Frederick Stocken’s Archangels has just been published by Banks and I’ve already got my copy. I’ve wanted to play these pieces ever since I found them on YouTube – to be honest the two outer movements are a little beyond my technical skills at the moment but the middle movement should be possible. Here they all are on YouTube: St Gabriel, St Raphael, and St Michael. Frederick says he had in mind the classic image of archangels, and in each piece the music reflects something of the movement of their magnificent wings. The direct link to Banks’ catalogue is here.
Probably Frederick’s best known piece is Lament for Bosnia – which was at the top of the classical charts in 1994. Go to his website for more about his other compositions, and you can hear clips of some of them on soundcloud.
Archangels for organ
Frederick Stocken
Banks Music Publications
Catalogue number 14069
£5.00 + postage
www.banksmusicpublications.co.uk
01653 628545
Angels have a powerful grip on our imaginations and appear in the literature of several faiths, not just Christianity. The three principal Archangels are depicted above – the warrior Michael who banished Satan, Raphael the healer with Tobias, and Gabriel with lilies as a reminder of this Archangel’s role as messenger in the Annunciation. If you want to know why Tobias is carrying a fish it’s a complicated story.
