CANADIAN ORGAN MUSIC

ON THE ORGAN OF COVENTRY CATHEDRAL RACHEL MAHON CANADIAN ON THE ORGAN OF Healey Willan (1880–1968) Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (1916) ORGAN MUSIC COVENTRY CATHEDRAL 1 Introduction [3:58] 2 Passacaglia [8:53] 3 Fugue [5:35]

Gerald Bales (1919–2002) Petite Suite (1965) 4 Introduction [1:24] RACHEL 5 Intermezzo [3:24] 6 Finale [1:50]

Ruth Watson Henderson (b. 1932) Chromatic Partita (1995) 7 Chorale [0:46] MAHON 8 Variation I [0:53] 9 Variation II [0:58] 10 Variation III [1:25] 11 Variation IV [0:32] 12 Variation V [1:32] 13 Variation VI [1:25] 14 Variation VII [0:50] 15 Variation VIII [1:14]

Rachel Laurin (b. 1961) Symphony No 1 for organ, Op 36 (2008) 16 Prelude [6:19] Delphian Records and Rachel Mahon gratefully acknowledge the 17 Scherzo [6:31] support of the Canada Council for the Arts. 18 Aria [6:36] 19 Toccata [6:47]

Recorded on 2-4 April 2019 Cover photograph © Bo Huang delphianrecords at Coventry Cathedral Design: John Christ @ Total playing time [61:03] Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter Booklet editor: John Fallas 24-bit digital editing: Matthew Swan Location photography: Will Campbell-Gibson @delphianrecords 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK Page turners: Kerry Beaumont, www.delphianrecords.co.uk @delphian_records Corinne Hepburn Notes on the music

Beginning on the evening of 14 November Provost of Coventry Cathedral a cheque The Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, would return in later works. After the stately 1940 and continuing for more than ten hours to pay for a major part of the cost of a new hailed by some as one of the most important exposition of the E flat minor theme (already into the following morning, over 500 organ. It is so fitting, then, that a Canadian organ works of the century, had a strange familiar, of course, from the Passacaglia, Luftwaffe bombers launched an attack of organist, Rachel Mahon – the granddaughter genesis. Stung by a casual remark that only a albeit transformed), a bustling counter- unprecedented scale on the city of Coventry. of two of Willan’s choristers – should record German mind could compose a work of such subject demands to be heard alongside it, Houses, shops, factories and – perhaps most his music and other Canadian works on this complexity and stature as a passacaglia, until a pedal entry re-establishes order. Then shockingly – the city’s medieval cathedral fine instrument, paid for in the main by Willan started to write. It was summer, and a stretto in the tonic major leads to a grand were reduced to piles of rubble by a Canadian contributions. when freed from teaching and playing he culmination – the passacaglia theme on full combination of high-explosive and incendiary would take an odd little train that slowly organ. It is a magnificent finish to a masterly bombs. Perhaps just a little pool of molten Pride of place on this recording is rightly rattled its way up to a cottage on a lake north work. The French organist Joseph Bonnet metal and some charred wood might have given to Healey Willan’s masterpiece, the of , where his family was holidaying. was happy to describe it as the greatest such shown the knowledgeable a trace of the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue. As the train clattered along, he wrote this organ work since Bach himself. remains of the cathedral organ, which was Born in 1880, Willan had a career as an lengthy and complicated work: a couple of completely destroyed. The decision to organist and choirmaster in England, but came sections each way, he used to say! It was an A personal coda to my observations on this replace the cathedral was immediate and to Canada in 1913 to take an organist’s post at incredible background to such a beautifully work may also begin to suggest some of the determined. A striking modern building arose a large Toronto church, as well as a teaching cogent piece of music. Willan followed an manifold connections, personal and musical, in 1962, next to the shattered remains of the position at the Royal Conservatory of Music. outline he had gleaned from Bach and several which thread through a recital programme old – a positive sign of recovery and renewal. He quickly became part of the musical scene, others, including Rheinberger and Reger. such as this. Circles and chains, as and would go on to compose two symphonies, He also owned a copy of a Passacaglia and metaphors, lie beneath the surface of our Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Canadian a piano concerto, an opera, many songs, and Fugue by John E. West, an editor at the lives and history, and the links they picture are College of Organists (later, from 1959, the choral and orchestral works of all types and publishing house Novello, for whom he especially rich here, with Rachel Mahon’s Royal Canadian College of Organists), under lengths. Meanwhile, unhappy at that church, worked as a proofreader. move from Canada to the United Kingdom the leadership of its President Healey Willan, he made a large financial sacrifice, and moved only the latest of several migrations between had started to collect money from its to the much smaller church of St Mary Willan introduced several striking new those two nations which play their part. members, their friends and the public, to Magdalene. There, with the rector – an old elements to the traditional form. There is My own links to Healey Willan go back to my provide funds for the rebuilding of British friend from England – he established a High a sort of delicate cavatina with the theme youth in England, when I first started to play instruments damaged in bomb attacks. Church musical tradition that came to have an above a countermelody, supported by a his organ music. Later, after I myself came A decision was later taken to donate the whole enormous influence in both Canada and the throbbing accompaniment. There is a sinister to live in Canada, I sang many of his choral of this fund to the new Coventry Cathedral. United States. For this church he wrote Dead March; later a gentle Serenade; and a works, listened to his choir and made music So it was that in 1952 Healey Willan, in fourteen settings of the Missa Brevis and peaceful Chorale gives a short respite before with both Rachel Mahon’s parents and England for the first English performance many of the Evening Canticles, besides the Fugue. For this last of the work’s three grandparents. On Willan’s death, I had the of his choral work An Apostrophe to the a series of unaccompanied motets, many broad sections Willan followed a structural honour of succeeding him as organist at the Heavenly Hosts, was able to hand to the of which have achieved great popularity. plan that he had used before and to which he Church of St Mary Magdalene. Before this, Notes on the music whilst compiling a listing of Canadian choral The Petite Suite is typical of his style. Her Chromatic Partita presents a striking air of unrest: semitones grind against one music, I had spent many happy hours The interval of a perfect fourth is omnipresent, combination of old and new. Though hymn-like another, as if searching to establish superiority. working with the to produce allied to a strong rhythmic pulse. And the in its phrasing and textures, the opening Gradually themes emerge, clad in differing a complete catalogue of his compositions, edginess of the harmony seems a perfect ‘Chorale’ features rapidly shifting tonalities organ colours and textures, but there is still and this work continued after his death, as, match to the modernity of the new Coventry which confirm its purely instrumental a feeling of expectancy. A second section helped by his daughter, I took on the task Cathedral, completed just three years before conception, and impart an air of foreboding. increases in speed and adds further colours. of clearing and sorting his manuscripts. One the present work was published in 1965. The subsequent movements gradually The opening theme reasserts itself before the day, opening a cupboard in an upstairs room The ‘Introduction’ shows these features increase in animation, and introduce us to movement subsides to a gentle close with of his house, we were nearly overcome by clearly in its energetic, headlong motion. many of the colours of the organ, while, a procession of peaceful chords. a pile of dusty old papers. Amongst several The ‘Intermezzo’ gives us a lovely melody refracted through the recognisable shapes of interesting sketches, we discovered a fair over a gentle pacing bass line, and stands earlier dance forms, the chromaticism of the The ‘Scherzo’ arrives, bristling with quiet yet copy of the Introduction, Passacaglia and as evidence of Bales’s knowledge of Bach’s title is ever present. The work culminates in a at times almost menacing energy. Fleet of foot Fugue in the much more approachable key arias. The ‘Finale’ bursts with energy: a clear texture which we shall meet again in this recital both figuratively and (for the organist) literally, of E minor, instead of the rather forbidding melody presented in chords shines through the – of rapid alternating chords over a melodic it is a veritable moto perpetuo. Am I being published E flat minor. Markings indicated surrounding figuration. The work is deservedly pedal line, typical of the final movements of fanciful in hearing a few echoes of some earlier that the copy had been played from. I wish popular among Canadian organists. many organ pieces – and lands at the very end scherzi in French organ music, despite the that I had known of its existence when I was on a scorching discord. wholly contemporary harmonic framework …? staggering through this work as a boy! And A generation younger still, Ruth Watson A middle section brings brief respite, but the I wish that I had had the opportunity to ask Henderson was, for many years, a wonderful The youngest composer featured here, driving motion never flags, and the movement Willan about this apparent change of heart. accompanist to both children’s and adult choirs Rachel Laurin was born in 1961 in Saint-Benoît, ends with a welter of fragments of the theme – including Canada’s first fully professional Quebec. Her early studies were in piano and tossed from hands to feet and back again. Gerald Bales was at one time a student of choir, The Festival Singers of Canada, as organ. She became an organ pupil of Raymond Willan’s, providing us with another link in the members of which both Rachel Mahon’s Daveluy and assisted him at St Joseph’s The slightly angular motif of the ‘Aria’ is chain. He served in the Royal Canadian Air mother and I sang to her accompaniment. Oratory in Montreal; she has recorded his five announced on the pedals, hinting at both the Force during the Second World War, and later Henderson has written much charming and sonatas for organ. Later, from 2002 to 2006, rhythm and the melody to come. The melody combined organists’ positions with university also challenging music for choirs of all ages, she was titular organist at Notre Dame shifts ceaselessly throughout the movement in teaching in Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. achieving a solid reputation in this field. A Latin Cathedral, Ottawa. A fine player, she has register, colour and texture, including a strikingly He was a fine recitalist; I have been at several setting of the Missa Brevis has become an performed in concert all six of Louis Vierne’s novel passage in which the treble melody is occasions when Bales gave thrilling important part of the repertoire of those groups organ symphonies. doubled by the pedals far below (an effect performances of Willan’s Introduction, that can negotiate its complexities, and she recalled towards the movement’s quiet end). Passacaglia and Fugue. His own has written several solo organ works – Laurin’s own Symphony No 1 for organ, in compositions show his teacher’s influence, including one, Celebration, which was the expected four movements, was published And to conclude, what else but a ‘Toccata’ with but add a touch of piquancy to the harmony. premiered in Westminster Abbey in 2009. in 2008. The ‘Prelude’ immediately creates an its rapid alternating chords? A short lyrical Notes on the music The organs of Coventry Cathedral theme arrives, only to be pushed out of the way The magnificent fourteenth-century church by a return of the bustling toccata figure that of St Michael, raised to cathedral status in dominates the structure. The movement bursts 1928, was reduced to ruins in an air raid in with energy, propelled by the repeated-chord November 1940. The fine ‘Father’ Willis organ figuration typical of so many French toccatas. of 1886 (identical to that in Truro Cathedral) Laurin has said that this movement was was totally destroyed. composed first as a separate work, but it fits very convincingly as the exciting finale of the The building of a new cathedral presented the symphony. Its exhilarating headlong motion opportunity for a brand new organ to match it. over a hesitant striding bass brings the work – Messrs Harrison & Harrison were appointed and this fascinating recital – to a triumphant in 1952 and a provisional specification drawn close, in a blaze of colour and virtuosity. up. But the 1950s were a turbulent time for organ-building in general. The revolutionary © 2020 Giles Bryant design of the new instrument in the Royal Festival Hall, , and passion running Giles Bryant (BA, ARCO(Chm), FRCCO, high between proponents of the Romantic FRSCM, DSL, D.Litt.S) is a well-known or neoclassical styles, meant much argument Canadian organist and choral conductor. and controversy before the specification He succeeded Healey Willan at the Church of of the new Coventry organ as it stands was St Mary Magdalene in Toronto, and published agreed in 1959: the work of Sidney Campbell the official catalogue of Willan’s works. in conjunction with Cuthbert Harrison. The He later became the Organist and Master of organ is something of a compromise, but in the Choristers at St James Cathedral, Toronto, a busy cathedral where many demands are and has written numerous articles on Canadian placed upon it – recitals, daily services, major organ and choral music. events with capacity congregation – it fulfils its role admirably and there are many who hold it in high regard.

The organ was overhauled and upgraded to include solid-state technology in 1986–7. Specification

Solo Swell Great Choir Accessories Wind pressures Diapason 8 Quintadena 16 Double Diapason 16 Claribel Flute 16 8 foot pistons to the Pedal Organ Solo 4”, except for Orchestral Trumpet 12” Rohr Flute 8 Hohl Flute 8 Bourdon 16 Diapason 8 8 pistons to Solo, Swell, Great and Choir Organs Swell 3½”, except for Contra Fagotto, Viole 8 Viola 8 Open Diapason I 8 Harmonic Flute 8 12 general pistons (8 duplicated by foot pistons) Trumpet and Clarion 5” Viole Céleste 8 Céleste 8 Open Diapason II 8 Gedackt 8 2 general pistons for couplers (duplicated Great 4” Octave 4 Principal 4 Spitzflute 8 Dulciana 8 by foot pistons) Choir 3” Open Flute 4 Spitzflute 4 Stopped Diapason 8 Principal 4 All the above pistons are immediately adjustable Pedal 4½”, except for Bombardon 10”, Wald Flute 2 Fifteenth 2 Octave 4 Rohr Flute 4 at the console Ophicleide and Posaune 4”, Dulciana 3” Sifflöte 1 Sesquialtera II Gemshorn 4 Nazard 2²∕ ³ 1 general cancel piston Mixture IV Mixture IV Octave Quint 2²∕³ Fifteenth 2 1 cancel piston each to Solo, Swell, Great, Corno di Bassetto 16 Oboe 8 Super Octave 2 Blockflute 2 The manual compass is C-c’’’’ (61 notes) and the pedal Choir and Pedal Organs CC-g (32 notes). Tremulant Tremulant Mixture IV Tierce 1³∕⁵ Reversible pistons to Solo/Pedal, Swell/Pedal, Orchestral Trumpet 8 Contra Fagotto 16 Cornet II-V Larigot 1¹∕ There are 74 speaking stops and 21 couplers etc., ³ Great/Pedal, Choir/Pedal, Swell/Choir, Solo/Choir, Orchestral Clarion 4 Trumpet 8 Double Trumpet 16 Mixture V making a total of 95 drawstops. The action is electro- Solo/Great, Swell/Great, Choir/Great, Solo/Swell, pneumatic. Octave Clarion 4 Trumpet 8 Cromorne 8 Pedal Sub Bourdon Unison Off Octave Clarion 4 Tremulant The blowing and humidifying equipment (there are Reversible foot pistons to Choir/Pedal, Great/Pedal, two blowers) by Messrs Watkins & Watson is placed Sub Octave Unison Off Solo/Great Solo/Choir Swell/Great, Solo Great, Pedal Bombardon in a special chamber beneath the high altar. The wind Sub Octave Swell/Great Swell/Choir 1 fixed piston to Solo Organ: Corno 8 is fed to the organ by zinc trunking. Solo/Swell Choir/Great Swell Pistons On Pedal Generals

Pedal Number of pipes Sub Bourdon (Gt) 32 Spitzflute 8 Ophicleide 16 Solo/Pedal Solo Organ 927 Open Wood 16 Twelfth 5¹∕³ Fagotto (Sw) 16 Swell/Pedal Swell Organ 1028 Open Metal 16 Fifteenth 4 Posaune 8 Great/Pedal Great Organ 1037 Diapason (Gt) 16 Rohr Flute 4 Bassoon 8 Choir/Pedal & Cornet 233 Sub Bass 16 Open Flute 2 Schalmei 4 Great/Pedal Choir Organ 1098 Dulciana 16 Mixture IV Kornett 2 combinations coupled Pedal Organ 652 Principal 8 Bombardon 32 Total 4975 Biography Also available on Delphian

Rachel Mahon performs Rachel has won numerous awards and The Organ of Rochdale Town Hall (Overture Transcriptions Vol II) regularly across her native competitions in Canada, including a Timothy Byram-Wigfield Canada and Europe, touring graduating scholarship from the Faculty of DCD34143 as soloist and (with fellow Music, and the Godfrey At its high point, the British town hall organ tradition represented something organist Sarah Svendsen) Hewitt Memorial Scholarship from the Royal entirely new in social, mechanical, aesthetic and commercial terms. as part of the duo Organized Canadian College of Organists. She holds a Rochdale’s extravagantly Gothic town hall is one of the most impressive Crime. Recent engagements BMus degree in Organ Performance from examples of Victorian and Edwardian civic pride, and Timothy Byram-

© Graham© Lacdao include an opening concert for the University of Toronto, where she studied Wigfield has chosen its fine J.J. Binns organ as the vehicle for his second the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and recitals with John Tuttle, and since moving to the UK, disc of orchestral overture transcriptions, following his celebrated 2004 at Toronto Bach Festival, the Royal Canadian she has worked with Henry Fairs at the Royal volume recorded on the organ of the Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow. College of Organists’ National Convention Birmingham Conservatoire. While pursuing her (Kingston and Halifax), the Montreal Organ degree, Rachel was the Bevan Organ Scholar ‘The instrument offers all the orchestral colours and dynamics you could Festival, Orgelsommer Festival (Lüneburg), at Trinity College, Toronto, as well as the wish for in this repertoire, [and] what else makes this recital particularly Westminster United Church (Winnipeg), Principal Organist at Timothy Eaton Memorial appealing is the clarity of texture with which the Rochdale organ is captured Pro Organo (Ottawa), Haderslev Cathedral Church. She has also held organ scholarships by producer/engineer Paul Baxter’ — Gramophone, April 2016 (Denmark), the Summer Organ Festival at St James Cathedral, Toronto and Truro

(Leicester Cathedral), St Lawrence Jewry Cathedral, Cornwall. In 2014 she was named William Faulkes (1863–1933): an Edwardian concert (London) and Trinity College, Cambridge. one of the top thirty musicians under 30 with England’s organ composer in Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Duncan Ferguson She combines her busy recital schedule Corporation. DCD34148 with life as a cathedral musician. In 2018, Rachel took up the post of Assistant Director Having incited critical fervour with his choir’s recordings of music from of Music at Coventry Cathedral, where she John Sheppard to Gabriel Jackson, Duncan Ferguson – when exploring accompanies and conducts the cathedral choir repertoire for a solo recording on Edinburgh’s ‘Father’ Willis – has turned to and curates the organ recitals. Prior to this, she a period of organ music that is seeing something of a resurgence. William was Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral. Faulkes was a leading figure in a generation of organist- whose From 2014 to 2016 she was Organ Scholar at style of writing went out of fashion; music that is melodious, spirited, uplifting St Paul’s Cathedral, London – the first woman – a manifest example of the then national confidence. The St Mary’s organ in the Cathedral’s 1400-year history to hold has the ideal colour palette for Faulkes, and Ferguson revels in music that an organist’s post there. speaks from and of the golden age of organ concert-going. ‘Ferguson knows the instrument intimately and gives its tonal palette a thorough workout, even managing a moment of pure “Wurlitzer” in the arrangement of Rubinstein’s Melody in F’ — BBC Music Magazine, Awards issue 2015 Also available on Delphian

The Merton Organ: the new Dobson organ 2000 Nails: Contemporary Organ Works of Merton College, Oxford Michael Bonaventure Benjamin Nicholas DCD34013 DCD34142 Michael Bonaventure, virtuosic exponent of new music for the organ, Merton College’s new Dobson instrument is only the third American- has commissioned more than fifty works in his 25-year career to date. built organ sent to the UK since the Second World War, a bold Here are eight of them – a luminous recital of premiere recordings, and commissioning choice made with an eye to characterful versatility in a rare invitation into the phantasmagorical sound-world of the secular both choral accompaniment and solo work. From the pre-pedalboard organ repertory. Recorded on the momentous Hope-Jones instrument sophistication of native Stanley to the mesmerising hues of Messiaen in the McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh, this uncompromising disc – and encompassing snapshots from the instrument’s vast literature features the music of seven leading British composers: Judith Weir, Avril in between – Benjamin Nicholas combines flair and intelligence as he Anderson, Lyell Cresswell, Eddie McGuire, Ian McQueen, Peter Nelson presents the stunning instrument he helped mastermind. and Bonaventure himself. ‘lithe, supple and pleasingly nuanced performances’ ‘Bonaventure … is a thoroughly convincing advocate’ — Choir & Organ, May/June 2014, FIVE STARS — BBC Music Magazine, September 2005

Gaudeamus Igitur: The Organ of the McEwan Hall Olivier Messiaen: Livre du Saint Sacrement (Organ Works Vol III) John Kitchen Michael Bonaventure DCD34163 DCD34076 (2 discs) The formidable Hope-Jones/Willis instrument in the University of The seeds for Messiaen’s final organ work were sown during an Edinburgh’s purpose-built graduation hall is as eccentric as it is eye- inspirational trip to Israel in 1984. Over the course of the following twelve catching, and following its recent refurbishment, University Organist months, the aging composer found improvisation leading him back John Kitchen has recorded this conspectus of the music he might play to composition as he recovered from the exhausting labours that had during or after one of the hall’s many graduation ceremonies. From an produced his opera Saint François d’Assise. The Livre du Saint Sacrement anonymous student song popular in the eighteenth century to a serious became Messiaen’s grand farewell to his own instrument; Michael and substantial work by the University’s former Reid Professor of Music Bonaventure performs it here in Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral, whose Kenneth Leighton, Kitchen’s programme exudes pomp and grandeur on true acoustic preserves the clarity of Messiaen’s lines. one of the UK’s biggest instruments in one of the UK’s biggest acoustics. ‘Bonaventure cajoles from the mighty Rieger organ of St Giles’ Cathedral ‘Appropriately effusive and reflective pieces delivered with contrasting a formidable range of authentically Gallic-sounding colours’ glee and gravitas … Kitchen’s impeccable playing – a virtuoso display of — Sunday Times, June 2008 pomp and circumstance – is perfectly framed by characteristically vivid ‘a magnificent achievement … utterly compelling’ Delphian sound’ — Choir & Organ, July/August 2016, FIVE STARS — BBC Music Magazine, Proms issue 2008, INSTRUMENTAL CHOICE DCD34234