Finger
A finger is a limb of the human body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates....
s are moving faster than my brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
, then I home in on what is difficult and link these with the easier passages, but the easier passages are still no less learned than the difficult ones. Sometimes it's necessary to practise for twelve to fourteen hours a day, during which you need to keep your mind alert." A particular example has been when he had to learn Niccolo Castiglioni
Niccolò Castiglioni
Niccolò Castiglioni was an Italian composer, pianist, and writer on music.Castiglioni was born and raised in Milan, where he began studying piano at the age of 7. He received his performer's diploma from the Milan Conservatory in 1952, and graduated there in composition in 1953...
's Sinfonia Guerriere et Amorose, 41 minutes of "nearly unplayable music. [...] I set my mind to encompass it in an eight-day learning period, a frame-work the piece naturally slipped into."
Aside from playing the organ, he reads modern literature
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
, especially James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
and the Powys family
Powys (surname)
Powys is a Welsh surname and may refer to:*John Cowper Powys, writer, lecturer and philosopher*Llewelyn Powys, essayist, brother of John Cowper, Philippa and T.F.*Philippa Powys, novelist and poet, sister of John Cowper, Llewelyn and T.F....
. He is a lover of real ale and malt whisky
Malt whisky
Malt whisky is whisky that is made from a fermented mash produced primarily from a malted grain. Unless otherwise specified, it is generally assumed that the primary grain is barley, although whisky is also made using malted rye...
, and lists his favourite recreation as "sleep
Sleep
Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...
ing". He also enjoys the odd pinch of snuff.
Since 2008 he has been able, with the support of the Glasgow University Trust, to be engaged almost exclusively in preparing for performances of Sorabji's three organ symphonies, the difficulty of which are considerable:
The lengths are also considerable: the Second Symphony alone is an hour longer than Messiaen's complete organ music put together. The Second Symphony is intended to be performed in 2010 and the third in 2013 in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
— though there have already been several postponements due to the incredible difficulty of learning the pieces — and recordings are to be made by Altarus Records
Altarus Records
Altarus Records is a classical music record label.-Featured pianists:* Donna Amato* Joseph Banowetz* Charles Hopkins* John Ogdon* Jonathan Powell* Ronald Stevenson* Adam Wodnicki...
. He is also preparing new editions of the scores for publication.
Recordings
- J. S. Bach: Complete organ works - 29 CDs (17 volumes).
- Jehan AlainJehan AlainJehan Ariste Alain was a French organist and composer.-Biography:Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris, into a family of musicians. His father, Albert Alain was an enthusiastic organist, composer and organ-builder who had studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis...
: Complete organ works. - Johannes BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
: Complete organ works. - Charles-Valentin AlkanCharles-Valentin AlkanCharles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
- Complete organ and pedal pianoPedal pianoThe pedal piano is a kind of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ....
works. - Jean LanglaisJean LanglaisJean Langlais was a French composer of modern classical music, organist, and improviser.- Biography :Jean Langlais was born in La Fontenelle , a small village near Mont St Michel, France...
: Organ works. - Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Julius ReubkeJulius ReubkeJulius Reubke was a German composer, pianist and organist. In his short life — he died at the age of 24 — he composed the Sonata on the 94th Psalm, in C minor, which was and still is considered one of the greatest organ works in the repertoire.-Biography:Born in Hausneindorf, a small...
: Organ works. - Paul HindemithPaul HindemithPaul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, Arnold SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, and Ernst PeppingErnst PeppingErnst Pepping was a German composer of classical music.-Professional career:Pepping studied composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik with Walter Gmeindl between 1922 and 1926...
: Organ works. - Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
: Organ works. - Kaikhosru Shapurji SorabjiKaikhosru Shapurji SorabjiKaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer.-Biography:...
: Organ Symphony No. 1. - Charles CamilleriCharles CamilleriCharles Camilleri was a Maltese composer, long acknowledged as Malta's national composer.Camilleri was born in Ħamrun and, as a teenager, had already composed a number of works based on folk music and legends of his native Malta...
: Organ works. - Alan GibbsAlan GibbsAlan Gibbs is a New Zealand businessman, entrepreneur, and art patron; and one of New Zealand's wealthiest residents. National Business Review magazine estimates his wealth at $450 million.-Career:...
: Magic Flutes: Organ music. - Peter Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell DaviesSir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, Jonathan HarveyJonathan Harvey (composer)Jonathan Harvey is a British composer. He has held teaching positions at universities and music conservatories in Europe and the USA and is frequently invited to teach in summer schools around the world.-Life:...
, and Malcolm WilliamsonMalcolm WilliamsonMalcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
: Organ music. - Philip GlassPhilip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
and Christopher Bowers-BroadbentChristopher Bowers-Broadbent-Biography:He was a chorister in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, and went on to study organ and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was taught by Arnold Richardson and Richard Rodney Bennett. His made his debut at the Camden Festival in 1966; his first major recitals were at...
: Organ works. - Brian FerneyhoughBrian FerneyhoughBrian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
, Wilfrid MellersWilfrid MellersWilfrid Howard Mellers OBE was an English music critic, musicologist and composer.-Early life:Born in Leamington, Warwickshire, Mellers was educated at the local Leamington College and later won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English. At Cambridge, he formed a...
, and John TavenerJohn TavenerSir John Tavener is a British composer, best known for such religious, minimal works as "The Whale", and "Funeral Ikos"...
: Mandelion: Organ music. - Paul FisherPaul FisherPaul Fisher may refer to:* Paul A. Fisher, American author and journalist* Paul Fisher , English cricketer* Paul C. Fisher , American industrialist and inventor of the Fisher Space Pen...
: Organ music. - Arvo PärtArvo PärtArvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
, Sofia GubaidulinaSofia GubaidulinaSofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...
, Einojuhani RautavaaraEinojuhani RautavaaraEinojuhani Rautavaara is a Finnish composer of contemporary classical music, and is one of the most notable Finnish composers after Jean Sibelius.-Life:...
, and Henryk Mikolaj Górecki: Organ music. - Niels Gade, Franz SybergFranz Syberg-Biography:He was born in Kerteminde, Funen, to the painters Anna and Fritz Syberg. He moved to Leipzig in 1922 where he studied composition and music theory at the Leipzig Conservatory with Sigfrid Karg-Elert and Werner Hübschmann...
, Per NørgårdPer NørgårdPer Nørgård is a Danish composer.-Biography:Nørgård studied with Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. To begin with, he was strongly influenced by the Nordic styles of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen and Vagn Holmboe...
, and Carl NielsenCarl NielsenCarl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
: Danish Organ Music. - A Late Twentieth century Edwardian BachBạchBạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
Recital. - In Memoriam John OgdonJohn OgdonJohn Andrew Howard Ogdon was an English pianist and composer.-Biography:Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, and attended Manchester Grammar School, before studying at the Royal Northern College of Music between 1953 and 1957, where his fellow students under Richard Hall...
. - Twentieth Century English Music.
- ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
Organ Music. - For WeddingWeddingA wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
s. - A Feast of Organ Exuberance.
- In Praise of Father WillisHenry WillisHenry Willis was a British organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era.-Early Life and work:...
- the Alcock legacy. - Organ Xplosion 1.
- Dambusters! Organ Xplosion 2.
- The StormStormA storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
. - Five English AbbeyAbbeyAn abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
s.
Writings
- Kevin Bowyer: 20th Century European Organ Music: A Toast, in The IAO Millennium Book, ed. P. Hale, ISBN 095387110X
- Booklet notes to several of his recordings.